Comment by Avicebron

16 hours ago

Yeah, this is crazy, remember when engineers were actually engineers and that meant something? Imagine asking to install spyware on your lawyers' firms' company laptops because you didn't trust them not to make some deal with the judge. Or demanding 24 hour monitoring on everything a doctor does because you need to review the footage at any time.

EDIT: While we are here, let's do this for politicians as well :), publicly available, auditable 24-hour surveillance.

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Avicebron

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avaer  14 hours ago

> let's do this for politicians as well :), publicly available, auditable 24-hour surveillance

Politicians will be the first to carve out exceptions for themselves for reasons of "security" while everyone else is surveilled.

Yes, it should literally be the opposite -- with power should come accountability. But that's not how these things work in practice.

  • Avicebron  13 hours ago

    > Politicians will be the first to carve out exceptions for themselves for reasons of "security" while everyone else is surveilled.

    Well good thing we can just not vote for anyone and/or remove anyone who tries to take this stance. It's not like they are appointed by God.

vrc  16 hours ago

Of the examples you listed, politicians are the only ones you directly fund and supposedly work for you. Your lawyers and doctors aren’t your employees, and they also don’t work on your property (though lawyers might handle your documents). The biggest thing this points to is that the mask is almost entirely off between employee-employer relationships in the US, and it looks like by ensuring everyone depended on employment for insurance before turning this corner, there’s not much resistance left.

  • sho_hn  16 hours ago

    This is why a worker's rights movement is important. You shouldn't have to rely on your employer's goodwill. Reasonable privacy rights on work equipment should be guaranteed by law, and any large company should have a Euro-style worker's council.

    The legal environment is the only way to baseline behavior. In countries with strong worker's rights, you generally don't have to fight much to make use of them; it's the norm for management, too. Likewise, the US-style norm of having no expectations toward your employer and the "stay in your lane" type takes rampant in the thread are also symptoms of the environment and its norms.

raincole  10 hours ago

> Imagine asking to install spyware on your lawyers' firms' company laptops because you didn't trust them not to make some deal with the judge.

This sounds unironically a good idea.

lazide  16 hours ago

Notably, I’ve had several lawyers sell me out. It’s not the emails, but the phone calls you need to worry about.