Microsoft's Police State Vision? Exec Calls for Internet "Driver's Licenses" | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft's Police State Vision? Exec Calls for Internet "Driver's Licenses"

lauren.vortex.com

31 pointswglb15 comments

Another submission on this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1120774

Already many, many comments over there. Probably worth reading the comments there before repeating the same comments. I wish it were possible to merge submissions.

Why? Each conversation takes it's own route and is started and evolved by different users/criteria. I wish instead of merging threads we could see a 'sub nav' of related threads so we could jump from thread to thread within the same topic.

Your idea is an interesting one, but:

a. It won't get implemented (of course, neither will mine)

b. I don't think people would skip across multiple threads before bestowing their wisdom upon us

I believe chance dictates who gets to see which thread, and I'd rather have more minds in one thread than have them split between separate threads discussing the same thing. I hate wasted time and repeated discussion, I'd rather see a single conversation rather than seeing the same points made repeatedly in different places.

Personal opinion only, of course, but as a programmer I hate wasted effort and duplication. DRY - don't repeat yourself.

Having said that, it's ironic that I'm making the same point here and now as I've made several times in the past. Nothing will change, and people will continue to submit things without checking to see if it's a repeat. The same points will continue to be made several times over, and time will continue to be wasted.

ADDED IN EDIT: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1112661

So even though it's comparatively trivial to find such repeats and duplications I'm not going to bother any more.

So... If I drive a car without brakes, lights and seatbelts I can lose my driver's license. Would plugging a Windows computer directly into a broadband link without a firewall so that it would be infected by some malware and become part of a botnet in a couple minutes make someone lose their internet "driver license" too?

Nah, you'll just receive a ticket for Internet pollution in the mail. Be sure to pay it on time or a warrant may be issued.

How's this really any different to Google wanting to monitor everyone's physical location (gps), browsing (dns), search, email, video and all the other data streams they they tap into? It's really just an idea that would formalize the death of anonymity years after the fact.

AFAIK, Google hasn't proposed any of those to be turned into law. You can use your DNS server and not send your GPS data to Google (the easiest way is... not buying a phone by Google and not use Google Maps).

If it were for Craig Mundie, you would be arrested for not surrendering your privacy.

I agree that freedom of speech is the overriding priority here, but at the same time I can't help but feel -- for instance, when watching 400 people attempt to login to Facebook via ReadWriteWeb's comment button -- that some kind of basic training before we let you loose on the Internet would be a good idea.

The Internet is awash with spam, beset by phishing, and plagued by botnets. Really simple training could help average users avoid these problems and make the whole Internet a better place. Shouldn't we at least offer an Internet Driving License course, even if it's optional?

You mean, shouldn't we do a good job generally educating the population?

Well, we have sex ed in high school. How about net ed?

I think a lot of kids get their "sex ed" via the net, these days.

Where else are you going to download the Savage Love podcast?

http://podcasts.thestranger.com/savagelove/

A school that tried to offer a sex-ed course that explicit would probably be sued. The internet gets a free pass.

You jest, but the Canadian school systems are currently implementing a text-ed program to educate the kids on harassment issues, what to do about unsolicited messages (harassment again essentially), but also trying to teach relationship and sex advice mixed in.

I know I was taught 'netiquette' in high school when I took computer courses, however I wouldn't be surprised if a full netiquette course gets implemented in the near future. Although I wouldn't be surprised if here in Canada it gets merged into the text-ed program as cells and computers are progressively getting closer to meeting in the middle.

> Shouldn't we at least offer an Internet Driving License course, even if it's optional?

"we" for some definition of "we" do offer such courses. (See your local community college's course descriptions.)

Does the general public just not make the connection?

Driver's Licence is

A) proof of your competency (in theory anyway), so you are less likely to hurt/kill someone

B) identification so you can be held responsible in the event you do hurt/kill someone

So, tell me Mr. Doe. When was the last time you committed manslaughter by signing in to yahoo mail?

We generally only regulate things that pose a real physical threat to other people.

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