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US Senators Urge India To Soften Data Localization Stance (reuters.com)

Two U.S. senators have called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to soften India's stance on data localization, warning that measures requiring it represent "key trade barriers" between the two nations. From a report: In a letter to Modi dated Friday and seen by Reuters, U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Mark Warner -- co-chairs of the Senate's India caucus that comprises over 30 senators -- urged India to instead adopt a "light touch" regulatory framework that would allow data to flow freely across borders. The letter comes as relations between Washington and New Delhi are strained over multiple issues, including an Indo-Russian defense contract, India's new tariffs on electronics and other items, and its moves to buy oil from Iran despite upcoming U.S. sanctions.

Global payments companies including Mastercard, Visa and American Express have been lobbying India's finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India to relax proposed rules that require all payment data on domestic transactions in India be stored inside the country by October 15. The letter is most likely a last-ditch effort after the RBI told officials at top payment firms this week that the central bank would implement, in full, its data localization directive without extending the deadline, or allowing data to be stored both offshore as well as locally -- a practice known as data mirroring. "We see this (data localization) as a fundamental issue to the further development of digital trade and one that is crucial to our economic partnership," the U.S. senators said in the letter that has not been previously reported.

136 comments

  1. Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    US Government once again trying to do the exact opposite of what you'd expect. Why is it other countries recognizes the threat of storing data about their own citizens outside their borders, EXCEPT the "5 eyes"? Could it be India ALSO wants to backdoor encryption which would at least in theory prohibit them from storing OUR data?

    Which would also make it very difficult if not impossible for companies to outsource to India. That isn't such a bad idea.

    1. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Outsourcing to foreign country with foreign laws, consider the data already sold and streamed.

    2. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Seriously, fuck this. I have a lot of problems with India, mostly because of their tolerance of rampant cheating in education and certifications and the resulting H1-B problems in the US...but this is an area they are spot on correct about.

      More nations, including the US, need to be protective of their own borders, people, and national interests. These US senators are absolutely in the wrong here.

    3. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      More nations, including the US, need to be protective of their own borders, people, and national interests.

      But unless those nations happen to be populated by black/brown people, doing this will get them branded as RACISS!!

      Among the global population whites are a 14% minority. Yet only white nations need diversity. No hard evidence is ever submitted that diversity is a good thing. It is an article of faith. Those who question it are treated as heretics when they are merely asking for substantiation, something celebrated when any other claim is made. It covers many diverse cultures living together and how/why it has worked, including several white ones.

      Possibly when aliens finally land and we are all "Earthlings" we'll get over this kind of thing. Until then there is a nice fluffy ideal of how things should be. Contrasting that is the real-world turnout of how it's worked every time it's been tried. It's the viewpoint of the child versus the adult.

    4. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off you god damn retarded Russian faggot!

    5. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off you god damn retarded Russian faggot!

      So you'll poke holes in the given link and the information it provides, cite one diverse nation that had lots of harmony without extreme segregation, a "strong man", or intense infighting, or provide your own independent proof that diversity is a good thing? No? Didn't think so.

      You're the very worst kind of coward. You parrot the approved party line confident that the crowd will back you. But when asked to substantiate anything you have nothing. Nothing but the appearance of strength that shies away from being tested. That is no strength at all.

      What you fail to appreciate is that the very worst regimes in history (including Nazi Germany) depended on people just like you. Whatever you were taught to believe, that was The Truth. There was no questioning or substantiation allowed, that would be heresy. The only thing that has changed has been the message. The method is the same. Indoctrinate from a young age, teach that anyone who disagrees is evil, and that you need not bother with things like evidence. Faith in action.

    6. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got a much longer and more serious reply than you deserved from the above AC. You are just another useful sheep repeating what your owners tell you.

    7. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Among the global population whites are a 14% minority. Yet only white nations need diversity.

      White nations "need" diversity because the non-white snowflakes in those nations demand it.

    8. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      god damn you are a fucking retarded faggot

    9. Re: Kind of ironic... by freedom_india · · Score: 1

      I have to agree with you. However distasteful it might be. Fact is India canâ(TM)t diversify even internally, forget external. Citizens from north India find it difficult to settle down in south or fast east India.

      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    10. Re:Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could it be India ALSO wants to backdoor encryption which would at least in theory prohibit them from storing OUR data?

      India government broke spine of Blackberry to give them decryption keys for messages ....
      What is new in this? that others (Brazil, India, China) understood value of storing in country ?
      Now court in India will be able to subpoena Visa/Mastercard transactions for its citizen ... why only US court should be able to do this?

    11. Re: Kind of ironic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not sure what this clown is off about. India has a bloated government (central) where folks move around all the time. Same with the military and I went to schools where we got moved every 5 years or so. Even within states, the state government moves around its massive bureaucracy all the time. Are there challenges to folks moving in large number to other parts of the country? sure. But it's no different from say a good percentage of Alabama suddenly deciding that that the bay are in california would be an ideal spot to resettle. There are huge demographic challenges for India - the north has a population that's growing alarmingly fast while the south and west are mostly at replacement levels or below. Plus there is disproportionate economic growth in certain areas of the country - again mostly in the west and south and the states that are north of Delhi; this has led to migration in numbers never seen in the recent past. But even then, as someone who's lived in pretty much every major part of the country, I think "difficult to settle" is hogwash! trying to find migration stats from the north to the south in the last 20 years but here's a decent article https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/drawn-by-development-north-indians-continue-to-migrate-to-south/300407

  2. How about minding one's own business? by bogaboga · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Two U.S. senators have called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to soften India's stance on data localization...

    Question is, how about nations minding their own business?

    Is that too much to ask?

    1. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But how else could these times of data colonialism lead to the maximum profit for the ruling count...companies?

    2. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Two U.S. senators have called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to soften India's stance on data localization...

      Question is, how about nations minding their own business?

      Is that too much to ask?

      India's data is India's data, it has *NOTHING* to do with USA.

      India never tells how or what to do with USA's data. US should BUTT OUT of India's rights !!

