[imgabe]

This is a government problem, not a privacy problem. If your government is intent on detaining and torturing dissidents, then privacy laws aren't going to stop them. Who do you think makes and enforces the law? The solution to that is to change your government.

[b112]

The US is one of the most democratic nations on Earth.

The NSA spies on its own citizens, and won't even tell congress how.

https://ca.reuters.com/article/ctech-us-usa-security-congres...

The CBP is buying location data on US citizens, tracking them without a warrant, country wide (not just at borders), and won't say why/how:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/dems-call-for-cbp-location-data-in...

Police, the FBI, and more use stingrays without warrants. The NSA works extensively to destroy encryption, and even have back doors into products for full, unlimited, real-time breaking of encryption.

I could post endless stories about this. Different US agencies, different data, different purposes for that data.

Put them all together.

Now consider that some of these agencies are "fighting" with democratically elected officials. Refusing to comply with democratically elected senators, congressmen, officials. State officials have even less sway.

This data is quite simply too powerful to be in anyone's hands. Literally, too powerful.

[imgabe]

So if we make it illegal for the mall to have security cameras then the NSA will stop spying on people?

[0xCMP]

No, you make the data collection illegal and with liability like it appears Canada already did hence why this company is in trouble with regulators.

Data should be legally made in to toxic waste we all know it should be treated as.

[imgabe]

Again, if the worry is about a corrupt and hostile government, I fail to see what making it illegal accomplishes. Who do you think the regulators are?

Yes, regulation is great with a just and fair government. If the government can't be trusted, then neither can the regulations. If we can't trust the government, then we need to replace it with one we can trust.

[b112]

This is not a binary thing.

It is not "the government is corrupt, therefore all is pointless". Instead, there are scenarios such as:

- the government is comprised of people, running different departments - those people seem to think they are doing things for the common good - courts determine otherwise, and point to laws passed by legislative bodies as validation - activity stops

"Spy agencies", and "policing agencies" are constantly under these checks and balances. Cases are thrown out, individual careers are axed, when warrants are not used when they should, for example, when searching homes.

Without the laws, and court cases as they are, then the police would simply enter without those warrants, get convictions, and carry on very happy with themselves.

The real problem here is that technology grows so very fast, and that the world is changing quite rapidly. Don't even get me started on bio-tech, or near-Earth space changes over the next decade. Or Interplanetary law!

Legislative bodies, and law, are literally meant to deal with things over the course of decades or more. Legislative bodies tend to sit for 4 years or more! Change is slower, and of course, we like slower change for many things.

But this means that laws much 'catch up' to faster moving change.

Hell just crafting a law, going through the committees, hearing from experts, at least in Canada, then crafting the law, reading it in both houses, and more experts can take more than a year or two.

And that's after the will is in place to enact change.

This is part of the reason I deem the executive branch as having value, but, that is another discussion.

All said, I fear governments with this power most, and private corps next. One law takes care of both of these scenarios.

Lastly?

Never ignore the interest in something. Any old horse trader will tell you, if everyone clamours for something, it has immense value!

Knowing if I farted last week on Tuesday, is of immense information to everyone. Wha? Yet it is! And if it is of such value, if everyone climbs over each other to get that data, to hold it exclusively, to sell it, trade it, there is likely some import to such things.

If this info is so insanely valuable, then shouldn't the creator control it? Control what happens to it?

We have copyrights, patents, trade secrets, and even things like labour laws, acts to protect safety!

The entire purpose of law, is to protect "my stuff" from "that other guy". My life. My belongings. My health.

Yet this? This is all just "OK"?

The current laws surrounding data, are like period of times before labour laws, before human rights legislation, before food safety acts, and on and on.

This period of time is ending. Legislative bodies are catching up.

The question is, what will happen during the transformative period, where law catches up, and passes more and more laws about personal privacy, and control over personal data?

[imgabe]

> The entire purpose of law, is to protect "my stuff" from "that other guy". My life. My belongings. My health.

If someone sees you in public, does the fact that they see you belong to you or them?

This is important. If you see me, does your memory of seeing me belong to me? Can you own memories inside someone else's brain?

Personally, I think not.

To some extent, your appearance in a public place does not constitute "your stuff".

Yes, your health and safety should be protected. Someone seeing you in public is not, in and of itself, a threat to your health or safety.

If you go out in public, you must come to terms with the fact that other people can see you.

[bsenftner]

This. Truth.

[kapuasuite]

> Data should be legally made in to toxic waste we all know it should be treated as.

The vast majority of people do not care about privacy though, at least not to the extent that “tech” people seem to.