Richard Stallman: A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe

[Carsten Agger]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/facebook-abusing-data-law-privacy-big-tech-surveillance


Journalists have been asking me whether the revulsion against the abuse 
of Facebook data 
 
could be a turning point for the campaign to recover privacy. That could 
happen, if the public makes its campaign broader and deeper.


Broader, meaning extending to all surveillance systems, not just 
Facebook . Deeper, 
meaning to advance from regulating the use of data to regulating the 
accumulation of data. Because surveillance is so pervasive, restoring 
privacy is necessarily a big change, and requires powerful measures.


The surveillance imposed on us today far exceeds that of the Soviet 
Union. For freedom and democracy’s sake, we need to eliminate most of 
it. There are so many ways to use data to hurt people that the only safe 
database is the one that was never collected. Thus, instead of the EU’s 
approach of mainly regulating how personal data may be used (in its 
General Data Protection Regulation  or GDPR), I 
propose a law to stop systems from collecting personal data.


The robust way to do that, the way that can’t be set aside at the whim 
of a government, is to require systems to be built so as not to collect 
data about a person. The basic principle is that a system must be 
designed not to collect certain data, if its basic function can be 
carried out without that data.


Data about who travels where is particularly sensitive, because it is an 
ideal basis for repressing any chosen target. We can take the London 
trains and buses as a case for study.


The Transport for London digital payment card system centrally records 
the trips any given Oyster or bank card has paid for. When a passenger 
feeds the card digitally, the system associates the card with the 
passenger’s identity. This adds up to complete surveillance.


I expect the transport system can justify this practice under the GDPR’s 
rules. My proposal, by contrast, would require the system to stop 
tracking who goes where. The card’s basic function is to pay for 
transport. That can be done without centralising that data, so the 
transport system would have to stop doing so. When it accepts digital 
payments, it should do so through an anonymous payment system.


Frills on the system, such as the feature of letting a passenger review 
the list of past journeys, are not part of the basic function, so they 
can’t justify incorporating any additional surveillance.


These additional services could be offered separately to users who 
request them. Even better, users could use their own personal systems to 
privately track their own journeys.


Black cabs demonstrate that a system for hiring cars with drivers does 
not need to identify passengers. Therefore such systems should not be 
/allowed /to identify passengers; they should be required to accept 
privacy-respecting cash from passengers without ever trying to identify 
them.


However, convenient digital payment systems can also protect passengers’ 
anonymity and privacy. We have already developed one: GNU Taler 
. It is designed to be anonymous for 
the payer, but payees are always identified. We designed it that way so 
as not to facilitate tax dodging. All digital payment systems should be 
required to defend anonymity using this or a similar method.


   An unjust state is more dangerous than terrorism, and too much
   security encourages an unjust state

What about security? Such systems in areas where the public are admitted 
must be designed so they cannot track people. Video cameras should make 
a local recording that can be checked for the next few weeks if a crime 
occurs, but should not allow remote viewing without physical collection 
of the recording. Biometric systems should be designed so they only 
recognise people on a court-ordered list of suspects, to respect the 
privacy of the rest of us. An unjust state is more dangerous than 
terrorism, and too much security encourages an unjust state.


The EU’s GDPR  regulations 
are well-meaning, but do not go very far. It will not deliver much 
privacy, because its rules are too lax. They permit collecting any data 
if it is somehow useful to the system, and it is easy to come up with a 
way to make any particular data useful for something.


The GDPR makes much of requiring users (in some cases) to give consent 
for the collection of their data, but that doesn’t do much good. System 
designers have become expert at manufacturing consent (to repurpose Noam 
Chomsky’s phrase). Most users consent to a site’s terms without reading 
them; a company that required 

Re: Orbán's threat of revenge

[János Sugár]

Title: Re:Orbán's threat of
revenge


original to:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/10/orban-election-hungary-europe-future-past

Orbán's Hungary is not the future of
Europe: it represents a dying past

Cas Mudde

The declining birthrate and brain drain
are likely to continue, as a fearful Hungary turns in on itself ever
further

On Sunday Hungarians went to the polls to
elect a new parliament. At stake was the fate of the prime minister,
Viktor Orbán, whom international media love to describe in dramatic,
but ultimately euphemistic, terms such as "Europe's bad boy" or
"Europe's flame thrower". Based on the near-final results, Orbán's
Fidesz-KDNP "coalition" won a staggering 48.9% of the vote, up by
4%, and a new constitutional majority of 134 seats.