    3. Re:How about minding one's own business? by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Close, but I think this is a case of the U.S. minding its own businesses.

    4. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Did you even read the summary?

      Global payments companies including Mastercard, Visa and American Express have been lobbying India's finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India to relax proposed rules that require all payment data on domestic transactions in India be stored inside the country by October 15.

      That's what this is all about. They don't want to have to setup more infrastructure in India. They are trying to save money.

      India's data is India's data

      This is about money. Not India, specifically.

    5. Re:How about minding one's own business? by PPH · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How about India demand reciprocity for FATCA and just start auditing any US financial institutions suspected of holding suspected Indian citizens' financial records? Yes, it's about money. But it's also about foreign institutions and governments digging around in the records of its citizens.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    6. Re:How about minding one's own business? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      It is the job of the USA to enforce the global rules based liberal order. This means cracking down on violators with sanctions or all the way to bombings. It's basic neoconservativism. People don't know this?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    7. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I do believe that American entry into the Vietnam War was not so much a Liberal thing as it was a Military Industrial Complex thing. The outsized defense contract companies, along with the military who needed to justify the blank check congress kept writing all throughout the 50's and early 60's, conspired to find any conflict that the US could potentially become embroiled in. When Bay of Pigs failed miserably and Cuba didn't pan out, Kennedy was dead-set against letting the US get pulled into another regional conflict. After Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was pressured to step up the war in Vietnam, even after the French had warned us that it was a war we could never hope to win. So business dragged the US into war. And it will drag it into the next war too.

    8. Re:How about minding one's own business? by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, no, a countries economy is it's business, so they are trying to mind India's economic business, to exploit Indians and favour US corporations, so they are trying to mind someone eles's business against that countries citizens interests.

      US tech companies are going to get kicked out of the rest of the world, because security letters out of a corrupt US government that compromise other countries digital security are entirely too easy. It does not help that moronic US government officials, keep pushing control on other countries against those countries citizens interests, keep demanding dominance, talk about first strikes from cyber warfare to nuclear strikes, routinely interfere with other countries politics in the most horrendous fashion and practically declare war on a made up instance of Russia's interference, yet routinely ignore the UKs, Israel's and even Saudi Arabia's interference (at least that one is coming to and end).

      They are really lucky India politicians just no simply tell them to go fuck themselves publicly, after being fucked over by the UK purposefully splitting the country to create a civil war and keep them divided and weak and the US treating them obedient dogs, well, come to expect NO as the routine answer and yeah, everyone wants to buy Russian S400s to keep the US out because they now NATO supplied anti-air systems will not shot down US aircraft, there are some really interesting back doors in there to find and exploit. I mean, nothing would benefit Russian fighter sales, like US supplied aircraft falling out of the sky when their engines are turned off.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    9. Re: How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they would be fine to setup more centers in India. The problem is the no mirroring. So a US customer who goes to India can't get his transaction to show up in his home bank. He'd only have a pointer to go to perhaps MasterCard.in and login there to see the transaction. Stupidity.

    10. Re: How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Stupidity is thinking a bank wouldn't have an Indian record of a local deposit, and Indian record of a transfer out (optionally with a set of currency exchanges), an American record if a transfer in and finally an American record of a local withdrawal. It's called double entry book keeping and people who aren't stupid already expect banks to be doing something similar.

    11. Re: How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually in the US most schools don't teach financials beyond "This is a penny", "This is a dollar.", etc. So it's really just ignorance for most not inability to learn.

    12. Re:How about minding one's own business? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Interesting

      US companies won't be kicked out of anywhere. The world absolutely requires the gigantic US market to sell to. Without it, the global economy would collapse. Even without this, the US is able to use measures from sanctions to bombings to enforce the global rules based liberal order. India would quickly cave to any serious pressure. The neoconservatives in the US government like it this way.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    13. Re:How about minding one's own business? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Indeed, after the US tried to get access to data held in the EU (Ireland specifically) because the parent company was based in the US (Microsoft) countries are tightening up their laws around this sort of thing.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    14. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Don't ask us, ask the senators.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    15. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It must be an interesting fantasy to live in where all the wrongs of the world are caused by the people you don't personally agree with. What is it like to be omnipotent?

    16. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah ha! word play!

    17. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US used to own 40% of the global gdp during the sixties, then 30% during the eighties, 20% this days. They are roughly 4% of the global population.

      This days it is becoming easier to stand the economic and military pressure.

    18. Re: How about minding one's own business? by houghi · · Score: 1

      If it where Russia, I would understand, but India has not elected those Senators.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    19. Re:How about minding one's own business? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This days it is becoming easier to stand the economic and military pressure.

      Neither are true. A handful of brokers on Wallstreet orchestrated an asset swap of sub-prime mortgages which eventually led to global recession.

      As soon as the US military is sufficiently distracted, both Russia and China gobble up territory. Parts of Crimea and Georgia in the former case and a variety of territories including the Nine-Dash Line for the latter.

      There are barbarians at the gates. Economic barbarians held back by US laws (until they are reversed) and violent barbarians held back by fear of the US military, frequently overburdened.

  3. The Indians aren't stupid by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Informative

    they know damn well how outsourcing works and they'll be damned if you're gonna do it to them. Wanna do business in our country? Then you damn well better hire our people.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  4. Corruption vs democracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the US, you can only buy senators and above.

    In India you can buy any one.

    True democracy.

    1. Re:Corruption vs democracy by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yep: corruption being available to the average person is actually a huge democratizing force. Being able to pay an officious cop to go piss off is better than being excessively fined for minor things like in the US.

    2. Re: Corruption vs democracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Omg, so stupid. Hard to know where to start! How about: all corruption is always bad.
      And: everyone being wrong is not right.
      Except what you forgot or more likely are too stupid to know is the wealth gap in India dwarfs the US so only the very rich have the money to bribe anyone. The typical Indian is poor in a way an upper middle class US know it all nerd like you simply cannot comprehend.

