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Comment by cyphar | Hacker News Reader

As an Australian software developer who has written encryption software in the past, I'm also very concerned. I'm also doubly concerned that projects will now reject my patches because of my nationality. What an amazing shitshow of a government.

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I’m seriously considering moving from Australia to a country that isn’t part of the Five Eyes.

I'm thinking about moving to NZ. How are they?

One of 5 eyes (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States)!

They are in Five Eyes, were instrumental in Echelon, illegally raided Dotcom... NZ is a beautiful country, but one of the weakest-willed in international terms. (Also, by all reports, internet connectivity sucks big time).

> Also, by all reports, internet connectivity sucks big time

If the poster is coming from Australia, NZ is not so bad.

NZ actually took inspiration from our (Australia's) fibre-based national broadband network back in 2010 or so (before the current Australian Government got in and turned it into an absolute farce - instead of a new fibre network it became an upgrade to the existing old copper network, which is basically a few years off end-of-life, with the change supposed to save billions but that somehow managed to cost just as much money in the end).

As a result you can get gigabit fibre in places on their UFB network for a similar price we pay for 50-100Mbps.

I think many surveillance measures in NZ are too strict. In 2015, I remember being shocked at the fact that public buses in Wellington have audio recordings on, in addition to video surveillance. I get the feeling that NZ is one of the first testbeds for new surveillance measures.

Also, broadband connectivity is very poor (compared even to India, where I live).

They are one of the five

if you're going to move you really should get out of the anglosphere because the US is dragging down everyone with it and there's just not enough sentiment amongst the populations to move away from the US, even now.

Switzerland probably remains the best country in the world and has strong privacy laws and a culture of neutrality. As a plus you get to be in Europe. Tech salaries are high. The anglosphere nations lack the intellectual capital amongst the population to remain critical of encroachments of privacy in the name of protection from terrorists.

>lack the intellectual capital amongst the population

Well put, lol.

You make a good case for Switzerland.

What about the Nordic countries?

While true, Switzerland now shares banking data with the EU and US when required for their respective nationals. So foreign governments can and do exert pressure on them successfully.

While technically true, I've heard that most Swiss banks refuse to give US citizens bank accounts specifically to avoid the liability of the IRS's scheme to exfiltrate foreign bank data.

It's because of FATCA I think? Banks in many countries won't usually refuse completely, but you can't open cheap accounts, because they want to charge Americans as much as possible to recoup the extra costs.

Unfortunately it's going to be way harder than you think because "Five Eyes" expand beyond just "Five Eyes" like "Nine Eyes", "Thirteen Eyes" etc.

Pretty much any "good" country is affiliated with "Five Eyes" in one way or another.

I'm quite happy in Thailand. Good quality of life, internet that's 3-10x faster than Australia, great lifestyle and very competitive tax rates.

Isn't Thailand essentially a military dictatorship?

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