Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Big Tech frame the debate

Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by jkhdigital on Sunday June 21, 2020 @10:52AM (#23592314)

Your response to point 2 made me gasp. Just watch a few episodes of any of the many true crime false conviction series on Netflix. Unscrupulous prosecutors are not rare, and it does not matter who you are—if you get caught in the crosshairs you could go to prison for a crime you didn’t commit, or be coerced to provide false witness against a friend or loved one for a crime they didn’t commit.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by zeroonetwothree on Sunday June 21, 2020 @10:59AM (#23592349)

Netflix is definitely a reliable and objective source for crime data.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by briefcomment on Sunday June 21, 2020 @11:13AM (#23592428)

Fact is stranger than fiction.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by treis on Sunday June 21, 2020 @12:06PM (#23592797)

I watched that series and if we were in a ubiquitous surveillance state few if any of those people would have been convicted. They would have had video/phone tracking to verify their alibi and/or video of the crime showing they didn't do it.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by free_rms on Sunday June 21, 2020 @12:18PM (#23592905)

That's making a big assumption that everyone has equal access to surveillance data and that most if not all players are fair-mindedly searching for the truth.

If you assume the other way, pervasive surveillance makes a frame-up easier.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by treis on Sunday June 21, 2020 @12:24PM (#23592952)

I live in a country where the accused has equal access to the evidence.

And your rejoinder doesn't make sense. If you were being railroaded for a crime video showing that you didn't do it cant hurt you.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by rectang on Sunday June 21, 2020 @12:58PM (#23593271)

In many US jurisdictions, the decision over what police body cam footage to release is left to the police themselves. For example:

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/11/18/body-camera-aurora-pol...

> Police Chief Nick Metz said he wants to release body camera footage from the August death of Elijah McClain to lend more transparency to the investigation. But three months later, police still have it — advised by the district attorney’s office to keep it in house.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by goatinaboat on Sunday June 21, 2020 @02:02PM (#23593847)

In many US jurisdictions, the decision over what police body cam footage to release is left to the police themselves

In the UK as well, there have been several cases where the police have chosen only to disclose “relevant” evidence, when the existence of additional evidence becomes known the case collapses.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by treis on Sunday June 21, 2020 @01:09PM (#23593385)

I said "the accused", not everyone. If you are charged with a crime and if that footage could be evidence then it is required that the state turn it over to the accused.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by heavyset_go on Sunday June 21, 2020 @11:01PM (#23597070)

Only evidence produced in court. Body cameras can "shut off" or "break", the full footage can be destroyed, etc.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by a1369209993 on Sunday June 21, 2020 @04:28PM (#23595132)

> I live in a country where the accused has equal access to the evidence.

Really? Where? Because in most countries with laws requiring that, police and prosecutors regularly ignore said laws with impunity.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by rectang on Sunday June 21, 2020 @11:14AM (#23592430)

For many people in the U.S., overzealous prosecutors are their allies so long as the people they are prosecuting who are "already guilty of bad shit" belong to undesirable demographics. Prosecutors and their selective enforcement efforts are central to suppressing minority votes through felony disenfranchisement, for instance in Florida.

I wonder how the arguments against surveillance capitalism poll across targeted minorities vs. the general population. I speculate that sentiments diverge in the same direction as sentiments towards the police.

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Re:Losing the war against surveillance capitalism letting Bi... by thatoneuser on Sunday June 21, 2020 @11:47AM (#23592638)

I'm sure there are bad prosecutors, but Netflix is hardly a source to look into something like this. They tend to make very compelling, but obviously biased, documentaries.

But I agree with your sentiment otherwise.

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