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Privacy Ombudsman Could Handle EU Complaints About US Surveillance (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson writes with this story from Beta News: One of the greatest problems facing anyone trying to tackle the problem of privacy on the web is dealing with the ideologies of different countries, and how this affects data sharing. A level of surveillance that is deemed acceptable in the US, for instance, may be considered completely objectionable in another. The latest suggestion to help overcome this seemingly insurmountable problem is to set up a privacy ombudsman that would be able to handle European complaints and queries about US surveillance.
That would be zero without a warrant issued by a public judicial system with oversight and accountability.
...with one large circular file.
Silence is a state of mime.
A level of surveillance that is deemed acceptable in the US, for instance, may be considered completely objectionable in another.
I think what they mean to say is that in some European countries and the EU itself, people still have rights guaranteed by a constitution and and the countries are not ruled by a bunch of thugs who consider it a minor inconvenience that can and should be ignored. The text should have read " .... deem acceptable by the thugs who rule us .... ".
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I think the large "American" multi-national corporations should be considered "Foreign Corporations", as they clearly don't care about the USA.
Ever heard of Google search? This is where it might lead you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Anyhow, the office of the modern Ombudsman was around 1241 invented in Sweden and because it was successful other countries followed suit. The Ombudsman is an impartial officer or public advocate that will investigate complaints.
They usually have a mandate for a particular field of expertise, in this case privacy infractions on EU civilians, and the mandate will also specify how serious their ruling is going to be.
Usually he will attempt to resolve the conflict by mediation, some can give binding instructions.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Then read the damned article:
No, sorry, this is Americans suggesting they put up their own privacy ombudsman to oversee how America does at violating EU privacy laws.
So, I'll tell you what, let the Americans make a request to EU agencies who are already under this jurisdiction, instead of creating some bullshit fantasy where an American agency is trusted to do it.
What, you think Americans would accept a fucking Chinese ombudsman overseeing snooping into American citizens?
America does not have the credibility for this. This is the fucking fox guarding the hen house. Because if it is in any way under the sway of the US government, they'll just invoke secret security laws and make them lie about it.
Bullshit, this is just a dodge to get around oversight and following the laws. Handling complaints from Europe when the ruling will be that you've complied with the law even if it's a lie?
Yeah, right, tell me another one Pinocchio.
Wah wah wah .... stop pretending like the rest of the world needs to be acceding to US snooping like it's your right. Nobody else believes that shit but you.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
An example that brings out the difference in democracy between say The Netherlands and the US is the amount of money spend during elections.
The combined budgets of the various Dutch political parties for national elections will probably be around ten million euro's, that's divided over 20 different groups and 150 seats on a population of 17 million.
For the US population equivalent it would be less than 500 million. This is one reason we can still trust politics, it's near impossible to buy yourself a seat.
And then there is the fact that many EU countries will never have a single party government, it's typically a coalition of different parties.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
You are right, when writing my (premature) reply I was under the false impression this proposal was for a European ombudsman but it turns out there is a suggestion for a US ombudsman.
Which on this subject is just laughable.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
The US government should not be allowed to behave like a rogue state. I'd like to see an EU agency handle complaints. I don't believe that self regulation can work, or any agency run by the US regime. Self regulation was tried with the financial sector, and breathtaking levels of criminality resulted. Illegally spying on the citizens of other countries should be dealt with in the countries against which the crimes occurred. Those who were responsible should be stripped of diplomatic immunity, declared persona non grata, have their assets frozen, and be subject to international arrest warrants. If the US refuses to deport them, there should be sanctions instituted against any companies with which they are involved. Since most US politicians are apparently taking 'contributions' [known as bribes in the rest of the world] from corporations, that would rapidly lead to some corporate pressure against this kind of criminality.