    3. Re:Corruption vs democracy by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      No, true capitalism.

      I have no idea why people think democracy and capitalism go hand in hand. If anything, they're polar opposites.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re: Corruption vs democracy by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Except what you forgot or more likely are too stupid to know is the wealth gap in India dwarfs the US so only the very rich have the money to bribe anyone.

      In that respect the USA is just like India, only the bribes are larger. The difference is one of pay scale.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Corruption vs democracy by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Yeah it doesn't work in the US as we pay our cops too much. Need to get rid of the police unions if we want to have a decent pay 2 play police service.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    6. Re:Corruption vs democracy by nasch · · Score: 1

      Are you under the impression that people in the US regularly pay fines for normal activities? Other than those who get frequent traffic or parking tickets, this is not the case. There are occasional (and generally modest) fees for paperwork, but otherwise my impression is most people rarely pay the government in any way other than taxes.

    7. Re: Corruption vs democracy by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Yes. Try bringing a bottle of wine to a park, normal in most civilized countries. Try dealing with parking in a major US city. Cops in other countries tend to give a bit more slack than Americans. Try driving through a rich white area while black, or being a rich white man in a poor black area. Pig harassment city. Try planting a garden instead of grass in some Chichi communities. Yep, a couple in Florida was fined for just that.

    8. Re: Corruption vs democracy by nasch · · Score: 1

      OK you have a point. I would categorize the problem of being black in a white neighborhood as a totally different issue than putting up with fines for ordinary behavior, and it's a really serious problem in this country IMO. Being a white man in a poor black area? Are the cops going to hassle you for that? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing and surely Fox News would make it the top story for weeks on end if it happens.

      For the rest of it, it's a matter of not breaking the rules. Some people like having rules that are enforced, and some people like having almost no rules. The US is on the more rules end of the spectrum. Yeah some of them are stupid, it's true. Personally I'd rather live in the US than India though.

    9. Re: Corruption vs democracy by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Theres a happy medium between Puritania...I mean the US... and India. Czech Republic, Netherlands, or even Canada are better at not making idiotic rules, to be enforced by bullying scum in uniform.

    10. Re: Corruption vs democracy by nasch · · Score: 1

      That sounds about right. Scandinavia comes to mind as well though I like a little more sunlight in winter.

  5. Trump... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    They have learned India First...... as has much of the world.
    They have also learned no deal is better than a bad deal.

    Oh, they have learned that the USA treats is "friends" pretty much the same as it treats is enemies and that the USA will interfere with local elections, trade, etc , etc.

    1. Re:Trump... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you mean "learned" it? Almost all spats between the US and its allies since....ever have been the allies pushing an agenda that favored themselves while the US pushed an agenda that favors itself. It was one of my biggest criticisms of Obama, he seemed to constantly bow to other countries even if it was to the detriment of the US. People in the rest of the world are pissy about Trump because he doesn't do that and tends to favor policy which favors the US. And honestly, what's so bad about that? Ain't nobody else going to take care of you after all. You're own countries do it after all.

  6. so it's ok.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for this messed-up and corrupt administration to go all-in on "me first", fuck-the-rest-of-the-world, nationalistic policy, but it's not ok for other countries to simply require that data that originates in that country and is about its citizens stay in that country?

  7. What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What would happen in the Indian economy if USA-based credit card issuers stopped honoring their cards issued to Indian citizens in that country?

    Perhaps some local outcry to the Indian government, but I doubt that outcry would change things.

    The Indian government might counter the likes of Mastercard and Visa with something like their own Rupee-Card that is good everywhere in India...and nowhere else.

    1. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are Americans so bloody stupid ???

      How about the Asian governments, you know the ones that make up 60% of the worlds population (as opposed the the US 4%), would do something.
      And guess what, most of the rest of the world would follow Asia , not the USA.

      Long gone are the days where the USA could actually bully nations and get away with it. 80% of the worlds GDP is outside the USA and growing.
      The USA is completely on its own if it wishes to commit economic suicide.

    2. Re: What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's called Rupay and has been in place for more than 6 years now

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPay

    3. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What would happen? Well, some Asian and/or European banks would get together and create a new global rival to Mastercard/Visa with a guaranteed new base market, which would quickly start to compete in the rest of Asia and Europe, before branching out into the rest of the world.

      The Europeans have already started on that path, spurred by Trump's actions against Iran. If the US continues to try to act unilaterally, without caring about the support of its allies, I think you'll be surprised at how quickly it can be reduced to irrelevancy.

      Neither Mastercard nor Visa want to open that box, they like the world as it is.

    4. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Precisely, the European bankers were unwilling to lose the profit in Iran. Corruption is very profitable to coorrupt people.

      Besides, you know that this was 100% protectionist, to pay off some rich asshole in India.

    5. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, walking away from the nation with a population over a billion is a great business move.

    6. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What would happen - easy, they would lose business in 2nd most populated country of the World. And probably in quite a few other countries because if you can refuse to "honor their cards" to blackmail them, no one in their right mind would do business with you.

    7. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually it might be, if you're in the business of selling soap or toilet paper.

    8. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope you realize the continuous propaganda the US government has been feeding you about Iran for the last 40 years is solely based on them wanting to get their hands on Iran's sweet sweet crude.

    9. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Why nowhere else? It's actually likely good in one more country than MC and Visa.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? You aren't refusing to "honor their cards", you're saying that doing business there isn't worth the cost so you pull out. They would cancel the cards probably with some grace period to settle the accounts. If there was no grace period, it'd be on the Indian government. A company isn't required to do business in every country.

      I mean, seriously, I don't know where you get blackmail from. If a country passed a 99.9% tax on corporate profits, is it blackmail if McDonalds stops doing business there? No, the local laws simply make it undesirable.

    11. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mumbai Express, just like American Express only better

      Do remember Visa and Mastercard HAVE been found guilty of price collusion. Strangely rake-offs have increased and fees have not decreased in line with automation.

    12. Re:What If Card Issuers Stopped Serving India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the original comment: "if USA-based credit card issuers stopped honoring their cards issued to Indian citizens in that country". You will get "what?" and "where you get blackmail from". "Stopped honoring" is not "cancel with grace period".

