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Comment by jaybeeayyy | Hacker News Reader

Why do people focus so much on how the data can potentially go back to China? It just feels like a redirection to distract us from the privacy violations here in the US. I understand why it's a concern but it just seems like every article always ends up talking mostly about Chinese companies, the Chinese government, how they respond to accusations etc. instead of focusing on our government, our corporations, our security forces all using or wanting to use technology like this.

Take the "Orwellian surveillance" part. We get about 2 paragraphs about how surveillance in the US is largely unregulated and whatnot and then 4 of them about China. The other sections afterwards seem like they were written to almost justify the use of surveillance in US corporations.

Maybe it's all in my head but it's just something I keep noticing whenever there's writing about surveillance in the US.

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For the same reason news coverage of things that are bad for everyone focus on how it's bad for black people, or how it's bad for women. Because the press seem categorically incapable of covering negative aspects of society without a uniquely-victimized or uniquely-malicious group involved.

The conventional wisdom is that they need an angle to make readers care. My hot take is that they're too fucking thick to even begin making an intelligent analysis of anything but the most black-and-white topics. If something is actually contentious they just report on a handful of fashionable opinions as co-equal, trashtalk the low-status opinions, and don't even bother acknowledging the principals and/or perceived realities that lead people to various opinions.

I agree with you, however I think a significant portion of the blame for this kind of emergent behavior comes from the consumers of said media. They're producing what they know will sell.

Because it's a national security threat. The real danger of a surveillance state is political/foreign actors using that information to gain advantage. It's one thing for individual's shopping habits to be exposed, it's another thing for the person's information to be used by bad actors for their own purposes.

I suppose this is a controversial opinion then, but I'm much more concerned about my government (US) spying on me than I am on a country I have never stepped foot in (China).

The real danger to me is the US govt based on their track record, and it's acceleration of surveillance and force over the last 4 years

That's fair, but concern about China should not be tossed aside; The U.S. is practically on the verge of a new Cold War with them, where the rules and regulations are nothing like we've ever seen.

There is only one other post about China. Most are posts are focused on privacy issues here at home.

> U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and acting chair of the U.S. Senate’s intelligence committee, told Reuters in a statement that the Rite Aid system’s potential link to China was “outrageous.” “The Chinese Communist Party’s buildup of its Orwellian surveillance state is alarming, and China’s efforts to export its surveillance state to collect data in America would be an unacceptable, serious threat,” he said.

Paragraph works just as well after s/China/America/g.

If someone s/China/America/g that statement, Mr Rubio would call them an anti-American, far-left communo-fascist who regularly wipes their ass with the constitution, and point out how George Washington personally warned him to keep an eye out for people like that.

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