They were followed, at a considerable distance, by the Movement for a
Better Hungary (Jobbik), the notorious far-right party that had
campaigned on a relatively moderate anti-Fidesz-corruption platform,
with 19.3% and 25 seats - a loss of almost 1%, but a gain of two
seats. The centrist coalition vote was split over three parties this
time.

The Hungarian Socialist party-Dialogue for Hungary (MSZP) coalition
got 12.25% and 20 seats, whereas the Democratic Coalition (DK) got
5.54% and nine seats. In 2014, the two had contested together under
the misnomer "Unity" and had achieved almost 8% and nine seats
more. The nominally Green "Politics Can Be Different" (LMP),
finally, got 6.9% of the vote and eight seats, a gain of 1.6% and
three seats.

Orbán has been in power for eight straight years, during which he
first transformed Hungary from a troubled liberal democracy into an
illiberal kleptocracy, before taking on the European status quo, and
in particular German chancellor Angela Merkel, on a broad variety of
issues, but most notably immigration policies.

He regained power in 2010 with a relatively moderate conservative
agenda centered on a vague program of change. He used his two-thirds
majority to change the constitution, appoint cronies to each and every
new and old political institution, and lay the groundwork for a
long-term reign. His electoral engineering paid off in 2014, when his
Fidesz-KDNP "coalition" maintained its constitutional majority on
the basis of the votes of "Hungarians abroad" - Hungarian speakers
in bordering countries, whom Orbán had offered Hungarian
citizenship, for which they rewarded him by voting almost unanimously
for Fidesz-KDNP.

Since then Orbán has further consolidated his "illiberal state"
at home, while becoming the most influential voice of the radical
right in Europe abroad. Putting traditional radical right leaders like
Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders in his shadow - both openly support
him and Orbán has met several radical right leaders, including
Wilders, who has a Hungarian wife - Orbán has adopted all the
far-right conspiracy theories and has build his campaign and regime on
them.

Over the past years the Orbán government has paid tens of millions
of dollars for nativist campaigns against immigrants, including a
failed referendum, as well as the European Union. Barring a few
remaining outlets, the Hungarian media has been made into a propaganda
machine of the regime, bombarding the citizens with terrifying stories
about (Muslim) immigrants, while staying silent on the massive
corruption scandals surrounding the Orbán kleptocracy.

Polls had consistently shown that this was successful and they turned
out to have been largely accurate. Many in the opposition had believed
that if turnout was high, Fidesz would be vulnerable, and some
delusional opposition leaders even openly spoke of forming a
government. But while turnout was indeed high across the country, the
highest in this century, it was up both in the pro-government
countryside and in the pro-opposition capital. The net effect seems to
have been marginal or possibly even strengthening Fidesz.

Hungary has an electoral system with the highest disproportionality in
terms of translating votes into seats of all the EU member states - a
well-engineered outcome from the previous election reform, but there
is no denying that Orbán is by far the most popular politician in
the country. Similarly, while the OSCE published a "damning verdict"
on the elections, which might have been "free" but were certainly
not "fair", the opposition was mainly defeated by its own
incompetence. The price that they, and their supporters, will continue
to pay for this could become even higher.

In his last campaign speech, Orbán explained to his supporters what
was at stake: "For us Hungary comes first; for them George Soros and
the power he offers comes first. Because for power and money they are
capable of anything." In a previous Facebook post, he had already
warned that "we must stop any organization that promotes illegal
migration for ideological or other reasons that have no democratic
mandate".

On election night, the secretary of state for public diplomacy and

ByeBye Facebook.nl

[Patrice Riemens]

Aloha,

It doesn't happen very often that the Dutch do something good (OK, 
waterworks, powerful Marijuana, and the such) but the Dutch wing of the 
Quit FaceBook movement isn't bad at all.


