Comment by tristor

> Most people have other things to do instead of learning to ensure that their devices are secure and private and then checking that for everything they get their hands on. You need regulations so that there's a consensus on what can you expect, and then enforcement so that the products you get actually comply with those regulations.

I pretty much agree with you. That said, the position that this particular issue is one in which regulations can save us is naive. The basic political reality is that the very people/organizations which are pushing for further encroachments on our rights and destruction of our privacy as people are the same people and organizations responsible for regulating the companies which offer us these services, software, and devices. When you live in a world with blatantly malicious state actors (the US Government) pressuring and demanding these encroachments as an end-run around existing regulations (the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution), whom exactly is supposed to create and enforce these privacy regulations?