Six people were arrested in New York City in protests over the firm’s alleged work building a massive new surveillance apparatus for President Donald Trump
  • miz [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    tOtaLiTaRiAn pOLiCe SuRvEiLLaNcE

    my Chinese national friend had her phone stolen in a Tier 1 city and the police consulted the CCTV footage, called the person who took it and told them to bring it in to the police station. she got it back. what’s important is the class character of the state

    • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]@hexbear.netMEnglish
      0·
      5 days ago

      called the person who took it and told them to bring it in to the police station

      how did that conversation go, i wonder. like, “we saw you took it, give it back” or “hey, we saw you {wink} found the phone, bring it over and there’s no harm done” kind or thing.

    • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
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      5 days ago

      eh, the surveillance state isn’t good even if it does have proletarian class character. they’ll make mistakes, or have bigots in the police, or over-react to drugs*, get hacked by foreign actors, or a thousand other ways merely having the tool around could go wrong.

      *yes i understand the historical basis, no it doesn’t make sense anymore.

      • miz [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        0·
        5 days ago

        this feels like the “human nature” argument to me. the problems of mistakes and bad actors would seem to be good process and auditing not abandoning the technology entirely. if oversight of state power is impossible then let’s just give up

        • tocopherol [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
          0·
          5 days ago

          In my view, if a person lacks a fundamental right to privacy, it will effect their behavior and increase anxiety even if no direct harm comes from it. If you are doing work, and someone is staring intensely at the work you’re doing, wouldn’t that make you uncomfortable? That’s how I feel being tracked and monitored by the surveillance state, I feel uncomfortable and anxious, afraid to step out of line.

          I agree if the state was held by the people it wouldn’t generate such a feeling as much, but I don’t know if the benefit from widespread surveillance justifies the risk of reactionaries or hostile governments using the panopticon for their benefit. CCTV in public areas like what allowed the person’s phone to be recovered doesn’t have to lead to a full surveillance state though, but it would be tough to track the suspect without other measures like device or face tracking.