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Comment by lotusmars | Hacker News Reader

The difference between giving data to Apple or Yandex/Mail.ru for Russians is this:

Apple will help advertisers and spammers target you.

Russian corporations will help thugs, racketeers and corrupt police target you and government will sell your data on the black market.

So no, it’s a question of personal security, not of simple annoyance.

I would much prefered if Apple left Russian market and we had to import iPhones via backchannels. That’s how bad privacy situation here is.

There is no nefarious plot. Apple just gave us and our data to criminals to keep small insignificant market.

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Can't you still import an American iPhone through a back channel without all the Russian government garbage?

Yeah, that would be probably smuggeling, with all the consequences. (probably a bribe in russia)

Huh? No, you'd just have to pay an import fee of about $10.

It is not smuggling if we are talking about buying a device for personal use.

Buying a full truck of these - sure.

> Apple will help advertisers and spammers target you.

What are you talking about?

Apple are generally known for doing the opposite.

American corporations also help thugs, racketeers, and police target you. Did you not recently see the scandal with police and repo agents (and anyone else willing witu the money) paying for location data of users?

Besides, can you not simply uninstall or not use Yandex or Mail.ru?

[edited]

You can buy at least Americans' fine grained location data, sold by corporations. The government in fact argues that it's not subject to fourth amendment protections since it's just available on the open market.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/22/22244848/us-intelligence-...

[edited]

You don't have to use dark web here either, the data brokers are regular companies with physical addresses and everything. It's just not common because people don't know about it, but there are no practical or legal barriers.

And I know about this from outside of the verge, I just believe in providing citations.

Car holder information is public data. Just send a text message (by mail or phone) to a endpoint an receive the holder information. (Source: https://asa.ch/strassenverkehrsaemter/halterabfragen/)

The difference is a fantasy at least in the US. Your online activity even if protected by the company and not sold on the open market is subject to the subpoena powers of the state. These powers apply to all "business records" and have been contorted to serve as a justification of mass surveillance.

This illustrates the how governments are using tech companies to do their dirty work. They are the velvet glove over the iron hand of the state. They conceal and enable that which would otherwise be an obvious authoritarian grab prevented by civil liberties providing a convenient fig leaf over over otherwise naked government power.

I would expect this to be the case in all jurisdictions these companies operate in.

> Russian corporations will help thugs, racketeers and corrupt police target you and government will sell your data on the black market.

There's so many feelings in this statement, but so little substance.

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