[ExI] Weird!? - He's not on Facebook

Dave Sill sparge at gmail.com
Wed Feb 1 18:22:56 UTC 2017


I wish Spike and Bill would use the standard message quoting format. It
would reduce confusion.

On Wed, Feb 1, 2017 at 12:51 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> I will turn it around and ask: has anyone here comments on the notion of
> being terrified or comforted by constant surveillance?  Do you have
> examples of kids now in their teens who have always been under constant
> surveillance and get nervous when they are not?  USians, are you good with
> all outside-your-home surveillance being 4th amendment compliant?  Does
> surveillance protect us or threaten us, or both?  Does it enable government
> wrongdoing, or expose and eliminate it, or both.  Do explain please.  dave
> still
>

I think that means Bill thinks I wrote that, even though I didn't. And my
last name isn't Still. That was Spike.

I just don't care what they know about me, my friends, where I shop and
> what I buy - so far that has been beneficial to me, in that suggestions for
> what to buy next has been great.
>

Sure, as long as you trade your private info knowingly and willingly,
that's a private matter between you and whoever is collecting that data.


> I can't see that anyone who is not a tax evader or other criminal of some
> sort has anything to fear.
>

Some people are just more private. That shouldn't be a problem.

All we have to fear is someone coming after the innocent for some reason.
> And being used in illegal ways, such has been done, I think, by the CIA,
> NSA and so on.  It certainly enables wrongdoing.  So does owning a hammer.
> On balance surveillance protects us, though not very much, unless the gov
> is hiding data, which I assume they are.
>

There's a lot to fear: private companies or governments that intentionally
or accidentally disclose people's personal data to third parties, threaten
to do so, or otherwise use it improperly/illegally.


> I do hope surveillance is being used to catch tax cheats, esp. the rich
> who are hiding money overseas.  I am much more concerned about that,
> because that is huge numbers of people and mountains of money, whereas
> catching terrorists is a rare thing, if in fact we are told about it.
>

 Yeah, remember that time the billionaire got caught evading taxes? Yeah,
neither do I.

There is frankly a lot of paranoia about this and I don't see where any of
> it is justified.  What can be done could be enormously evil.  It's a tool
> at the other end of the scale from the hammer. And it is now a fact of life
> and will not go away - period.
>

Right, there risks are great and they're not going away. Privacy reduces
those risks. Laws that control the use of private data could reduce those
risks.

-Dave
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