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wormius • yesterday at 6:45 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

I had a dream last night that the government had a database that corps sent in "opt-out" info from people. Anytime someone opted out of a surveillance system (e.g. ad tracking, etc...) that info got sent to the government as a signal that the person is sus. They took the "if you have nothing to hide" logic to its full conclusion.

The only good thing is that at least under capitalism (not a system I'm a fan of) this is difficult to do (well as long as the owners of said companies weren't sheep), and like most conspiracies is very hard to enforce, there would be a leakage in a program so broad as this.

But it was a disturbing concept. Merely by signalling you didn't want to be watched made you more watched.


Replies

MSFT_Edging • yesterday at 6:50 PM

> there would be a leakage in a program so broad as this

It took an insider with one of the highest clearances you can get to break the news about these kinds of wiretapping deals.

Apple, Google, and other insiders were very quiet about those back room deals. You can bet they never stopped and only expanded too.