Honestly the censorship and single narrative is way more concerning
They go together though. Like what’s scary about the surveillance is how much censorship there is. Because it would be dead easy to arrest someonefor thought crime if you are constantly surveiling them.
Remember when Elon wanted to make twitter into a super-app? Back then? In the past?
The really interesting part of this article for me is the list of “mental tactics” Chinese people are using to distance themselves/cope with surveillance. I have heard every single one of those used by Westerners, some of them extremely frequently. Westerners often seem to believe that they are somehow immune to the type of mass surveillance you see in authoritarian states like China, but this suggests to me that we are actually extremely susceptible to it ourselves. The mindset already exists and we are already making those mental exceptions for civil liberties infringements in the name of “security” (government surveillance) or convenience (company surveillance). The only difference is our governments have not yet taken surveillance to the same extremes or, if they have, are less transparent about how they’re doing it, so there is still a misguided belief that the same thing cannot happen where we live.
Digital surveillance is omnipresent in the west. Apparently nobody cares.
Its not even close. For example, end-to-end encryption is standard in the west. In China its heavily restricted and basically non-existant.
You are correct, it is worse in West in many ways.
I did say the exact opposite…
It’s better propaganda if it’s China, Russia, Iran, etc. And tbh, those nations are in an information war against the western propaganda machine. As long as we have an aggressive Capitalist west, I think a firewall is necessary for a proper information defense in any country. It’s hard to defend against propaganda without some control, and it’s rather naive to think that any nation won’t/shouldn’t defend itself from western information attacks. I haven’t read the article as I assume it’s pure anti-west made up propaganda as usual.
Remember that you need an id to get a phone number in most countries. And how hot big IT is for your phone number. Aside from UKUSA and NSA programs doing way more.
The coping tactics are almost the same here, if you’re not a privacy nut.
Not to say it’s as bad as in China, especially here it’s for money (though not for me) and against terrorism. But the definition of terrorism can quickly change with someone like trump in power.
Just remember the FBI were already watching the 9-11 hijackers and knew what they were going to do beforehand but didn’t stop it.
Where I live, I consider nothing I do on my phone private at all, and I have to act accordingly. I would be in breach of Chinese law were I to do the same in China.
I’m so glad I don’t need any ID to buy a number in my country. In your face, “free and democratic” countries!
Requiring an ID is security theater anyway. If law enforcement wants to know who got a number they can simply look at what phone it’s used in, or what card you paid with etc.
knowing a phone model is not the same as seeing and ID card with all the Details, that makes a huge difference for the individual’s privacy…
most ISP operators I have seen don’t give a damn about your privacy, if you’re their friend, just ask… give them a phone number and they’ll give you all the details ( Face, Home Address… Etc )… In other countries like Iraq, you can buy that information for a very very low price…
removing the ID card from the equation provides huge privacy benefits for people from these sick fucks… If you’re worried about being found by the authorities… Avoid SIM cards alltogether
or what card you paid with etc.
Use cash…
its more complicated than that. IMEI and triangulation complicates this unless you have a stolen/spoofed phone and some opsec to deal with triangulation. and then theres the fact most points of sale have security cameras.
Here an ID is required by law, but you can still buy “gray” simcards in various places. Although not as reliable as if it were a legal one - it can get blocked by the provider, but I don’t know exactly how long they usually last.
I’ll just say I’m very sorry you live in such a place
Trump is probably pro freedom compared to Biden. In reality political differences and polarization have distracted us.
What does “pro-freedom” even mean? He’s clearly not pro choice for example. Most of his freedoms seem to be for corporations, the citizens only have an illusion of freedom at best.
The surveillance is somewhat less pervasive where I live, but the methods for selling people on the idea that it’s acceptable, inevitable, and for our own good are much the same the world over.
the thing that makes me go … 🤦♂️… Is hearing some CS graduate or “Engineer” saying you don’t have privacy online, forget it…
Big tech really tried them to behave as their spokesmen
almost every participant brought up the “lack of moral quality” of their fellow citizens, whom they said behaved like children with little moral sense.
In the context of this shame-inducing narrative, surveillance is framed as a welcome solution to enforce the rules by punishing violators and getting people to behave better. According to the participants, moral shortcomings are responsible for the “century of humiliations” that China has experienced since the Opium Wars and the Japanese invasions; according to this discourse, “civilizing” the population will enable China to gain the international recognition it so ardently desires.
What a fucking victim blaming asshole you have to be to suggest we need dragnet surveillance everywhere because there was an epidemic of opium addiction
Sounds like the patriot act in America. Something bad happened so the govt said “hey we’re just gonna go ahead and spy on you to keep everyone safe”
not like the west isnt doing it too, but that gives me the creeps about china too.
