this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 179 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And I guarantee that billionaire Larry Ellison blithely believes that he'll be exempt - that all of this surveillance will just be used against the little people. And he's almost certainly right.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 75 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He will be exempt. The areas that he lives in and the things that he does will not be tagged as "criminal" on the data system that he has the contract to administer.

That's always how these systems work. You don't worry about getting dragged into the Saudi Consulate and bonesawed to death by intelligence officers when you're MBS, because you're the boss and the guy getting bonesawed is your employee.

For the same reason, you don't worry about getting spied on when you're the one who owns and operates the big surveillance infrastructure because it exists for your benefit.

[–] errer 28 points 2 months ago

Just look at Musk to see someone whose wealth entirely excuses his behavior. It ain’t hypothetical in the slightest.

[–] [email protected] 99 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Owner of Cloud company that sells AI services tells governments that AI-powered surveillance is good.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

governments and surveillance, name a more iconic pair

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Corporations and surveillance?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Which is far worse. Governments are, to a large extent (even dictatorial governments) still have some accountability to the people. Corporations NEVER have that. The greatest propaganda trick that corporations did is that somehow they are better than governments and the less restrictions on them, the 'freer' and 'richer' the average person will be.

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[–] [email protected] 91 points 2 months ago

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. - Ursula K Le Guin

[–] piyuv 59 points 2 months ago (2 children)

He’s voicing what every billionaire and government official already thinks. Call me pessimist but I believe it’s unavoidable. VPNs are seen as “tools to overcome government bans to access illegal websites” in so many countries, hence getting banned. Access to mainstream websites also getting harder and harder when on VPN. People hosting Tor exit nodes are living in fear of police raids.

Even with some little amount of privacy protecting measures, websites start to act strangely or do not work, and the amount of websites like this increases every day. As protecting our privacy becomes a bigger and bigger effort, more people will give up, strengthening the arguments against it. Eventually we’ll hit big brother levels.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Eventually we’ll hit big brother levels.

As someone who was born before the age of surveillance capitalism, I can tell you we've hit that level a long time ago. Anybody who thinks society has been running normally for at least the past 15 years is too young to have known what a normal society is.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I2P could be a solid option over TOR then, no?

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe billionaires should be filmed and streamed continuously, since their behavior has such a big impact on the world. If they don't like it maybe we shouldn't allow them to control such incredible assets. I'm sure billionaires have nothing sketchy to hide, right? What we will see is probably how they are hard working people who are not at all detached from normal folks. Right?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

Wrong think detected, proper authority has been notified.

Resitence iis futile.

[–] GoofSchmoofer 49 points 2 months ago

Fuck you Larry.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

By "citizens" he means poor people, naturally, and by "best behaviour" he means obedience to authority.

[–] hOrni 15 points 2 months ago

And by authority he means himself.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The first XKCD that comes to mind

Ellision sounds like the kind of guy that wants an unstoppable army of robot swarms.

Representative Jamie Raskin recently brought up the term neo-monarchy.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

“Citizens” 🙄 Not every person is a citizen; I’ve got a pet peeve about this.

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[–] Ultraviolet 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So the Panopticon. The hypothetical prison that even people in the 1800s thought would be a human rights violation to build because it was such an extreme form of psychological torture.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Well, we already experience that psychological torture. After 2002/2003, and then especially after 2012, this concept has already burdened our everyday behavior. Browsing behavior, phone calls, texts, emails…every single way we communicate, even face to face meetings with phones in our pockets are open to surveillance. And it’s been shown that it’s been used. Over a decade ago, thanks to Snowden. Now? Things have surely gotten worse and I would bet the farm on behavior very much having changed due these facts.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I have been hating this man's guts since the mid 90's and somehow it never lets off. Most hateful people manage to become a little bit more likeable as they age. Even this disgusting piece of human refuse Bill Gates might pass for a somewhat okay human being if you wilfully overlook why he truly does philanthropy.

But Larry Ellison? Hell no. He never changes. he's just consistently the worst year after year, decade after decade.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. He is pretty horrible. What surprised me though is his daughter's film company has a pretty solid track record on quality movies and tv series:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapurna_Pictures

But yeah, Larry Elison sucks...

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

This dude can shove that stupid boat up his ass

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago

Lmg, he'll be exempt from this surveillance along with all his rich ass-hole buddies

[–] pyre 23 points 2 months ago

billionaires who talk like this should immediately be committed. he's clearly far gone, just fucking take him away.

[–] Diplomjodler3 22 points 2 months ago

But they're will be no cameras in his torture dungeon, of course.

[–] njm1314 21 points 2 months ago

My best behavior is to be on Larry Ellison's front yard with pitchforks burning torches and guillotines.

[–] brlemworld 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)
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[–] iAvicenna 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

what he really means is he can make a ton of money out of it

[–] humorlessrepost 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What he really means is the rich can prevent uprisings against them before they have a chance to start.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

"[Stupid rich person shit]"

--Larry Ellison, soon to be major shareholder of Paramount

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

Dude is crying for a guillotine. Someone tell this asshole movies aren't real life events. lmao

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Private jets . They’ve all got multiple front yards & none of us can afford pitchforks But small aeroplanes, those are weak. & these parasites just looove em

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

in bad country the ruling class uses AI scoring system to ensure the compliance of the workers

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So glad we live in good country where the ruling class are benevolent and would never do that to us.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Who defines what best behavior is?

[–] ikidd 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, Larry obviously.

Coincidentally, Larry will not be under surveillance.

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[–] Thcdenton 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Ay they took capitalism so far it wrapped around into orwellian territory.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

1984 was written in 1948, after fascists had already demonstrated that capitalism is quite compatible with totalitarianism.

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[–] j4k3 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Those are not citizens. This is not a democracy.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You need to pretend you live in a democracy or the administrators will take away the illusion.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You really can't overstate this plain truth, and people will still cling to the illusion of freedom.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Was he on that island discussing whether the billionaires could keep their security detail loyal with shock collars?

Ellison is the world's sixth-richest man with a net worth of $157 billion, according to Bloomberg.

They are really concerned when people tire of their children dying from hunger and easily treatable diseases, we'll be coming for them. But rather than give up an iota of the money generations can never spend for our ecology and things people need to live, they resort to things like shock collars and surveillance states.

[–] Snapz 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"We're going to have supervision," Ellison said. "Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there's a problem, AI will report that problem and report it to the appropriate person. Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on."

And if we entertained the idea that this was true and the core focus of this idea (it's not) what do we think the chances are that the "appropriate person" will be one of two things:

  1. Another cop

  2. A subscription service digital surveillance company with that cop as a client that they report back to for "internal investigation", as long as the bill is paid.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

In other words, lack of accountability leads to bad behaviour. He might be onto something there…

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

And a fueled bottle can keep billionaires in check.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

And who will decide what is good and bad behaviour? Hmm? And what advantage will society as a whole get from this?

[–] RizzRustbolt 9 points 2 months ago

Did AI trim that beard for him?

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