Comment by snarf21 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by snarf21 | Hacker News Reader

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While I applaud this kind of effort, it seems like it will have little effect in the end. Companies will just violate it anyway and get a small fine. Or they will just get the law replaced when the makeup of the government changes.

It seems like we have two issues: politicians who don't really understand the technical ramifications around the laws and issues; and politicians who don't really care and just want their funding. It feels like the only way to make them both really get it is to use some form of hacktivism. Would we like a law to prevent robocalling? Then use our technological expertise to robocall all numbers related to these officials non-stop and have the message be "Pass a law to stop robo-calling". Worried about ISPs selling your data? Then use our technological expertise to buy this data from the ISPs and correlate the data and make public all the details of the data about these politicians and those related. Maybe this is nonsense but it seems like the only way to make it real for them.

Their response won't be to pass a robocalling law, it will be to send the police to your house to arrest you for harassment which is already illegal.

How is that harassment if people calling me about student loans I don't have isn't harassment?

Intent.

So intent to be annoying is a worse offense than intent to rob someone?

"Hi, I'm calling to ask for donations to our 'Stop Robocalls' lobbying effort." If you set up a nonprofit org., and did that, then you would probably get past a lot of roadblocks, and might actually make some money.

If this is true you could just robo call them with the intent to sell them something, or looking for someone. The annoyance part is merely a side effect vs. the whole purpose (at-least it could be argued that’s the case)

Robocall to ask them to donate to your gofundme which you will donate to the election campaign whoever proposes an anti-robocalling law that meets X, Y, Z, criteria and is actually signed into law.

Convince some industry group to seed it with $20k or so, target a small state where campaign donation amounts are low and bam, you've got your first anti-robocalling law (with teeth) on the books.

To which one’s defense should be, “I did not do this, my corporation did. Arrest it.”

This specific law may not have a large effect in and of itself, but having something like this out there can set the stage for future change as well. Momentum is very much a thing in politics, so anything that takes steps in the right direction could ultimately contribute to getting that ball rolling

> Companies will just violate it anyway and get a small fine.

Which is precisely why the GDPR's enormous maximum fines are a good thing, in my book. Minor and unintentional violations can be treated with leniency, but a large organization that's repeatedly and deliberately compromising the privacy of millions can wind up paying for it in an actually noticeable manner.

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