      Sure, if local data storage is too expensive for Visa and MasterCard they can butt out of India. They will be replaced and lose huge market. Its a choice bet ween "make few percents less" and "make nothing" in this market.

      Other countries will look at this mess and may decide that working with unreliable operators is a bad idea.

  8. American imperialist chutzpah... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

    Americans are lobbying for the right to steal/mine a foreign country's citizens' personal data. India should tell the US to go piss off, and take its Microsoft/Google lobbying home with it.

    1. Re:American imperialist chutzpah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the rest of the world should do the same, tear up trade deals with the USA and simply stop trading with them.
      Sure it will hurt for a while , but alternative products and trade deals will be made.
      The US will simply wither and die.

    2. Re:American imperialist chutzpah... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      If India takes back Satya Nadella we can talk about that.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:American imperialist chutzpah... by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Not should, but has. Both parties are pushing for their own interests here, as they should.

  9. There are two stages to this by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    First, we try the carrot:
    " Two U.S. senators have called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to soften India's stance on data localization "

    if that doesn't produce the expected result, the stick is used:
    " That's a nice H-1B visa program many of your citizens are currently utilizing. Would be a shame if something happened to it. "

    Want to take a guess which way India will go in the end ?

    1. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, they will tell the USA to F off, point out the US is 4% of the worlds population, Asia is 60%.
      They will mention that US markets are fairly saturated and the biggest growth potential is Asia, pity about US owned companies not having access...

      At which point the US will roll over faster than a dog wanting it tummy scratched.

      The USA is NOT in charge, no matter how often it tells its self it is.
      The world CAN survive without the USA, sure the first decade will be hard, but by then everyone would have worked out trade alternatives.

    2. Re:There are two stages to this by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm somehow not surprised that as an American, you would get that exactly backwards. The end of that program would mean the best students India just spent time and money educating will no longer have the option of taking all that government-paid expertise and leaving India for the United States with it.

      So yes, by all means threaten to cancel the H-1B program...then watch Indian officials laugh in your face and invite you to kiss their ass.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
    3. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks to me like the Indians are already requesting that the United States place its lips upon their brown buttocks and the United States are begging the Indians to reconsider their demands.

    4. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lots of angry Russians posting in these threads. Partially angry at America because of Putin propaganda, but mostly because they can't afford as many potatoes as they used to. Imagine how hard their life is. Sure it is relatively easy for a Russian, but most of their "hackers" make half what a full time big city McDonalds worker makes. And the fry guys don't have to spew bike all day, with the corrosive effect that has on health and mental capacity.

      So pity the poor Russian troll. It's not their fault they work for a leader who can't afford to wear a shirt EVERY day. And lacks the testosterone need to grow chest hair. And seems to have a strange obsession with gays for some reason. What does his wife and kids think about that? Oh, does he not have any? Hmmm. Makes you wonder what the gay thing is about, deep down, behind.

    5. Re:There are two stages to this by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      It will go: f**k you US, as H-1B visa holders don't pay taxes in India.

      Oh .... you did not know that?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be honest, I'm fairly sure most non-Americans on the planet probably prefer Putin over Trump. Actually, I'm fairly sure a lot of American prefer Putin over Trump.

    7. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " That's a nice H-1B visa program many of your citizens are currently utilizing. Would be a shame if something happened to it. "

      Want to take a guess which way India will go in the end ?

      To which the answer is: "That is a nice H-1B visa program your corporations are currently utilizing. Would be a shame if something happened to it indeed, could be the end to many campaign contributions. What was your point again?"

    8. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, the world seems to be binary again. But if you insist: this non-American prefers Trump. At least he is incompetent.

    9. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      trust me "we" don't run the H-1B program for benefit of the Indians, it's so American corps can import cheap labor and then have a stranglehold over them

    10. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one cares about population count. Are you one of the But She Won The Popular Vote! ass clowns?

      Most of those 60% are rice poor illiterate villagers who would kill to get into the US.

      Only money counts. The US runs and owns everything and if you had half a brain you would pray it stays that way because your Chinese overlords will show you true unbridled ethics-free raw power if given the chance.

      Do not vote. Do not breed. Read a history book.

    11. Re:There are two stages to this by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 1

      It certainly looks that way. Now is when it gets complicated. The current administration likes to make threatening public statements about stuff like this. Unfortunately, this puts them in a rather unenviable position when the other side drops trou and offers up its bum for Uncle Sam to kiss. Because the only remaining alternative is lose - lose. On one hand, the administration could choose to suffer the kind of international humiliation that would hurt its chances in other trade negotiations. Or they can find a way to quietly bribe India to accept some kind of cosmetic agreement that will let the US save face, even as they accept a vigorous, un-lubed backscuttle from the very people they were just trying to threaten.

      Lesson available (but no doubt ignored): people in that area of the world had elevated baksheesh to an art form a thousand years before Uncle Sam was even born.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
    12. Re:There are two stages to this by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      They'll tell US to get fucked, again, just like they did so many times during last half a century?

      Remember, India is the only major state in the world that still hasn't signed up to things like medical patents, which had so much force behind it when it was pushed, even China bent over, and that was when China didn't yet have catastrophic demographics of today.

    13. Re: There are two stages to this by Luckyo · · Score: 0

      For an incompetent man, he appears to be getting a lot of things done that were found to be undoable by his (assumedly) competent predecessors, in record time no less.

      It's honestly getting pretty sad to watch just how badly Trump Derangement Syndrome warps people's view of observable reality. You can seriously dislike his platform. Hate it even. But you don't get to pretend that he's not accomplishing his goals, because he clearly is.

    14. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm somehow not surprised that as an American, you would get that exactly backwards. The end of that program would mean the best students India just spent time and money educating will no longer have the option of taking all that government-paid expertise and leaving India for the United States with it.

      So yes, by all means threaten to cancel the H-1B program...then watch Indian officials laugh in your face and invite you to kiss their ass.

      All American protectionists are not the same.

