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Comment by aub3bhat | Hacker News Reader

>> So what you're saying is, just because our governments collect everything, everybody else should be allowed to do it too, or stop worrying?

Yes, Strong corporations and public rights, are necessary to ensure, that government does not becomes too powerful. And there is at least some balance of power.

>> The fight for privacy is not for us, it's for generations to come.

Please define "us"?

"us" or "people" or "generations" are rhetorical devices, with little basis in reality. The romantic notion of "people" quickly disappears when those people either organize into corporations or political parties. At certain level Corporations & Governments are people, or aggregate expression of will of the people. The economies of scale necessitates strong corporations which can protect "people" from government and vice versa.

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> Yes, Strong corporations and public rights, are necessary to ensure, that government does not becomes too powerful. And there is at least some balance of power.

Are you suggesting here that corporations are a meaningful brake on state power?

Given that corporations are a legal fiction only made possible by the state institutions of law, currency, markets, international treaties, trade, and war, I don't see how this assertion can be supported; the origin, future, incentives, and fortunes of states and corporations have always been inextricably linked.

'Anarcho-capitalist' and libertarians solutions for non-state corporations have always appeared to me to be shallow hand-waving (speaking as a former anarcho-capitalist and hand-waver myself).

> Strong corporations and public rights, are necessary to ensure, that government does not becomes too powerful

Corporations are an exercise of government power; their strength isn't a safeguard against government power, it is government power.

So the real message here seems to be that exercises of government power that disproportionately favor a certain narrow elite are seen as necessary to prevent government exercising power in ways that benefit other groups.

By that i mean, that our decisions today, will effect everything that follows.

If we educate people that privacy is a privilege, they might not do things (sharing personal information) in the future, that they would otherwise do.

And i'm not talking about world-changing stuff here, it's the little things, like sharing very personal information on social media, like my party picture example from above.

The problem is, most people don't understand the implecations of their doing. And that's why we, who understand those issues, need to educate them.

Another thing is, social media is sold as this warm and cozy place where all your friends are. But in reality, you share your information with big corporations that want to make money (which is totally fine, they provide a service).

People just need to understand, that social media is not a private and social environemnt, it's a tool, provided by a company that has (in most ways) no interest in your personal privacy.

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