I'd choose it too.


I never said I favoured such a future, merely that it raised an interesting dichotomy.

One more reason not to switch to that pile of bloated crap.

 

-----signature-----

When you give up your freedoms willingly, you weaken your rights and the rights of those around you. All to often, smart people make dumb decisions trading freedoms for a false sense of security that ultimately costs them more than they bargained for.


Data gathered from phones is vital to advertising.

Data gathered by cell phone and vehicular GPS units show not only traffic patterns for Government road projects, but can also be computed in Miles Per Hour for traffic stops.


Data linked specifically to your Cell Phone or Vehicle can be gathered and sold to that X-boyfriend thats been stalking you, those employees you fired, that bill collector your avoiding...


You think your OnStar is awesome? So do I, because just like hackers have taken over the Air Force Drones your car could be next. Hackers arent SPECIFIC in they attempts, they dont have to target you specifically, they just have to stumble across and ""bam"" your car disables while your flying down the highway at 80 in rushhour traffic. You think OnStar is going to say ""We are sorry your wife and family died due to the car being disabled, but it was not our fault.""


You bought it, you should own it, you should control it. You should not be RENTING things for the rest of your life, or what someone determines is the life cycle of a product.


Paranoid?!?! Hell yes. And if you were smarter than me, you should really be also.


20 years ago, everyone was worried about ""The Number of the Beast"" 666. There were those that felt it was the Social Security number....well, I can tell you what number the mark of the beast is, its in your pocket right now, people are willing attaching themselves to that number, they are doing it in droves. Only the smart ones dont have cell phones.

If you want to wait until after people have been killed and maimed before arresting those responsible then so be it, but it's a pretty naive position to adopt.

That world that you envision is a world I'd would truly be scared to live in. Being capable of being arrested just for being suspect? No thank you. As deplorable as it is for such crimes to happen, it is even worse to arrest someone just on a notion that they MAY do something. That is how witch hunts came about in the first place. Salem witch trials are a -perfect- example of that type of world.

You already live in that world.


What those who take exception to my views seem to overlook is that every criminal is a suspected criminal until they are convicted in a court of law.


All suspicion leading to arrest should be based on a degree of evidence, otherwise there can be no adequate grounds for suspicion.


Perhaps we're playing semantics with the word "suspect". I'm using it in a legal sense, I'm arguing that it is right for suspected terrorists to be arrested because there are evidential grounds for those suspicions, I'm not suggesting for a moment that people are arrested as suspected terrorists simply because they're of a certain religion or colour, for example, there clearly have to be evidential grounds for any suspicion leading to arrest - and that is how every single crime is dealt with in any civilised society.


Except, of course, in the case of Guantanamo Bay where people have been locked up indefinitely on non-evidential suspicion and with no prospect of trial. The same would also seem to be true in the case of the American soldier suspected of leaking information to Assange/Wikileaks, he seems to be imprisoned with no prospect of trial. That cannot be condoned, but it is certainly happening in the world in which you live (at the behest of your own Government if you are American) so given your views as quoted above I hope you condemn it unequivocably as I do.

That's the thing though, under the Patriot Act the government can call you a terrorist and arrest you, and keep you in jail indefinitely even with no evidence at all - on suspicion ONLY. No court order needed to search you or your property.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Basically if some official wants they can arrest you, tap your phone, get any sort of personal info on you, AND throw you in jail with no court order, no evidence and you cannot sue them or do anything about it.

I just don't like where this country is headed - copyright owners telling us we just rent games/movies/software and it can be taken back at anytime. Cell phone carriers tracking where people are every minute and installing software that keeps track of what we do on our phones... Now Corporations can remove programs from customers' computers and the data generated using those programs without any permission or legal order. What is next? Maybe somebody will come with a reason to take everything I have in the bank to pay for the country's debt?

I'm not saying we are there now, but the ground is really being prepared for an Orwellian future.

I can't help but think of Ben Franklin and his famous quote: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

 

-----signature-----

My mistake, I read your post and assumed you were talking about something you wanted.

 

-----signature-----

I am sure there will be some blurb in the Eula that nobody will read that states you agree they can take control of your computer and have free reign to scan it for anything they don't like and uninstall it.

I honestly agree with you Locuus and I can say I am a paranoid bastard at times haha. Especially when it comes to copywrong and tracking. Or the fact that they can order you to decrypt a hard drive and the court ruled it's not self incriminating, so no 5th amendment rights for you...

If I had my way I would ban corporate funded lobbying, change the entire copyright system, and ban all forms of public surveillance. That's just for starters! Holy crap, lets elect someone like us for president. lol

 

-----signature-----

So this is like a Tom Cruise movie in your eyes that we can arrest those "responsible" people before they commit the crime.

 

-----signature-----

That's Seffrid's world. I said I'd be afraid to live in it That quote function is nasty.