Comment by MomsAVoxell
2 days ago
I would be fine with the NSA recording everything I do, if I had access to it as a backup. I think it would be a valuable service a government could perform for me - assuming there were a way to make sure the data was not accessed without my side of the key. I would also think it pretty neat, were I able to use it as a backup over my life, for my own purposes - if I could do it without involving the spooks. Like, let me use the technological spy infrastructure, and if I happen to commit a crime, well then - come on in, inspect my data by all means.
This, I think, is the only circumstance where it is justifiable - but of course, it is not reality. We have absolutely no agency over the activities of Pine Gap, etc.
However, corporations - for some reason - are given a pass.
What the world really needs, is for hackers to get user-facing operating systems which just really do, backup everything. It's okay, you can choose not to use it.
I'd love to have every single phone call I've ever made available, at this point in my life.
That's like saying "I would be fine with people shooting at me, if only the bullets were replaced with quarters and they were carefully handed over instead of fired at high velocity".
First of all, there is currently zero good, democratic, public control over the oppressive apparatus currently recording everyone, and everything. It is a fascist utopia of human rights violations, the western intelligence apparatus.
So, let's not bumble over inapt euphemism. There is for sure a far worse scenario that can be offered - but there is a far better outcome, if an intelligence super-state is to be accomplished 'to protect the people', then the people need the means by which to protect themselves, from it.
That is for sure not happening right now. We are all having our human rights violently violated, every millisecond of a handle.
So, what I am proposing - and not at all surprised is being misunderstood - is that I don't mind them recording the details of my life, as long as I am the first and foremost customer - i.e. completely private in the recording system - until and unless there is some democratic order from the state which requires me to unlock the timeline. In which case, I'm fine with it - because I ain't no terrorist, and I'd be a happier person if, instead of the government using weapons to protect me, it instead just made sure my legacy was backed up in the big human digital cloud that is now propelling itself through the universe.
You know, instead of Zuck/Musk/&co., it were just a wide open, well maintained, public good.
No, this does not mean I want NSA-spooks spying on me. That is different from being recorded. The only time I want my fully backed up data made available publicly, is when I need to defend myself against claims of criminal behavior.
I don't believe in the secret intelligence apparatus, one bit. I'd be far happier with an open intelligence apparatus, invested in, by the people I elect to maintain democratic principles. The anti-thesis to the surveillance state.
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