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I think it's worth pointing out that in China it is the government doing it, whereas in the US it is private companies (in this particular context).

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Um, obviously? You seem to have missed the point.

People ought to be most interested in the final outcome of each example.

Yeah. However wild some of the "America is the land of the free, China is a hellhole" takes are, there is a difference between a tracking system designed to try to sell you holidays and a tracking system used to identify political dissidents.

> there is a difference between a tracking system designed to try to sell you holidays and a tracking system used to identify political dissidents

I have a feeling this assumption will age poorly.

Why? People are openly dissident in the US.

On the HN front page today:

U.S. will review social media for foreign student visa applications

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44524749

History tells us it won't stop here.

Background checks on visa applicants is a farcry from digital surveillance to identify political dissidents. Although, I would agree with the notion that the US government has been increasingly becoming a surveillance state, but not nearly as pervasive as China.

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