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When it Comes To Privacy, Consent is Immaterial. Corporate and Gov't Surveillance Systems Must Be Stopped Before They Ask For Consent: Richard Stallman (theguardian.com)

In a rare op-ed, Richard Stallman, the president of the Free Software Foundation, says that the surveillance imposed on us today is worse than in the Soviet Union. He argues that we need laws to stop this data being collected in the first place. From his op-ed: 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. Data about who travels where is particularly sensitive, because it is an ideal basis for repressing any chosen target.

4 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Stallman is on point. by xpiotr · · Score: 5, Informative

    And the latest developments with FB and more has proven him right.
    Yes, he is a bit extreme, but then again he needs to be.
    And I for one am glad he is out there, fighting for us who have given up.

  2. Re:How about... by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Informative

    You trust them?

    The federal government has been caught multiple time keeping gun background check records. Despite the law specifically forbidding it. They have even been caught retaining database records that federal judges explicitly ordered them to delete...next time they are caught with the database, there's those same records again.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. Re:Fantasy land by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1, Informative

    Corporatism IS fascism -- literally corporations in bed with an authoritarian state. The proper response is SOCIALISM, where the government actually acts in the interest of ordinary citizens, not wealthy CEOs.

  4. Re:I just fought this last night... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually that would not work, as I am required to verify the ID is real. I worked in the industry (bartender and at a liquor store) and anytime someone would show me an ID in a windowed wallet I was required to have them remove it and hand it to me. Pretty much every "ID Check" instructions mentions those wallet windows and that the ID must be removed.