<story><title>The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/earn-it-bill-back-again-seeking-scan-our-messages-and-photos</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>BizarroLand</author><text>&amp;quot;IT PROTECTS THE CHILDREN!&amp;quot; they&amp;#x27;ll scream, while using it to take more power away from society and concentrate it into their own hands.&lt;p&gt;Surveillance isn&amp;#x27;t some harmless thing, because you can tell a million lies with a drop of the truth in them for any reason you want.&lt;p&gt;Imagine you get established in life and decide to run for local politics only to have the fact that you&amp;#x27;ve gone to Vegas 4 times in your life somehow turned into a completely untrue &amp;quot;drug use and prostitution&amp;quot; scandal that destroys your credibility and political career before it even started.&lt;p&gt;Imagine having your grandkids&amp;#x27; college scholarships revoked because you ran an incredibly unprofitable and short lived onlyfans for 3 months in your late teens.&lt;p&gt;Maybe the results won&amp;#x27;t be as overt as this. Maybe it will be worse.&lt;p&gt;Either way, it is invasive and gives complete strangers power over your future and your children&amp;#x27;s future that they simply should not have and have no reason to ever have.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s morally repugnant and abhorrent to any person who takes the time to think not of what information will be collected but of what that information will be used for and by whom.&lt;p&gt;The children of the people who as of today are still talking about how great trump is and how he &amp;quot;brought peace to the middle east&amp;quot; and how &amp;quot;evil demoncrats are running a global cabal to turn humans into monkeys&amp;quot; are the people who at best will be the parents and friends and neighbors of the people who will have finely grained and exacting data of everything you have done from well before the day of the passing of a bill like this.&lt;p&gt;This bill would make America the equivalent of living in an overly nosy HOA city everywhere for everyone. The people who fit in and don&amp;#x27;t make waves will get the 1950&amp;#x27;s nuclear family treatment, and those that don&amp;#x27;t will get the April 26, 1986 Pripyat nuclear treatment.</text></item><item><author>BLKNSLVR</author><text>I think &amp;quot;why do you have the right to know?&amp;quot; is a decent answer.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What level of trust do you think you&amp;#x27;ve earned?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What do you want to do with all this information?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How will this make things better?&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t you have more important things to spend time and money on?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Is this really the best thing the government should be working on right now?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How does this help any of society&amp;#x27;s ills?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Will taxes need to be increased to manage, store, and analyse the mountains of information that will be created?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How long will you store messages between me and my daughter about her contemplating suicide, and will those messages prevent her from getting a government job later in life?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Does the storing of all this data come with a responsibility to make it accessible to defend people who have been accused of a crime?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;My wife works in law enforcement, will she have access to this trove of data?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Will there be a process to remove data from this trove that may be libelous or cause undue harm to an individual or company?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Is the government responsible for the complete chain of access to this data, or are there private companies involved that have to be trusted not to sneak a peek?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What specific issue, currently facing today&amp;#x27;s society, does this solve?&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>maerF0x0</author><text>A reminder that &amp;quot;you have nothing to hide&amp;quot; argument is a fallacy because people abuse their power:&lt;p&gt;Some first hits as reminders of places where their powers are abused&lt;p&gt;[1]: &amp;quot;NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog&amp;quot;
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;us-usa-surveillance-watchdog&amp;#x2F;nsa-staff-used-spy-tools-on-spouses-ex-lovers-watchdog-idUSBRE98Q14G20130927&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;us-usa-surveillance-watchdog...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;police-can-access-your-ring-camera-footage-without-a-warrant&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;police-can-access-your-ring-ca...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;warrantless-border-searches-draw-call-for-supreme-court-action&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;warrantless-border-searches-dr...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dang</author><text>Can you please not fulminate like this on HN? It leads to more predictable, less interesting discussion.&lt;p&gt;This is in the site guidelines: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&lt;/a&gt;.</text></comment>