Check out the satirical programme 'Sunday with Lubach' which launches a 
hopefully massive national kick-off to-morrow. It's Double-Dutch but 
thanks to FaceBook/Youtube (oh irony ...) it's subtitled in English:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa-SzNepsA

Enjoy!
p+7D!

(bwo nettime-nl/Inte
full story - in Dutch: 
https://nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-nl-1804/msg0.html


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The XLT Guide to La ZAD / Day 2

[XLterrestrials]

Dear ol' Nettimers,

We - The XLterrestrials - haven't posted here in quite some time...

But we think it might be a good moment to draw your attention away from the 
web-footed worlds, the heavy theory, and deep analysis...  and toward the 
realtime, sorta-AFK, land-based autonomy struggles... which could certainly use 
some solidarity mobilization and info-distribution from those of you who are 
communications + digital network ninjas.

La ZAD is undergoing an extremely dramatic moment !

...

“Possibly the largest experimental, autonomous, peaceful, free, 
self-sustaining, land-based community in the whole of the EU is being destroyed 
by the rabid state of clueless neolib Macaroons and 2,500 Robo-popos since 4am 
this morning – April 9th ! ” – XLt analyst in Btropolis

...

And a little surprised no one has written anything here yet, so...

it's DAY 2 of the ATTACK ...

If you are just tuning in, this will be an easy entry point to catch up:

http://xlterrestrials.org/plog/?p=17598

...

In solidarity...

Je Suis La ZAD !

the XLterrestrials


0O-o
www.xlterrestrials.org/plog 

arts + praxis organisms
o-O~0


p.s. And this might also be a very good moment to expand tactical and community 
comm in new places ... like Mastadon.social ... and Riot ...

#ZAD

#NDDL

#ZADRESIST
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Re: morlock elloi

[Jaromil]

dear Orsan and nettime readers,

ultimately I'm sorry for my flurr of posts and will follow Bronac's
suggestion to shrink also my presence down after this and go back
lurking for another ~six months, unless there is something specific I
can contribute about projects I'm involved into. But even then, other
colleagues like Usman are here and much better than me at it.

I appreciated very much some posts from other fellow lurkers and part
of the conversation (helped also by Ted's and Felix posts) that is
somehow encouraging people to participate here. Nettime is a great
resource, most lists of its caliber are just space for announcements
and I'm very happy this is a space for confrontation and debate. It
gathers readers and writers of very very, very high quality, people
I'd be ready to pay a subscription for. And I hope will soon become
less hostile to critical thinkers who aren't up for stirring every
argument in a slant. Clearly there is people willing to chip in,
eventually and clearly there is a need for it at the onset of a new
social network exodus.

Now about this whole Soros thing Orsan, you know me and other people
here hold you in great esteem, but please think twice before
continuing this anti-Soros campaign. Not just because it reeks a bit
like Liz notes, but because is completely off-topic and, adding to
other top-quote posts, makes our common space way less appealing to
those of us acquainted to good netiquette manners.

more than off-topic and beyond the subject, what I find personally
most disturbing is that we started with a thread about Francesca's
article on the Guardian mentioning DECODE and we are ending up talking
about her husband and his (absolutely immaginary and you don't even
know how far from reality) current ties to Soros. I think this is
really bad. And not just because of Soros, a subject that perhaps
should also claim Simona's attention.

I know Francesca well enough to know she gives a frill about being a
woman, but really then, just from my own observation point of view,
stirring the conversation out of the subject to talk about Morozov is
just plain offensive to the work she capable of doing, which really is
her own. To me this off-topic is not only uncomprehensible, but also
unacceptable, because it calls for a male presence to explain power.

I refuse that. Let go all the psychedelic rant on Soros conspiracies,
I just want to talk about the subject and I think that Francesca
deserves her own space and, if really necessary, her own conspiracy
theory.

Wow. Ok, end of the reality show (net)time for me now.

ciao

-- 
  Denis Roio a.k.a. Jaromil  http://Dyne.org think  tank
  Ph.D, CTO & co-foundersoftware to empower communities
Book keynotes, lectures, workshops: https://jaromil.dyne.org
  ⚷ crypto κρυπτο крипто गुप्त् 加密 האנוסים المشفره
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