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    845 points the-anarchist | 11 comments | | HN request time: 0.424s | source | bottom
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    boramalper ◴[] No.44334361[source]
    I suspect a strong link between mass surveillance (by corporations for advertising or by states for intelligence purposes) and the very recent targeting of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist and military officers at their homes in Iran.

    Wherever you are from or whatever side of the conflict you are on, I think we can all agree that it’s never been easier to infer so much about a person from “semi-public” sources such as companies selling customer data and built-in apps that spy on their users and call home. It allows intelligence agencies to outsource intelligence gathering to the market, which is probably cheaper and a lot more convenient than traditional methods.

    “Privacy is a human right” landed on deaf ears but hopefully politicians will soon realise that it’s a matter of national security too.

    replies(13): >>44334595 #>>44334624 #>>44334697 #>>44334773 #>>44335164 #>>44335631 #>>44336225 #>>44336629 #>>44337014 #>>44337349 #>>44338148 #>>44344811 #>>44346475 #
    FilosofumRex ◴[] No.44334697[source]
    Almost all of Iran's cell network system was originally installed by S. Korean firms. They've changed some to Chinese brands, but apparently the compromised S. Korean brands are still around.
    replies(2): >>44334967 #>>44336055 #
    Digital28 ◴[] No.44334967[source]
    Changing from SK to CN is a trade from intentional vulnerability to unintentional vulnerability. I’ve yet to see a secure piece of software come out of China in my 30+ years of coding.
    replies(6): >>44336400 #>>44336611 #>>44336759 #>>44337107 #>>44337336 #>>44339744 #
    monster_truck ◴[] No.44337336[source]
    Brother you cannot be serious with this racist take
    replies(3): >>44337626 #>>44337676 #>>44341547 #
    1. bbarnett ◴[] No.44337626[source]
    Saying that a culture is poor at security dev, such as Chinese business culture, is not even remotely rasist.

    There are many ethnicities in China, people of all genetic backgrounds. It is the culture that is the problem, not the race.

    For example, there are many ethnically Chinese people who grew up in the West, working in businesses, in countries where there is a culture of security.

    Now, you could label it 'culturalist', and maybe it is, but there are definitely inferior and superior cultures. Especially, there are parts of cultures which are quite comparable this way.

    replies(2): >>44337990 #>>44338256 #
    2. gruez ◴[] No.44337990[source]
    >>Brother you cannot be serious with this racist take

    >There are many ethnicities in China, people of all genetic backgrounds. It is the culture that is the problem, not the race.

    This just seems like nitpicking to me. Colloquially most people would classify discrimination based on country of origin, or "culture" (whatever that means) as racism, even if it doesn't meet the technical definition. For instance Trump's travel bans have been called by many as "racist", even though it covers a bunch of countries, and even though the countries are majority muslim, it also excludes major muslim countries like Pakistan and Indonesia.

    replies(3): >>44338501 #>>44338574 #>>44341570 #
    3. AJ007 ◴[] No.44338256[source]
    There's also another point that security is really fucking expensive. Apple on Google spend billions a year on security, yet their phones are broken in to once they are a couple of years old. Big American software companies have large margins and large budgets. Those Chinese companies are running on fumes (and credit.)

    Security and encryption is taken as a given by Western regulators given how many times they pass laws to break encryption. If you look at targeted 0-days, the conclusion would be more along the lines of the very best hardware+software is barely secure.

    4. exe34 ◴[] No.44338501[source]
    Just because most people are wrong doesn't mean we should encourage the dilution of words.
    replies(1): >>44339245 #
    5. Dylan16807 ◴[] No.44338574[source]
    > This just seems like nitpicking to me. Colloquially most people would classify discrimination based on country of origin, or "culture" (whatever that means) as racism, even if it doesn't meet the technical definition.

    Nobody is going to believe you're talking about real things if you let people call your argument "racism" so it's not nitpicking if you can explain why it's not. Also the word "discrimination" is itself a loaded term.

    And yes areas having cultures is real. Sometimes it's tied to country, sometimes it's not.

    > Trump's travel bans have been called by many as "racist", even though it covers a bunch of countries,

    I'm confused? Covering a whole bunch of countries sharing a demographic is much more likely to be a racist move than picking one or two.

    > and even though the countries are majority muslim, it also excludes major muslim countries like Pakistan and Indonesia.

    That's a good argument against saying "muslim ban" but I'm pretty sure a focus on the middle east makes it more about race.

    6. gruez ◴[] No.44339245{3}[source]
    I might be sympathetic to this argument if the severity actually differed, eg. people calling mean tweets "violence" or something, but that's not what's happening there. I don't see any meaningfully difference between "I'm discriminating against you because you're Chinese" (culture/nationality) and "I'm discriminating you're Han Chinese" (ethnicity). I doubt the average racist actually knows the distinction between the two anyways, and I doubt people are going to be like "oh you're discriminating based on culture instead of ethnicity? I guess that's fine then!".
    replies(1): >>44339475 #
    7. exe34 ◴[] No.44339475{4}[source]
    > I don't see any meaningfully difference between "I'm discriminating against you because you're Chinese" (culture/nationality) and "I'm discriminating you're Han Chinese" (ethnicity).

    It's interesting you would write this as if nobody's pointed out actual cultural differences yet.

    8. const_cast ◴[] No.44341570[source]
    It's entirely fair game to criticism or even discriminate based on culture, because culture is composed of actions. If people act in such a way that you do not like, that's a valid reason not to like them.

    Now, we do still need to respect cultural differences where it makes sense and consider the historical context behind cultural differences, such as colonialism.

    replies(1): >>44345479 #
    9. drysine ◴[] No.44345479{3}[source]
    Nazis used to measure skull dimensions to discriminate on race. How do you measure "culture" of an individual? Just apply a stereotype based on the country of origin?
    replies(1): >>44350801 #
    10. const_cast ◴[] No.44350801{4}[source]
    You… ask them? Or they tell you?

    Like, for example, cultures which are outwardly hostile towards women and their autonomy don’t keep that as a secret. In those places, it’s well known and obvious.

    replies(1): >>44351059 #
    11. ◴[] No.44351059{5}[source]