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Comment by zmgsabst | Hacker News Reader

No — I’m tired of saying all of society needs to walk on eggshells due to anti-social people like OP.

If you go around a bar with a tape recorder and directional microphone capturing conversations from unsuspecting people and then use those private moments to launch protracted harassment campaigns, you’re an asshole.

No matter how much you say “they didn’t have an expectation of privacy!”

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That's not comparable to posting messages on public websites that can be read by anyone without an account. You don't know who will read them.

If you want to talk privately - talk to people that you trust and use apps like Signal that delete messages after some time.

When you speak in public, anyone can hear you.

What specifically do you feel is different?

If you say embarassing shit or shout obscenities in public then don't be surprised if someone pulls out their phone and starts recording it.

It's completely different if someone sneaks into your home and leaves microphones there.

Yes — and we’re asking about the case of a quiet conversation in a bar, where someone surreptitiously records using specialize equipment.

I think it’s very telling you made a strawman rather than respond to that point.

I think both of you are visualising "posting on the Fediverse" differently. One visualises it as a conversation between two people that may be overheard, while the other visualises it as broadcasting.

Posting on Twitter or Mastodon is the equivalent of shouting on a public street. If you don't want to face the consequences of what you say, don't say it publicly (or at least don't do it with your real name).

No — the expectation was never that people would creepily record every corner of the public sphere.

That’s anti-social behavior and it’s okay to call it such.

If it wasn't an expectation, then it SHOULD have been. People are allowed to remember and record what you yell on the street, just like they are allowed to remember and record what you post on a public platform for anyone to see.

When you say things on the internet, you say them publicly, and people are allowed to remember your words.

It the same as dropping wireless mics and facial recognition tech on public sidewalks. It might be legal but social norms make it weird. The people that do it will find out their lives get quite a bit harder when they're found out.

Lots of security cameras record what's happening on public sidewalks. Lots of cars have dashcams in them.

Thanks, but that's not really relevant.

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