      Some just want less competition for already expensive tech jobs - these people even attack the idea of boosting computer science education to increase our workforce.

      Others want less immigration for reasons. These guys will probably laugh at your explanation.

      So it’s often not enough to explain why a particular policy makes sense, you sometimes (in reality a lot more often in recent years) have to explain why immigration makes sense. I’m very sure this is the case in other parts of the world too... it makes me sad.

    15. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, you're right. He's raking in money in huge piles, and that's all he's interested in, so he is accomplishing his goal(s).

      It just his election promises he doesn't accomplish, but people that believed, for example, that he'd build that wall, with Mexican money to boot, deserve to be stiffed anyway.

    16. Re:There are two stages to this by PPH · · Score: 1

      Remember, India is the only major state in the world that still hasn't signed up to things like

      the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    17. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, now Hillary. Take a couple of deep breaths.

    18. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mostly a quid pro quo between Trump and Republican's:

      He keeps signing anything republicans place in front of him in exchange for letting him do whatever he wants no matter what the current/future consquences to the nation.

      It will be interesting to see what happens if the house/senate switches and they stop giving him anything he wants.

    19. Re: There are two stages to this by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 1

      His goal is to wind up kissing Narendra Modi's nether cheeks? A worthy aspiration for a US President!

      I wish him every success.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
    20. Re:There are two stages to this by eth1 · · Score: 1

      I'm somehow not surprised that as an American, you would get that exactly backwards. The end of that program would mean the best students India just spent time and money educating will no longer have the option of taking all that government-paid expertise and leaving India for the United States with it.

      So yes, by all means threaten to cancel the H-1B program...then watch Indian officials laugh in your face and invite you to kiss their ass.

      It would probably be more effective to just implement a similar law in the US. What percentage of the Indian upper/middle class' positions are dependent upon outsourced high-tech jobs that would become illegal to outsource?

    21. Re: There are two stages to this by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      I suspect that being a professional, if India signed on to the various treaties it rejected in the past, he would.

      That's why he's getting things done that others that came before him claimed to be impossible. His relationship with his electorate reminds me of how Korolev solved the closed circuit rocket engine problem in USSR's space program. Instead of all the old guard people who told him that is impossible, as has happened in US with the same issue, he went out of the rocket scientist community and brought in a jet engine designer. Who made an engine everyone else derided as "impossible to make".

      And that's Trump. The man whom the old guard hates, and who does things that others think are impossible.

    22. Re:There are two stages to this by ghoul · · Score: 1

      No H1B means that the work gets completely offshored and the houses Indians are buying in Silicon Valley get bought in Bangalore.

      And the reason Indians use H1B so much is because of the major educated nations , only China and India are barred from the E3 visa. All other countries just use the E3 visa which has no quota limit or waiting periods.

      USA treats India (supposedly a friedn) on par with China (supposedly an adversary).
      Indians are not blind. They make sure to have alternates to USA like Russia and Iran as when push comes to shove USA cant be trusted. (During the 1962 India-China war USA refused to come help India as it was busy with the Cuban missile crises. This after India had allowed CIA to stage rebels into Tibet which is why the Chinese were pissed). USA is a fair weather friend while Russia is an all weather friend.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    23. Re:There are two stages to this by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Modi will not be stupid. He will not drop this. He knows that America will simply crack this data in the same way that India helps Russia crack ours.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    24. Re:There are two stages to this by ghoul · · Score: 1

      The NPT was a racist treaty. It was created right after India's first nuclear test in 1974 and specifically excluded India from NWS status. No way can we have the brown man have nukes.
      If the NPT had banned nukes for all India would have been the first to sign.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    25. Re:There are two stages to this by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Actually, H1B does not help America NOR does it help the individual Indians. It helps Indian businesses.
      The best thing that America can do is kill the H1B and grow the greencard visa with another 25K / year, but for tech ppl.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    26. Re: There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm interested. What things? He's signed a bunch of executive orders, and signed a sweet tax-break into law. But what has he accomplished among the things he talked about, and that people care about?

      - nuclear N. Korea is still nuclear
      - almost-nuclear Iran is about to step on the gas pedal on that goal, now that Trump canceled the deal we had
      - Russia dominating/threatening its neighbors, and we're all chummy with them
      - US health care system still screwed up, getting worse all the time -- and no solution in sight
      - no wall
      - and let's not forget Puerto Rico

      Trump shoots his mouth off a lot, that's all he's accomplished that I can see.

    27. Re: There are two stages to this by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 1

      Well, he must be a pretty good grifter, at least. He's certainly got you fooled.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
    28. Re:There are two stages to this by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 1

      That would actually make sense. Sadly, it's not do-able in this political climate.

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
    29. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you not even understand the topic?

    30. Re:There are two stages to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, stupid idea. When AI takes over all the pointless scripting jobs the H1B's do we can send them all packing. If you give them greencards, now you have entire Indian families without jobs demanding welfare / turning to crime etc.

      Or in the next downturn H1B's you can just send home. Far more flexible.

    31. Re: There are two stages to this by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Just like he is a nazi, a rapist, will crash the economy if elected with his crazy ideas...

      At some point, reasonable people conclude that when reality stands in stark opposition to their thought model, they are wrong and need to correct their thought model. People like you appear to be highly unreasonable, to the point of mental disorder. Hence, TDS.

    32. Re: There are two stages to this by Luckyo · · Score: 0

      - nuclear N. Korea is still nuclear

      More progress in two years than previous fifty. This claim shows the depth of your intellectual dishonesty. "He didn't fix the problem that was considered at worst ever stage two years ago, and impossible to solve in two years, he only made more progress than anyone before him".

      >- almost-nuclear Iran is about to step on the gas pedal on that goal, now that Trump canceled the deal we had

      Hasn't even begun focusing on it yet. The "deal we had" was essentially a deal that allowed Iran to restore the damage previous sanctions regime did to its economy and store up for the final nuclear sprint. It was almost as dumb as Paris agreement that motivated China to build up coal power en masse ASAP so they could get the highest possible line from which to start enacting eventual reductions. Which they are currently doing to the shock of no one but the green lobby.

