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Richard Stallman writes in the Guardian:
Journalists have been asking me whether the revulsion against the abuse of Facebook data could be a turning point for the campaign to recover privacy. That could happen, if the public makes its campaign broader and deeper.
Broader, meaning extending to all surveillance systems, not just Facebook. Deeper, meaning to advance from regulating the use of data to regulating the accumulation of data. Because surveillance is so pervasive, restoring privacy is necessarily a big change, and requires powerful measures.
The surveillance imposed on us today far exceeds that of the Soviet Union. For freedom and democracy's sake, we need to eliminate most of it. There are so many ways to use data to hurt people that the only safe database is the one that was never collected. Thus, instead of the EU's approach of mainly regulating how personal data may be used (in its General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR), I propose a law to stop systems from collecting personal data.
The robust way to do that, the way that can't be set aside at the whim of a government, is to require systems to be built so as not to collect data about a person. The basic principle is that a system must be designed not to collect certain data, if its basic function can be carried out without that data.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Bot on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:07AM (6 children)
I am aiming to troll a bit here, but...
If RMS were a good fighter he would know that you break the enemy not by opposition with a weaker force, but by making it crash in the direction he is going.
The system uses surveillance?
MAKE EVERYTHING FUCKING PUBLIC. NO PRIVACY, STARTING FROM THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE. ABOLISH STATE SECRETS.
Privacy is just the dual to surveillance, created by the same interests. It helps the powerful. Who cares about a peon's tranny underage anime collection?
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:49AM (3 children)
Poison the well.
(Score: 2) by ewk on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:38AM (2 children)
Poison? No... more like 'flooding the well'...
No more finding the needle in the haystack, but simply being avalanched by a gazillion needles.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @12:38PM
Lots of accounts,lots of browsers, lots of actions, and it's all bs to fill up their database with crud? Good idea
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @02:59PM
I think you underestimate the ability of computers to handle large amounts of data and sift through it. So called "big data" is just afternoon lunch for big computers. Even rudimentary AI of today can pattern-match its way around whatever you think you can do to befuddle it.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday April 05 2018, @02:12PM (1 child)
What? Whenever someone tells you We should make things worse so that they eventually get better, you can be pretty sure their ideas aren't worth taking seriously.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:19PM
Have you truly considered this alternative before saying total transparency would be worse? When internet came out I thought: "impossible. Some people will never let the internet take hold, because the amount of info shared would destroy the incumbents". Then, blatant privacy abuse of peons happened systematically and I understood what the plan was. You should, too.
Account abandoned.