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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.

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> 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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