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Comment by debazel | Hacker News Reader

There's a massive difference between having a country spying on it's own citizen versus having an adversarial country doing it. The three-letter agencies would likely not be trying to sabotage or destroy their own country's economy and global standing for one.

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As someone from the EU, could I not use the argument to argue that for me it's both an adversarial country?

It's concerning that someone from the EU is still asking this question. How is there any doubt left in you? Yes, of course both are adversarial countries, and shouldn't be treated all too differently. In the short-term, the US is the bigger threat, as they've shown they're much more willing to use the power they have to cut off access than China.

As someone from the US I would suggest viewing both as adversarial. I don't really trust my own government, but if I was born abroad I would trust them even less.

You absolutely can. We see a huge uproar in European enterprises against US software/vendors/etc. Many companies are halting their cloud migration because they are now worried that the current US government could decide to just pull the plug or something otherwise inane.

And to be fair only US is openly hostile to EU.

Both the US and China are openly hostile to domestic populations.

I see no harm if China use my data. But US companies are actually using my data against me.

It's still distasteful, but they aren't in a position to do me much direct harm, so there's that.

As someone from the EU, please do!

I don't know why you're being downvoted, the US has been way more belligerent towards the EU recently than China.

I beg you pardon.

We've got a live situation where three letter agencies are taking down their OWN country and citizens in its wake. Oh, and the alliances as well.

Sure, materially different.

Wouldn't having an adversarial country to be spying on you be the better option for you personally? At least privacy wise, not using your machine as some infiltration point, as the country you reside in has many more opportunities to abuse the data

ICE? DOJ? Hello?

Yet we have the current example of the United States.

> There's a massive difference between having a country spying on it's own citizen

Like CIA, NSA, FBI ? Of course there is a difference.

> The three-letter agencies would likely not be trying to sabotage or destroy their own country's economy and global standing for one.

I swear I'm not trying to be dense on purpose, but come on.

Unless _woosh_, in which case well played.

You're lucky if you truly live in a "Western" country where the throne isn't held by the enemy.

Like US saying EU is its adversary and spying on it? Trump had been pretty clear that he sees EU as a threat while China and Russia is not.

And don’t forget that ICE sees both non-citizens and citizens as the enemy if they don’t agree with Trump.

Yes, in the headlines the agencies playing adversaries to the common folk are definitely mainly chinese... /s

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