[jdoliner]

Why aren't VPNs, and more broadly encryption, a solution to this problem? "Waving the wand of a technical solution," as the post pejoratively calls it, isn't such an unreasonable thing to do with an inherently technical problem. This problem only exists because of other technical wands we waved. Why solve this problem with policy? Policy is hard to get passed, hard to keep passed and even when it is passed often times it means nothing. Remember this is the same government that contains multiple organizations surveilling your every move, not because they legally can, because they illegally can. The point is, it's foolish to count on USG to give you a right to privacy, just look at the history on this, it's not going to happen. But it's especially foolish when this is a right that you can enforce for yourself. If you actually care about your privacy use a VPN, or Tor, don't sit around waiting for the government to do it for you.

[false-mirror]

Then the question is: are technical experts the only ones who deserve privacy? Are the strong the only ones who deserve safety? etc etc.

While I also prefer a system which assumes no trust in government policy, it is still prefferable provide legal protections for the little guys whenever possible. In this case, the little guy is the vast majority of people who don't understand how the internet works.

[brokenmachine]

I agree completely. Taking an interest in the laws is important because if the technical solutions are made illegal then there is no real solution.

We can't assume VPNs will always be legal for individuals with the horrible direction things are going.

I would like to add however that it would be really nice if the super-intelligent programmers on HN could come up with an open solution that is super easy to use that actually preserves the little guy's privacy. Like just a tickbox in Firefox that makes your whole PC untrackable.

Something so easy that anyone can use it, yet as secure as all the complicated technical solutions that are being presented in these comments.

[jdoliner]

It seems a lot more plausible to me that privacy technologies can be made accessible to the masses than that policies can be passed which protect the masses. After all the masses are only in this situation because other technologies which were once only accessible to experts became accessible to them. Does the government have a particularly good track record of protecting the little guys in your opinion?

[staticsafe]

At the risk of sounding increasingly naive:

I believe policy is important as a part of the solution because it is a matter of protecting the general public not just a select technically capable.

Yes, policy is hard and can be useless but I still believe it is an important goal to fight towards.

You can care about your privacy, use a VPN and use the democratic process to enact policy change. Those things need not be mutually exclusive. VPNs are only a part of the solution and incomplete, not the solution.