this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
58 points (82.2% liked)
Privacy
31981 readers
265 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Personally not worried, but as a society I am.
I live in the US, and we've seen a rise in some particularly hostile legislation against certain groups of people like in the LGBTQ community. I can foresee precise tracking being used against these groups of people to determine if they've been in the vicinity of a medical provider's office, have traveled across state lines, congregate in certain social establishments, and even perhaps where they vote for representatives.
This information could be used as targeting information for harassment or further punitive legislation. Voting districts could be redrawn to split these populations into minority regions such that they don't have proportional share of representatives. Liquor licenses for "gay bars" could be revoked. Maybe we extend the liquor license revocations to bars which simply tolerate LQBTQ people getting a beer after work.
Maybe tomorrow we change the targeted groups to Muslims. Or maybe NRA members. With the foundations for this kind of surveillance in place, the opportunity for abuse will never go away.
You could have also referenced the abortion issue, where it's been proven without a shadow of a doubt that police are using surveillance powers to monitor women who are suspected of being pregnant and trying to terminate the pregnancy. It's literally already happening in one instance, which helps prove that you're very right in being worried about the things you're worried about. Because those things will surely come to pass as well.
I disagree with you just slightly. I don't think that focus should be on gay or whatever group the news is taking about. We are all unique and we all diserve privacy and freedom.
As Edward Snowden once said:
what they've described is going to be day-to-day life thing if people won't oppose it out of convenience.
But the comment you're replying to is talking about day-to-day life. Not for most of us, but unfortunately some minorities are being targeted in some places, and the trend seems to be getting worse, not better, in the whole world.