Hacker News Reader

Comment by yieldcrv | Hacker News Reader

forcing government entities to find the individual, get probable cause, and get a warrant for that individual’s possessions is actually the least controversial idea there is

View on HN

It’s the “least controversial idea” if you have faith in the government to do the right thing. Many people don’t, for one reason or another. Fortunately, more people (and companies) are realizing that liabilities like this can be absolved by simply not having the data, or access to the data, in the first place. This involves storing data locally on client when possible, using end to end encryption when possible, encryption by default (the default on latest HTTP, DNS, etc), and simply not holding sensitive data in the first place. There’s still work to do, but we are moving in the right direction.

I think this comment and a sister comment misread what I was intending

I’m saying that instead of the government going to intermediaries like google for their fishing expeditions, they have to go to the individual themselves and do an old fashioned actual investigation

as in, we’re agreeing

I'm way less comfortable with the idea that google gets to decide who sees this data than my government. The right that google is asserting here is the right to sell this data or use it for its own benefit, not the right to keep it private.

No they are modifying the way it’s collected so that it stays local and they don’t have it at that level of detail.

It’s not an either or. If google has it than the government has it too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com