www/philosophy surveillance-vs-democracy.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       16/03/26 15:50:57

Modified files:
        philosophy     : surveillance-vs-democracy.html 

Log message:
        Minor cleanups; added some links; delete links to Wired.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.35&r2=1.36

Patches:
Index: surveillance-vs-democracy.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html,v
retrieving revision 1.35
retrieving revision 1.36
diff -u -b -r1.35 -r1.36
--- surveillance-vs-democracy.html      17 Oct 2015 10:02:13 -0000      1.35
+++ surveillance-vs-democracy.html      26 Mar 2016 15:50:57 -0000      1.36
@@ -8,8 +8,9 @@
 
 <p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";>Richard Stallman</a></p>
 
-<blockquote><p>A version of this article was first published
-in <a 
href="http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/10/a-necessary-evil-what-it-takes-for-democracy-to-survive-surveillance/";>Wired</a>
+<!-- rms: I deleted the link because of Wired's announced
+     anti-ad-block system -->
+<blockquote><p>A version of this article was first published in Wired
 in October 2013.</p></blockquote>
 
 <p>Thanks to Edward Snowden's disclosures, we know that the current
@@ -108,7 +109,8 @@
 long <a href="http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/privacy/lein1.htm";>used
 their access to driver's license records to track down someone
 attractive</a>, a practice known as &ldquo;running a plate for a
-date.&rdquo;</p>
+date.&rdquo;  This practice has expanded with <a 
href="https://theyarewatching.org/issues/risks-increase-once-data-shared";>new 
digital systems</a>.
+</p>
 
 <p>Surveillance data will always be used for other purposes, even if
 this is prohibited.  Once the data has been accumulated and the state
@@ -274,7 +276,12 @@
 and <a 
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/us/drug-agents-use-vast-phone-trove-eclipsing-nsas.html?_r=0";>makes
 them available to the DEA</a> to search on request.  Strictly
 speaking, the U.S.  government does not possess that data, but in
-practical terms it may as well possess it.</p>
+practical terms it may as well possess it.  Some companies are praised
+for <a 
href="https://www.eff.org/who-has-your-back-government-data-requests-2015";>resisting
+government data requests to the limited extent they can</a>, but that
+can only partly compensate for the harm they do to by collecting that
+data in the first place.  In addition, many of those companies misuse
+the data directly or provide it to data brokers.</p>
 
 <p>The goal of making journalism and democracy safe therefore requires
 that we reduce the data collected about people by any organization,
@@ -294,8 +301,8 @@
 privacy than commitments to uphold it.</p>
 
 <p>We could correct both problems by adopting a system of anonymous
-payments&mdash;anonymous for the payer, that is.  (We don't want the
-payee to dodge
+payments&mdash;anonymous for the payer, that is.  (We don't want to
+help the payee dodge
 taxes.)  <a 
href="http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/05/lets-cut-through-the-bitcoin-hype/";>Bitcoin
 is not anonymous</a>, though there are efforts to develop ways to pay
 anonymously with Bitcoin.  However, technology
@@ -521,7 +528,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2015/10/17 10:02:13 $
+$Date: 2016/03/26 15:50:57 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>