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A comment on UK police secretly downloading content from suspects’ phones (2018). Parent comment

Re:UK police secretly downloading content from suspects’ pho... by avery-dawn on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @10:42AM (#19788341)
> That doesn't mean its worth it.

Just the presence of surveillance alone discourages criminals from acting in the first place. Without any surveillance, I don't think criminal activity will increase by just .000001%.

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Re:UK police secretly downloading content from suspects’ pho... by shrimp_emoji on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:08PM (#19789791)
In the case of (PUBLIC) meatspace, physical surveillance (e.g., cameras), I'm onboard with the Big Brother panopticon state. Bad, meaningful stuff happens in meatspace, like explosions.

When it comes to cyberspace, digital surveillance, I fled Windows for Linux and read /r/StallmanWasRight. Bad stuff happens in cyberspace, but none of it is meaningful enough to me to warrant the limitations to privacy that we endure IRL.

Does anyone else have this arbitrary configuration of opinions?

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Re:UK police secretly downloading content from suspects’ pho... by somebodythere on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:23PM (#19789952)
But the purpose of cyberspace surveillance is to collect evidence for crimes committed in meatspace.
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Re:UK police secretly downloading content from suspects’ pho... by MaxBarraclough on Wednesday May 01, 2019 @06:04PM (#19802134)
> Just the presence of surveillance alone discourages criminals from acting in the first place.

What's this based on?

From a quick google, it seems there isn't a clear consensus that this is the case.

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