      >- Russia dominating/threatening its neighbors, and we're all chummy with them

      In other news, pigs fly and US hasn't enacted sanctions that are tougher than were in place during Cold War in many areas. Speaking of which, sanctions are so well targeted, that they're also serving US interests on arms markets.

      >- US health care system still screwed up, getting worse all the time -- and no solution in sight

      Not a presidential matter in the first place, but he had a go at it. Initial attempt to fix it failed because folks you like got bent out of shape with "he's a secret nazi" at the time. When something is broken, and large portion of people think it should stay broken, you must let it break fully to be able to enact meaningful change. He clearly has started the process through by defunding the parts of the system that are failing, and letting them fail on their own merits.

      >- no wall

      Yet the trade deal has been renegotiated, and additional benefits to US from that alone would finance it. Migration enforcement is also massively up in spite of "abolish ICE" narrative pushed hard by his opponents. All that is needed is less of "we'll tear this country down if it means it will cause Trump to flinch" attitudes among people like yourself.

      Additional bonus points for wall on Mexico's southern border actually happening, which should cut off a large amount of migration, and largely limit it to Mexicans.

      >- and let's not forget Puerto Rico

      Because essentially everyone has, as repairs progress slowly, elevating people above "minimum acceptable levels" in spite of massive local corruption deterring actions by federal government. See, there's this thing called "relevance". When you operate at high level as US President should, actions on relevant stages speak much louder than words. For example:

      1. Economy that was "impossible" according to his predecessor. Employment figures that propaganda machine has been struggling to explain away as bad for over half of his tenure at this point, and failing because they're just running out of even hypothetical, utterly unbelievable excuses. Believable ones have been exhausted long ago.
      2. Successful renegotiation of NAFTA to benefit of US. Also supposedly "impossible" by his predecessors and detractors.
      3. Actually getting allies in Europe thinking about defence and military, rather than brushing it under a rug under massive pressure from anti-military lobby in relevant countries. Germans actually started to actively work on getting their decayed and hollowed out military back into working order, which was considered impossible for last two decades at the least.
      4. You already mentioned things like DPRK, even if you tried to desperately re-frame as negatives.

      Just to name a few actually big things that are purview of office of US president, rather than "but my legislative branch issues".

  10. Good on you India, keep your citizens' data safe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    don't let the dishonest America bully you out of this decision. It's more important than any stupid trade sanctions they are threatening you with, and the cost of letting them have all your data is too high.

  11. Re:Good on you India, keep your citizens' data saf by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    You know that you're talking about the country with the world's largest biometric database of its citizens, yes?

    That's a bit like saying Facebook would defend itself against handing over data to the government. Yes, it's nice that they don't bend over, but mostly they don't out of pure self interest, not because they give a shit about you.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. No! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The US provides absolutely 0 protection for any data stored within their borders. The 4th amendment doesn't apply to "foreigners" and so government agencies access and abuse private data they have no right to access.

    1. Re:No! by jbengt · · Score: 1

      The 4th Amendment applies within the jurisdiction of the US governments, including for "foreigners" living in the US.
      IANAL, YMMV, So-called Conservative Politicians May Differ.

  13. Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their data by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    This move by India will make it harder to pump all that information straight to the NSA's ginormous server farm in Utah. After the Snowden and Vault 7 leaks plus the revelation that the US was tapping Angela Merkle's personal cell phone, every country should be treating the US as the hostile foreign power that Russia has been accused of being.

  14. US should do this as well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too many US sites showing "not available in your country"

    Need to put the "inter" back in "internet"

  15. India Would Suffer - Trade Would Be Impeded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When those billion people have no money, the impact is fairly limited outside of India.

    That's the entire reason WHY the USA is in the economic powerhouse that it is. There is both great wealth and economic stability in the USA that simply doesn't exist in any other nation or bloc.

    China a nation or 1.3 billion+ people could be the 800 pound gorilla, when one considers population alone. But, when we look at the big picture, no money, economic volatility, incompatible government, mismanagement... People continue to invest in USA rather than China, India, Russia...

    1. Re:India Would Suffer - Trade Would Be Impeded by Luckyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Same applies in reverse. There's a reason why India has been the stickler in all global negotiations on trade for last half a century. They don't need the world trade. Their economy is self-contained, able to consume what it produces because of its healthy demographics. Example of this is in the fact that even China was forced to sign up to medicine patenting and payment regimes, as China needs foreign market access, and that was one of the fields powerful enough to actually get China cut off.

      India still hasn't. They told the world powers insisting they sign or else to get fucked. And they do to this day. Which is why the "fake medicines" are overwhelmingly produced in India, and most of them are about as good as genuine stuff, and there's nothing that patent holders can do about it in spite of massive efforts both on their own part, and on the part of their parent states.

      India can afford to walk away from essentially any negotiation on trade should its interests dictate it does so even when threatened with massive economic sanctions. It's unique among all the major states in the world in this ability.

    2. Re:India Would Suffer - Trade Would Be Impeded by ghoul · · Score: 1

      To add , as a percentage of GDP foreign trade is minuscule in India. Most USD investments into India are NRIs investing back into India and that will not stop regardless of whether India has good relations with the world. Even if it was made illegal, Hawala offers a way.
      On the other hand India has a trade deficit with almost all countries except the oil producing countries. India could close its borders and as long as it got enough remittances to cover its oil import bill the economy would keep chugging along. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Amazon, Caterpillar, GE, Coca Cola, Pepsi, John Deere, Monsanto might witness an increase in shareholder suicides.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:India Would Suffer - Trade Would Be Impeded by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      That is the function of healthy demographics. They have more young workers than old workers, which means that consumption part of the economy is able to consume everything that is produced without the need for external markets. At the same time, the older generations who have the money have plenty of investment opportunities in the same younger people, so foreign investment is equally irrelevant in most fields.

      It's a microcosm of world economy on its own. No other large country is in the world has this, because demographics are very unhealthy across most of the world's major states.

