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by dheera 3835 days ago
You're a plumber in my house. I feel like I fully have the right to watch you as you repair my plumbing. You're a babysitter in my house. Babysitting my hypothetical baby. I feel like I would have the right to watch over that baby's treatment in someone else's hands. If you aren't going to let me watch over the quality of your services, I would just find someone else to provide those services.

At some point, once we have established a degree of trust, I would probably watch over you less and less. This is quality control, not a privacy violation.

I do agree that within a single organization, such as a software company, employees need to have some level of privacy from each other in order to work efficiently and happily. That is also facilitated by an environment of mutual trust established by the company itself. That's a very different situation from an individual contracting the services of another individual, who are not a priori related to each other.

1 comments

> I feel like I fully have the right to watch you as you repair my plumbing.

If you are present: yes.

I just realized the fight against surveillance is not particular with the NSA/GHQC and or the government.

It will be a fight within.

I feel like this is a completely different area though. Would you ever rent services from someone saying: "I'll do the work in your house, but you can't look" ? I get the general idea of "I don't waive my right for privacy when I enter someone's house", but for work I just don't see any use case.

If I can't see what you're doing in my house, you're not working in my house. What's the reason I'd ever want/need the opposite?

> Would you ever rent services from someone saying: "I'll do the work in your house, but you can't look"?

For a second there, I thought I was in another proprietary software vs. free software thread...

It's awfully easy to forget how one's circles aren't representative of most people. I think the general public are a lot more worried about terrorism and whatnot than they are about surveillance. Bashing the surveillance services is not a vote-winner.