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Bill Gates: Tech Companies Inviting Government Intervention (axios.com)
In an interview with Axios on Tuesday, Bill Gates warned Apple and other tech giants that they risk the kind of nightmarish government intervention that once plagued his Microsoft if they act arrogantly. Axios reports: The big picture: "The companies need to be careful that they're not ... advocating things that would prevent government from being able to, under appropriate review, perform the type of functions that we've come to count on." Asked if he sees instances of that now, Gates replied: "Oh, absolutely." Why it matters: With the Big Tech companies feeling they're suddenly drawing unfair scrutiny, this is Microsoft's co-founder saying they're bringing some of the problems on themselves, by resisting legitimate oversight.
They'll keep making as much profit, gain as much market share, and reducing/externalising costs as much as they can until someone or something stops them. The only way they understand of avoiding government regulation is lobbying politicians to stop legislation and funding for regulators from going through. It's the government's responsibility to protect the people from abusive practices by corporations. It's time for government to do their job.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
In another words, using encryption that works and not installing back doors every time the NSA asks.
Gee - thanks Gates, for having our backs. But please go to hell.
No wonder Microsoft can't be trusted with our data if it was founded by assholes like him.
You can get ahead of it, or you can get run over by it. You may get away with shenanigans for a long time, but once you cross the line, the government hammer is going to hit you hard. Unfortunately a lot of companies have no restraint. They will creep up to the edge of legality, pretty much guaranteeing government intervention.
The problem is that the oversight provided turned illegitimate when the government decided to build a mass surveillance apparatus in violation of the fourth amendment of the US constitution. It is the government itself that is driving people to encryption. It's no surprised that trust has been lost in the government when even the local PD will hack your phone and make a complete copy without a warrant. Encryption is a way to ensure your rights because they abdicated themselves of that responsibility. The fact that they have been burned by their own bad behavior is unfortunate but there is nobody else to blame but themselves.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
These words are subject to interpretation. I initially jumped to the conclusion that he means encryption; anyone who knows anything about how good encryption works knows that that's just bullshit because math doesn't abide by human law. Then I thought about Uber's Greyball and similar advanced authority-evading tactics and I realized that there is a legitimate point to be made if that's the context he's referring to instead of encryption.
Don't you just LOVE ambiguity?
they risk the kind of nightmarish government intervention that once plagued his Microsoft
It was found that Microsoft violated a de facto monopoly position, and they got off with a handslap. "Plagued" is not the right word here, unless you want to say that we were plagued by Microsoft, as it has been said that Microsoft set back computing significantly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It took yours that long? Mine pegged at "Gates".
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
There is no reason to believe that the Democratic party has any intention of repealing the PATRIOT Act or FISA.
Unfortunately, our democracy has been crippled and has resulted in a non-representative government that doesn't work for the people because of the reductive first-past-the-post voting system that in effect in 99.9% of the country.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The courts are secret, the decisions are secret, the evidence is secret, the verdicts are secret. And no jury.
Lawmakers however would like you to think, that copyright-violations are bringing our countries to their knees and threatening their foundations.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
The point, I think, was that true libertarianism is inevitably replaced by authoritarianism. You will never see a libertarian paradise, because it can only exist long enough for a strong man to gather enough power to destroy it.
Nature abhors a government vacuum. It might take the form of a local strong man's death squad or a constitutional monarchy, but if you don't have a government, you're about to have a government.
So pondering what would happen in the absence of government is not a productive use of time.
I remember many years ago, when the antitrust litigation was just winding down against Microsoft ... one of my best friends said to me, "Have you noticed how it seems like the government really got to Bill Gates? The comments he's making suddenly all sound like exactly what they told him to say. I wonder if this was part of the settlement with them?"
At the time, I thought that was somewhat insightful -- but perhaps a bit too "tin foil hat". As time has gone on though, I'm thinking he was right on the money.
If you look at the statements Bill made before and after the Justice Dept. got ahold of him, it's a night and day difference. And ever since then, he's continued to be pretty much a mouthpiece for Federal government agendas. The latest I've seen him advocating for (after pushing "Common Core" teaching in schools) is "IEPs for all students". Honestly, that would be a horrible idea, considering the current IEP is difficult enough to get teachers and faculty up to speed on and cooperating with, when you have a student with real disabilities or behavioral problems affecting their learning. If everybody had an individualized list of requirements and details on accommodations that would "best suit them", you'd probably double or triple the cost of running public schools. You'd need far more faculty to actually go through all of the IEPs and to implement them for everyone, plus more expense providing all the things they'd ask for like quiet places to take exams by themselves.) It's madness.
I think you're missing my argument here. (I can't speak for those who push for Communism from their public education. I'm certainly not advocating for that.)
We have 3 kids in the public school system right now, and what I've seen wrong includes:
1. Systemic issues with spending FAR too much taxpayer money on administrative staff. When I was in public high school, it was a pretty good-sized school and yet you only had one person with the title of principal. Today, smaller schools than the one I attended will regularly have 3 principals, plus a number of assistant principals. What changed to require 3x or more work from that job title since the late 1980's or early 1990's??
2. Far too much focus on standardized testing, to the point where our high schools don't even have a formalized program in place for reading skills. In one area school (not even in a poor neighborhood, like some would guess), about 70% of the kids coming in as Freshmen can't read at a high school level. The high schools respond by teaching to the proficiency tests they're required by law to give - rather than ensuring the kids are actually capable of reading at the proper grade level. The teachers all claim they "don't have enough time in the class day" to do anything else. And really, this problem seems to stem from further back in the middle and grade schools, where many of them no longer teach grammar, phonics or even "sight words".
3. The Bill and Melinda Gates' vision for "IEPs for all!" revolves around having the ability to custom tailor computer teaching/testing software to each student's needs, so they can sit down in front of screens for more of a class day and let the machines do the teaching and testing. IMO, it's the LAST thing we need more of in our public schools -- and it's somewhat telling that Gates sent his OWN kids to a private school where technology was essentially off limits.
4. It's not really been my experience that parents are "pushing mediocre students into advanced programs". Rather, the standard classrooms have become such a "zoo" or "free for all", the kids who care at all about learning are frustrated by all the noise and distraction - so THEY push to be put into honors classes, even if their academic proficiency doesn't really justify it.