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Comment by mirimir | Hacker News Reader

My solution is not attracting attention. Basically through compartmentalization. My meatspace identity is entirely unremarkable. I'm not outspoken about privacy. Or about anything, really. I do hit the Internet through a VPN, but that's fairly common in my country.

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That's not "not attracting attention", that's called living in fear. I don't know the particulars of where you live, but it makes me sad you feel this is necessary.

Maybe so. But fear is rational sometimes. I wouldn't have survived long as an acid dealer without extreme discretion.

Alternatives include conforming to unjust laws, or violating openly and ending up imprisoned. Neither sound like fun. Or, yes, going somewhere else. But in my experience, there's really nowhere to go. So hey.

At a certain point on this trajectory, that strategy will raise red flags too.

Mass surveillance is a direct violation of the fourth amendment, outlawing it completely is the only reasonable solution.

So you say. And perhaps eventually, adversaries will trace every VPN connection. But as I said, VPN usage is pretty common, so that'd be challenging. I'm betting that I'll be dead first. And I guess that we'll see.

It's easy to cite the Fourth Amendment. But it's all in the interpretation. The War on Drugs arguably violates the Bill of Rights in numerous ways. But try telling that to a judge.

And anyway, as I frequently note, the NSA is a military COMSEC organization. And the US is perpetually at war. So the NSA ignores the Constitution and law. At best, it pretends respect.

What you describe reminds me of the stories my significant other's parents tell about living under Stasi in the GDR.

Ok, without the VPN part.

Indeed. The insight is that virtually all modern states are authoritarian. Some just have better PR. And there are too many assholes in the stateless places.

In the former Soviet Union, there weren't VPNs, Tor and stuff. But there was samizat. And much conversation, fueled by vodka and bad cigarettes. It ended up working well enough. Except that Reagan, Bush and Carter went on to screw Russia so badly that it embraced Putin.

Thanks a lot. Never heard of samizat. Had to ask Google and was intrigued. Interesting stuff and something new I learned.

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