<story><title>Norway to track all supermarket purchases?</title><url>https://www.lifeinnorway.net/norway-to-track-all-supermarket-purchases/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WanderPanda</author><text>Wow people really forgot that privacy is all about privacy with respect to the government because they are the ones with the monopoly on violence. It is tragic that people think private firms could ever be as evil as governments</text></item><item><author>wiz21c</author><text>As said in the article, we already share our data with the supermarket, google, etc &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; whatever other systems that binds all of them together.&lt;p&gt;In that situation, I&amp;#x27;m happy that government has access to the same data because it gives it a way to balance the private sector power.&lt;p&gt;Now what is needed is the ability to opt out.</text></item><item><author>ceejayoz</author><text>Yep; societally, they&amp;#x27;ve got a very different attitude towards privacy.&lt;p&gt;Everyone&amp;#x27;s salary is publicly available online. (So&amp;#x27;s the fact that you looked!) &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;magazine-40669239&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;magazine-40669239&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>karencarits</author><text>One should be aware that Norway already has &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; comprehensive registers and databases about the population. Currently, it has only been a benefit, I think, as it enables detailed quality control of say health care services and high-quality register studies.&lt;p&gt;For example, all health&amp;#x2F;hospital records of deceased Norwegians are digitalized ten years after death and added to a national register. No way to refuse. In my opinion, that is much more invasive, yet it hasn&amp;#x27;t been discussed at all by the public&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;about-helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;about-helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.digitalarkivet.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.digitalarkivet.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jltsiren</author><text>That attitude makes sense if you come from a low-trust society where the state apparatus thinks it&amp;#x27;s running an empire. Especially if the country is large and actively trying to reshape the world.&lt;p&gt;Things look different in a small high-trust country with multiple political parties. Because the country is too weak and insignificant to change the world, the government tends to focus on administering the country. Because there is a lot of trust in the society, the people who want to serve in the government are usually ideologically motivated to serve the best interests of the public. It&amp;#x27;s not a particularly lucrative or high-status career, so people with other motivations tend to go elsewhere. And while people may disagree on what exactly are the best interests of the public, there are many viable political parties to choose from.&lt;p&gt;Private firms are allowed to be evil in the sense that they can put their private interests ahead of public interests. Most of them are. And because they are private, the public has only limited means to regulate them when they misbehave blatantly. They can&amp;#x27;t, for example, vote the directors and shareholders out and replace them with people who promise to serve public interests.</text></comment>
<story><title>Norway to track all supermarket purchases?</title><url>https://www.lifeinnorway.net/norway-to-track-all-supermarket-purchases/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>WanderPanda</author><text>Wow people really forgot that privacy is all about privacy with respect to the government because they are the ones with the monopoly on violence. It is tragic that people think private firms could ever be as evil as governments</text></item><item><author>wiz21c</author><text>As said in the article, we already share our data with the supermarket, google, etc &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; whatever other systems that binds all of them together.&lt;p&gt;In that situation, I&amp;#x27;m happy that government has access to the same data because it gives it a way to balance the private sector power.&lt;p&gt;Now what is needed is the ability to opt out.</text></item><item><author>ceejayoz</author><text>Yep; societally, they&amp;#x27;ve got a very different attitude towards privacy.&lt;p&gt;Everyone&amp;#x27;s salary is publicly available online. (So&amp;#x27;s the fact that you looked!) &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;magazine-40669239&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;magazine-40669239&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>karencarits</author><text>One should be aware that Norway already has &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; comprehensive registers and databases about the population. Currently, it has only been a benefit, I think, as it enables detailed quality control of say health care services and high-quality register studies.&lt;p&gt;For example, all health&amp;#x2F;hospital records of deceased Norwegians are digitalized ten years after death and added to a national register. No way to refuse. In my opinion, that is much more invasive, yet it hasn&amp;#x27;t been discussed at all by the public&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;about-helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;about-helsedata.no&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.digitalarkivet.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.digitalarkivet.no&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zerox7felf</author><text>Hard-power violence is mostly exclusive to governments, but don&amp;#x27;t underestimate the power of soft-power &amp;quot;violence&amp;quot; and coercion.&lt;p&gt;Another thing that sets the government and private sector apart is that the government is under (mostly, even if indirect) democratic control, or otherwise accountable to the public, whereas the private sector can get by with bad press, so long as they can continue to operate. As an individual of average wealth, it is far less difficult to influence government policy and politicians as opposed to doing the same to a private organization.&lt;p&gt;Really, this is not about choosing between &amp;quot;good&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;evil&amp;quot;, it is about choosing which evil you are most likely to be able to contain.</text></comment>