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from the they-would-say-that-wouldn't-they? dept.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has released a report claiming that U.S. tech companies have lost $35 billion in sales as a result of "failure of U.S. policymakers to address surveillance concerns" after the release of the first Snowden documents in 2013.
ITIF recommends that policymakers:
* Increase transparency about U.S. surveillance activities both at home and abroad.
* Strengthen information security by opposing any government efforts to introduce backdoors in software or weaken encryption.
* Strengthen U.S. mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs).
* Work to establish international legal standards for government access to data.
* Complete trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership that ban digital protectionism, and pressure nations that seek to erect protectionist barriers to abandon those efforts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 12 2015, @11:03AM
Indeed. It's not enough that we have secret courts in which only the government gets to argue its side, right? Now we get to have secret legislation that not even the people who are supposed to vote on it are allowed to see. And we're not talking about a resolution to recognize Bill Smith, the sausage king of Cleveland, but a sweeping trade bill that will affect 40-50% of our economy and tens of millions of Americans.
Each new day brings another outrage from Washington DC, one that you would think can't be topped. And yet, they do.
Washington DC delenda est.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday June 12 2015, @12:13PM
Actually I'm *NOT* against secret legislation: because it can be so clearly argued that, since every citizen is supposed to know the law, a secret law is simply something that doesn't exist in a state of law, and can thus be safely ignored.
Poof..
I admit that my viewpoint is ridiculously naïve, but sometimes that's the only thing that works.
(Score: 2, Funny) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Friday June 12 2015, @01:16PM
Actually I'm *NOT* against secret legislation: because it can be so clearly argued that, since every citizen is supposed to know the law, a secret law is simply something that doesn't exist in a state of law, and can thus be safely ignored.
Poof..
If you ever use that logic to prove that black is white, avoid zebra crossings.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @08:15PM
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Even if you can't look up the law, you're still required to follow it or be charged for breaking it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 12 2015, @01:03PM
"secret courts in which only the government gets to argue its side"
I've begun to wonder if even that is true. Think about it for a moment. Corporations are buying laws with which to undermine national sovereignty, right? Basically, congress passes the laws that the corporations demand. So - are these secret courts representing government interests, or are they representing corporate interests? Who the hell actually runs ANYTHING these days? Everything is corporate driven, and behind those corporate marionettes, is who, exactly? Bilderberg? Illuminati? The Central Banks?
Lost 35 billion dollars. How is that a legitimate concern of GOVERNMENT? That is a corporate interest, not a governmental interest. Especially so, since few corporations actually PAY TAXES on their income! Rent some cheap offices in Bumfoq, Nowhere, and claim that to be your corporate headquarters, so that you pay very close to zero dollars in taxes in Bumfoq. Meanwhile, move all your production the some country with no labor laws, and no environmental laws, then apply to the US government for a tax REFUND on taxes which you have never paid.
Yeah, someone is running the world, but it's not government. I just haven't found which conspiracy theory fits all the facts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 12 2015, @01:42PM
A brute force approach would be to vaporize the Bilderberg meeting and everyone in it. If the crimes stop, then we got the right guys. If not, we vaporize Westchester County and the Hamptons. If the crimes stop, then we got the right guys.
We are in the Information Age, so the tools for more discerning approaches are available. One sysadmin in the right place can do a great deal. Look at the incredible blow for freedom one called Snowden has struck. American citizens don't have the Big Iron to crunch every communication from everyone all the time that the criminals in the NSA do, but they don't need to. The list of suspects is short. It's where the numerical imbalance between the 99% and the 1% really works in the favor of the citizenry: there are a whole lot more of them than there are the criminals. That is, it is much easier for 350 million Americans to meaningfully watch 100,000 criminals than for 100,000 criminals to meaningfully watch 350 million Americans. The way the government has reacted to the Snowden revelations and the Wikileaks release before that shows they are quite vulnerable to being exposed, and that that approach Wikileaks and Snowden have done the trailbreaking on could be enough to bring the criminal gang in DC to justice.
There are of course other, simpler ways of figuring out who's running the world, and who isn't. It's probably not the divorced woman living in a trailer in West Virginia with 7 kids who don't have shoes. It's also probably not the stressed out guy taking your order at McDonald's. The guy who lives in a gated community on the North Shore of Long Island? Pretty good chance.
Washington DC delenda est.