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I'm sure government agencies buy commercially available products all the time. The problem is that we are no longer just consumers in the market, we are also unwillingly the product.
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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And this is why governments are so reluctant to pass any strong data privacy laws and enforce them. They greatly benefit from this data market.
Wyden, who released the Dec. 11 letter, called upon U.S. intelligence officials to stop using Americans' personal data without their express knowledge and consent, saying it was unlawful
Anybody able to explain how this is unlawful?
Is there a restriction on intelligence gathering agencies that would apply?
I don’t believe this is right or fair but I’m not clear on how it’s illegal.
It's blurry. The Patriot Act, after the 9/11 terrosist attacks on the Twin Towers, established a lot of freedom for the US government to spy on its citizens. Lawmakers have been making necessary, holy-shit-we-are-courting-fascism corrections in scope ever since.
Depending on how the courts interpret the adjustments that have happened since the Patriot Act, it may or may not be illegal.
I suspect the legal challenge mostly relies on purchasing law. The US has lots of laws about how the government must act when buying something, in particular.
This isn't spying, though. They purchased information that was perfectly legal to sell.
buys ... from commercial brokers
Y'all are seeing the real problem here, right? Your data is just available for anyone with the cash to pay for it. Stopping just the NSA from buying this data is attacking the issue from the wrong end.
My thought exactly. Since when does buying something require a warrant? The problem is obviously that it's allowed to be sold period.
There should be protocols and practices in place to stop our data from being owned and sold. Hence why I take the steps I do to help anonymize myself to a small degree. Ditch Facebook, ditch apple, ditch google, ditch Microsoft, ditch any provider that wants to claim your data that tou can to minimize this sort of behavior.
Serious question: Do you browse this app, or similar sites, on an iPhone or Android device? If so, how are you getting away from those companies?
As MajorHavoc said, there are ways. I do in fact use GrapheneOS, have access to a reasonably secure VPN, I use Firefox as well as Vanadium, within Firefox I use Ublock Origin and a few other tools. Some argue that having as many layers of "protection" is counterintuitive because it makes your fingerprint on the web more unique.
Some argue that having as many layers of "protection" is counterintuitive because it makes your fingerprint on the web more unique.
That's a great point.
I'm comforted that you listed largely the same controls as I use, so it seems like at least there's a little cloud of us 'deGoogle' users out there providing eachother some anti-fingerprinting.
As someone wise once said to me, consider your threat model.