[SkyMarshal]

Not only a democracy, but a constitutional republic with an independent court and military, both of which are sworn to uphold that constitution and all the human rights it enumerates.

We don't always succeed at that, but at least we have that as our society and government's guidestar, and legal and political processes for self-correcting.

The Communist Party has exactly zero of any of that, and an ideology entirely oriented around justifying getting and keeping power by any means necessary.

[theplumber]

It looks like you've missed the past 10-20 years of history. You are a "party" supporter not a human rights(i.e privacy) supporter

[SkyMarshal]

> You are a "party" supporter

How do you mean exactly? I'm not sure how you can draw that conclusion from what I said. Politically I'm an independent, there's no real home for me any US political party.

[theplumber]

You support the U.S government rather than specific policies. That makes you a party supporter on the international stage.

In this particular case you support U.S oversight over personal data rather than personal privacy(i.e banning data harvesting).

It's like saying it's fine for the Democrats to harvest personal data because they have a better track record than the republicans and after all "you" are democrat so being part of this select group makes you feel safe from a potential abuse. The sensible/right thing to do would be to ban the data harvesting.

[SkyMarshal]

Oh, to clarify, I don’t support the US government per se, but any constitutional democracy with limitations on power, checks and balances, etc. Also in the great hierarchy of things I absolutely support personal privacy over any government and/or corporate control of its citizens’ data. Banning of data harvesting, or at least the right to opt out, right to encryption, self-sovereign identity, etc. But I also believe it’s far more likely to actually achieve that in a democracy than under a totalitarian government.

[theplumber]

>> But I also believe it’s far more likely to actually achieve that in a democracy than under a totalitarian government.

Yeah but instead to ask for a ban on data harvesting "you" complain only about China avoiding the elephant in the room. As it's said: Lead by example!

Let's ban this data harvesting and make this a discussion about individual rights not China social app rise or U.S domination(though the meta apps). That's why I said you are playing "party" politics. Yeah China is bad but why should I choose the lesser evil instead to do the right thing?

I really hoped that China being a rough actor could actually bring something good to the whole world as we have to reevaluate our trust model: Why should I trust a foreign company, a local company, my gov or a foreign gov to harvest all this personal data. Why do they need all this data and they use it?

I think the EU digital market act and GDPR is a step in the right direction not selectively banning certain apps that do not align with the interests of a small government or an over reaching gov such the U.S. We have to fight for our rights not the exclusive rights of super governments to invade our privacy.