<story><title>The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/earn-it-bill-back-again-seeking-scan-our-messages-and-photos</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>BizarroLand</author><text>&amp;quot;IT PROTECTS THE CHILDREN!&amp;quot; they&amp;#x27;ll scream, while using it to take more power away from society and concentrate it into their own hands.&lt;p&gt;Surveillance isn&amp;#x27;t some harmless thing, because you can tell a million lies with a drop of the truth in them for any reason you want.&lt;p&gt;Imagine you get established in life and decide to run for local politics only to have the fact that you&amp;#x27;ve gone to Vegas 4 times in your life somehow turned into a completely untrue &amp;quot;drug use and prostitution&amp;quot; scandal that destroys your credibility and political career before it even started.&lt;p&gt;Imagine having your grandkids&amp;#x27; college scholarships revoked because you ran an incredibly unprofitable and short lived onlyfans for 3 months in your late teens.&lt;p&gt;Maybe the results won&amp;#x27;t be as overt as this. Maybe it will be worse.&lt;p&gt;Either way, it is invasive and gives complete strangers power over your future and your children&amp;#x27;s future that they simply should not have and have no reason to ever have.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s morally repugnant and abhorrent to any person who takes the time to think not of what information will be collected but of what that information will be used for and by whom.&lt;p&gt;The children of the people who as of today are still talking about how great trump is and how he &amp;quot;brought peace to the middle east&amp;quot; and how &amp;quot;evil demoncrats are running a global cabal to turn humans into monkeys&amp;quot; are the people who at best will be the parents and friends and neighbors of the people who will have finely grained and exacting data of everything you have done from well before the day of the passing of a bill like this.&lt;p&gt;This bill would make America the equivalent of living in an overly nosy HOA city everywhere for everyone. The people who fit in and don&amp;#x27;t make waves will get the 1950&amp;#x27;s nuclear family treatment, and those that don&amp;#x27;t will get the April 26, 1986 Pripyat nuclear treatment.</text></item><item><author>BLKNSLVR</author><text>I think &amp;quot;why do you have the right to know?&amp;quot; is a decent answer.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What level of trust do you think you&amp;#x27;ve earned?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What do you want to do with all this information?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How will this make things better?&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t you have more important things to spend time and money on?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Is this really the best thing the government should be working on right now?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How does this help any of society&amp;#x27;s ills?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Will taxes need to be increased to manage, store, and analyse the mountains of information that will be created?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How long will you store messages between me and my daughter about her contemplating suicide, and will those messages prevent her from getting a government job later in life?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Does the storing of all this data come with a responsibility to make it accessible to defend people who have been accused of a crime?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;My wife works in law enforcement, will she have access to this trove of data?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Will there be a process to remove data from this trove that may be libelous or cause undue harm to an individual or company?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Is the government responsible for the complete chain of access to this data, or are there private companies involved that have to be trusted not to sneak a peek?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What specific issue, currently facing today&amp;#x27;s society, does this solve?&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>maerF0x0</author><text>A reminder that &amp;quot;you have nothing to hide&amp;quot; argument is a fallacy because people abuse their power:&lt;p&gt;Some first hits as reminders of places where their powers are abused&lt;p&gt;[1]: &amp;quot;NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, ex-lovers: watchdog&amp;quot;
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;us-usa-surveillance-watchdog&amp;#x2F;nsa-staff-used-spy-tools-on-spouses-ex-lovers-watchdog-idUSBRE98Q14G20130927&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;us-usa-surveillance-watchdog...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;police-can-access-your-ring-camera-footage-without-a-warrant&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;police-can-access-your-ring-ca...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;warrantless-border-searches-draw-call-for-supreme-court-action&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;reason.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;warrantless-border-searches-dr...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jiggawatts</author><text>Ah yes, “protecting the children”. Meanwhile, some of the most paranoid IT data security I’ve seen was at a department of education.&lt;p&gt;You see, &lt;i&gt;just statistically speaking&lt;/i&gt;, they have pedophiles on staff, staff with potential data access. They have ex husbands that want to abduct their kid after the messy divorce where the wife had to get a new identity, but good luck fleeing from your husband who has DB access at the DoE.&lt;p&gt;The real world is messy and filled with bad actors in positions of power and access to data that enables their abuse.&lt;p&gt;The less data there is, the less they can abuse it.&lt;p&gt;Almost like… guns. The less guns are out there… oh. &lt;i&gt;Oh…&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You guys in the States are screwed. I’m sorry for you all.</text></comment>