  16. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    If you think Russia isn't trying to do at least as much, I have bridge on the Moon to sell you.

    As for being allied, that's about alignment of interests first and foremost. And for the time being, US interests remain firmly aligned with those in Western countries. Trump's election didn't change that. The only thing that it changed in equation is the opportunity costs of the others, increasing them, while still keeping them well below the benefits.

  17. You don't get out much do you? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    The Republican party has been on a decades long campaign to buy out the state legislatures (spearheaded by the Koch Bros) with the goal of calling a Constitutional Convention and amending the Constitution to their liking. I assure you they're not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.

    And you'd be shocked how much power your State Attorney General and Corporate Commissioner have. They're definitely being bought. Hell, the Sherrif

    In America our oligarchs buy out everybody above dog catcher. Nobody bothers with Dog catcher since they already bought out the mayor and he'll get the catcher in line as needed...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  18. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    If you think Russia isn't trying to do at least as much, I have bridge on the Moon to sell you.

    Yeah, you do "own" a bridge on the moon if you believe that baseless tautology. Russia's entire defense budget is a fraction of the last increase to Pentagon spending. They have an economy smaller than austerity-wrecked Spain. The United States has a thousand military bases around the world - can you name one of Russia's outside of Syria or Sevastopol? Little computer tech is made in Russia, and Russia had nothing to do with building the internet or financial infrastructure that these two Senators want to remain back doored for the NSA.

    All this "all things are equal, intent equals capacity derp derp" is just deflection from the fact that not only is the United States the biggest asshole in the world today, it is worse than all other assholes combined.

    And for the time being, US interests remain firmly aligned with those in Western countries.

    The refugee crisis that has enveloped Europe, cost the EU huge sums of money, and has led directly to the rise of far-right wing parties - is the direct result of America's illegal wars. If war comes again to Europe, it will start in Ukraine - thanks to the United States overthrowing the elected government under Obama, and now arming literal neo-Nazis under Trump. Some "ally".

  19. Why negotiate at all with India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    638 million people in India do not have access to a toilet. I'm not trying to go on some racist rant here. Having access to basic facilities isn't a matter of race, it's a matter of infrastructure. A government that can't solve this problem has no real business trying to regulate businesses and the Internet.

    I'd argue that the US should ignore any laws India tries to create. On the evidence that the Indian government isn't organized enough to enforce its own laws.

    I dare D.C. to call India's bluff!

  20. Re:Good on you India, keep your citizens' data saf by PPH · · Score: 2

    From that article:

    Private businesses or individuals have been banned from requesting an individualâ(TM)s Aadhaar details, meaning the 12-digit number cannot be a requirement for services such as opening a bank account or establishing a mobile phone connection.
    .
    .
    The justices also struck down a so-called "national security exception" that allowed investigative agencies to access a person's data without a warrant.

    So, better than the USA. Or any of the Five Eyes members.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  21. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    You know, sometimes people tell me that Russian trolls aren't a thing.

    Then I get someone like you, who is trying to pretend that things like budgets are the primary defining features, rather than results. When was the last time you remember US pulling something like Crimea? If anything, we know that Russians have capabilities that even US lacks, such as ability to enact bloodless coups. As we have seen with Ukraine, US led coup went bloody real fast.

    And as for the rest, "illegal wars", etc irrelevant moralizing, vae victus.

  22. No Petrodollar==No US Market by ghoul · · Score: 1

    The gigantic US market is based on debt and that debt is cheap because everyone in the world has a lot of dollars and nothing to do with it but invest it in US. Why does everyone have so many dollars? Because they need dollars to buy oil so just to be safe they keep their reserves in dollars. If the Khasshogi incident leads to Saudi pricing oil in Yuan, say bye bye to the US market and then noone needs to listen to the US.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re:No Petrodollar==No US Market by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      You're only partially correct. The US market is vast and swallows up anything you throw at it. It's responsible for world prosperity. Without it, many countries would collapse. Who they going to sell their junk to in such quantity? Not Europeans, they protect their important industries. The petrodollar is increasingly irrelevant in a world with shale oil. The US is nearly self sufficient if not already. We simply can do without Middle East oil these days. Let them choke on sand. We've had enough being allied with medieval camel fuckers.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:No Petrodollar==No US Market by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Its not that US buys oil in dollars that is important or if whether US even buys oil. Its that other countries like India have to buy Oil in Dollars and hence they need to stockpile dollars and hence they buy up US debt at cheap rates. If India could pay for oil in Rupees they wouldnt be holding billions of US govt debt and then the US would have trouble raising funds to run a deficit and then would have trouble funding a 600 billion military and also New York would no longer be the ventral nervous system of the world economy. The Saudis have the US by the balls and the US has them by the balls. Now both of them can play nice or squeeze (hich would bring a world of hurt to not just both but other countries like India too)

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
  23. No corruption in US by ghoul · · Score: 1

    Everything that is called corruption and illegal in India is called Lobbying and perfectly legal in USA. There are no criminals if nothing is a crime.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  24. Actually, India is being SMART by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Seriously, they are being smart about this. Most Indian companies KNOW that a number of their own are cracking American systems for the Russians. For this to happen, they need access to either source code (i.e. a software engineer) or more often, handling production sys. admin. Then they leave a nice back door on the foolish American companies computers. Said indian individual walks away with $100K (10x what the Americans pay), and the Russians either walk away with millions or with loads of new intelligence. Smart on their part.

    So, India is being smart. American politics and businesses are loaded with fucking idiots at the top.

