Obviously it's not about your day-to-day life. It's about the raw power that comes knowledge, especially when databased and cross-referenced in perpetuity.
I'll even concede that these programs are being constructed out of genuine interest in public safety. But what happens when a malicious hacker breaks in? Or China? Or corrupt insiders start selling blackmail secrets to the highest bidder? Or the next Nixon is elected?
The 4th exists for a reason, and privacy is only a secondary benefit. What really matters is preventing concentration of power. And if you don't think having access to a limitless database on everyone is dangerous, you need to read up on Sun Tzu.
If a hacker wants it, will distributing it between Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple really stop them. It wouldn't stop me. With these sites we've been throwing this information out there for years telling ourselves it's secure, and when someone finally showed us all what we already knew, everyone started freaking out like this was news.
We've been throwing paper airplanes off skyscrapers while yelling at people not to look at them for years. This isn't even someone looking, this is somewhere between someone grabbing all of the paper airplanes and putting them in a huge disorganized room full of trillions of other paper airplanes and someone being able to look at the paper airplane if they get permission from a third party that always says yes.
Either way, do you trust Google, Apple and Facebook more with this than the government? What does happen in any of those worst case scenarios? The Chinese find out you like George Takei on Facebook and occasionally stock your ex? The next Nixon finds out you own an iPhone and have some great iCloud photos? Corrupt insiders try to blackmail you for secretly watching that One Direction music video on YouTube a few dozen times?
I think more than anything I'm just pissy because what used to be a cool avenue for tech/startup news has become this weird, paranoid community obsessed with Big Brother watching them. Every day I feel more like I'm checking NRA news than Hacker News. It's really depressing.
Ultimately our ability to create new and exciting things is governed by the political and economic power we wield. It is without any doubt that the current events have created a situation where we sacrifice our commercial stake in 'internet leadership' globally for the sake of short term intelligence gains.
The financial machinery of the intelligence community has co-opted the political power structure of the nation. The freedom to speak publicly without asymmetric authoritarian consequence does not exist, if it ever did.
Thus, to focus on tech and start ups, the environment needs to be less toxic.
No it doesn't. The environment hasn't changed, we just know more about it. Nothing has changed, this behaviour didn't start when we learned about it. It's been going on for years without anyone noticing. The freedoms are the same, the actual state of everything is the same. You just now know that the US government has the ability to get your Facebook info on demand. This news is all so unsurprising it's hardly news worthy.
Don't get me wrong: I'm very concerned about big tech companies having all our data as well, and I would love to see stronger laws protecting privacy. But the difference is this: Google doesn't hold a monopoly on violence. They might do all sorts of douchey things with what what they learn, but they're not going to throw anyone into a concrete cage.
I'll even concede that these programs are being constructed out of genuine interest in public safety. But what happens when a malicious hacker breaks in? Or China? Or corrupt insiders start selling blackmail secrets to the highest bidder? Or the next Nixon is elected?
The 4th exists for a reason, and privacy is only a secondary benefit. What really matters is preventing concentration of power. And if you don't think having access to a limitless database on everyone is dangerous, you need to read up on Sun Tzu.