    BTW, another good example of this is the person that was Target's CIO and was cracked, was fired, and then went to work for J.C. Penny. What does she do? She moves loads of IT to Bangalore and to the same companies that screwed her over at Target. What a joke.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  25. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by ghoul · · Score: 1

    Russia has nowhere near the scope of the US to be an asshole. The Ruble is not the international reserve currency so all trade goes through New York not Moscow hence the US has opportunity to spy on all world trade transactions. India is demanding that at least domestic trade transactions not be spied on by not having the data go through New York

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  26. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by ghoul · · Score: 1

    Lets talk about the outrage over the Saudis kidnapping the Lebanese PM. Who did they learn from? The US kidnapping the Panamian President.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  27. I'm from Brazil, we got soft and it sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have an "internet law" here and the original project included keeping our data here. The US pressured us not to do it. We "softened our stance". I deal with criminal cases that simply doesn't move forward because, amidst so much crime, it's not worth dealing with international cooperation treaties to get facebook data.
    The other day we needed to know who is admin in a facebook group on a civil (non criminal) case. Again, international cooperation. Facebook lawyers here claim it's impossible for them to inform us who the admin is because the data is not here.
    I hope the Indians don't agree to be fucked over like we did.
    At least we got net neutrality (that is not being respected).

  28. Re:Good on you India, keep your citizens' data saf by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    I have to give you that...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  29. More lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Different topic, same WindBourne lies.

    Indians only earn 10k LOL.

    1. Re:More lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You are a total idiot.

      Said indian individual walks away with $100K (10x what the Americans pay)

      Gee, what is 100K divided by 10? Why that is 10K.
      So sad. It must be hard working for your boss and lying about everything.

    2. Re:More lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, that was the lie. They don't.

  30. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    That's nice. How is this relevant to what I said?

  31. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    This is the second reply you make to me on this topic where you clearly don't read my original post.

    Let me repeat it.

    >And as for the rest, "illegal wars", etc irrelevant moralizing, vae victus.

    Strong do what they can. Weak suffer what they must. Which is why Russia try to do what US does and more as to not have to suffer as weak do. And US does what it can to stay strong to achieve the same effect. Moralizing doesn't work in geopolitics because of its utter irrelevance. Which is why most people on the planet who haven't been completely insulated in ridiculous propaganda bubble of modernity that tries to assign geopolitical actions on a "good vs evil" dimension generally don't subscribe to this model of thinking. It's highly unnatural.

  32. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    You know, sometimes people tell me that Russian trolls aren't a thing.

    Probably by the same sort of people that told you that Saddam really didn't have WMD's or planned 911. You know....people that aren't gullible fools.

    Then I get someone like you, who is trying to pretend that things like budgets are the primary defining features

    Budgets are a measure of capacity and intent. Stephen Hawking may have always wanted to be a professional boxer, but really wasn't in a position to be one. Putin could be evil James Bond villain that western exceptionalists pretend he is (intent) but he doesn't have the capacity, and he's not in a position to do .01% the level of planetary spying the NSA does on a daily basis.

    rather than results.

    Results? Where's the Russian equivalent to the Five Eyes, where they try to not just spy on the rest of the world, but each other's own citizens to get around pesky FISA laws or the 4th Amendment. Where's the Russian equivalent to the backdoors the FBI/CIA/NSA have in communication networks, consumer electronics and operating systems. Did AT&T give Putin direct access to its hubs they way it did for the USG? Where's the history of Putin spying on the personal communications of allied heads of state?

    "All things are equal, intent equals capacity derp derp"

    When was the last time you remember US pulling something like Crimea?

    You mean accept a democratic vote to re-join Russia? Never. Do try and explain why the US-backed junta in Ukraine would have any legitimacy, but a super-supermajority vote for self-determination has none.

    And as for the rest, "illegal wars", etc irrelevant moralizing

    Stomping your feet and shouting "la la la I can't hear you" does jack and shit to change the fact that the US has been a horrible ally to Europe, and Jack left town.

    vae victus

    vae vict i s. If you're going to be a twat throwing Big Words around like they're supposed to mean something, you might want to spell them correctly. Now, onto your equally obnoxious avoidance of ghoul's points:

    The Ruble is not the international reserve currency so all trade goes through New York not Moscow hence the US has opportunity to spy on all world trade transactions. India is demanding that at least domestic trade transactions not be spied on by not having the data go through New York

    That's nice. How is this relevant to what I said?

    Capacity and intent. See above. If the ruble becomes the world's reserve currency and Putin uses the resulting infrastructure to spy on everyone's business, then we can talk - but not before then.

    Lets talk about the outrage over the Saudis kidnapping the Lebanese PM. Who did they learn from? The US kidnapping the Panamian President.

    Moralizing doesn't work in geopolitics because of its utter irrelevance. Which is why most people on the planet who haven't been completely insulated in ridiculous propaganda bubble of modernity that tries to assign geopolitical actions on a "good vs evil" dimension generally don't subscribe to this model of thinking. It's highly unnatural.

    "All things are equal, intent equals capacity derp derp". Again. All this prattle about propaganda bubbles is just projection on your part, to keep ignoring the indisputable fact that the United States is not just the biggest asshole on the planet, but bigger than all other assholes combined. Putin is nothing more than the latest in a long line of boogymen used to frighten western exceptionalists like yourself into shitting the bed on command, to justify being a continent sized Sarlacc orifice with an insatiable appetite.

  33. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    Thank you for successfully reinforcing my point above. I couldn't have done it better myself.

  34. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by ghoul · · Score: 1

    I agree the strong do what they wish and the fact that US prosperity is built on the largess of the Saudis (if Saudis sold oil in anything other than USD the whole US economy comes crashing down), the Saudis will do what they wish and the US will take it like a good boy.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  35. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    I've no idea why you think that "US prosperity is built on largess of the Saudis". US prosperity is built on the fact that it's the only major state in the world that doesn't have to invest significant amount of resources into border defence against peer competitors, coupled with the fact that it has more navigable interconnected rivers than entire rest of the world combined.

    Or did you forget that US became a major power before Saudi Arabian oil was ever discovered?

  36. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by ghoul · · Score: 1

    The US was a middling country till WW1 its primary export being crude oil. After WW1 and 2 US got a lead as the rest of the world was destroyed. Around the same time Saudi oil started coming online. The period of US being a Superpower has coincided with the period of Saudi-US alliance.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  37. Re:Translation: keep the NSA balls deep in their d by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    You're utterly ignorant of history outside the talking points you copy pasted. Noted.