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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

Even if you're not concerned that the government might get a list of all the sites you log into, what about arbitrary login revocation? Suddenly someone gets a brain fart and decides that everyone on the terrorist watch list shouldn't be able to use this service? Now you're locked out of all the accounts you used this for, even if you're not a "bad guy".

This is why I don't use "log in with google" or log in with Facebook" -- I don't think those companies are evil (I use them both) but I can't afford for them to accidentally or absentmindedly deny me access to other services.

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With the government you have free speech rights, so you can sue them if they close your account. With private companies you have no free speech rights and they can close your account whenever they want.

So account closure seems like a positive point of government-controlled login.

Look up the secrecy and lack of oversight over the so-called "terrorist" watchlist and the calls for scope creep, and see if you are so confident about those first amendment rights. I'm sure failure to log in would not be considered a first amendment right.

I agree that the government should be a far more dependable provider than any private sector organization. But the recent (last 20 years) enthusiasm for scope creep has not been encouraging.

Does the government deny passports or driver licenses/IDs to people on those lists? Because that would be the equivalent here.

I'm not saying the government wouldn't do it. I'm saying you would have constitutional basis to sue, which you don't have for companies.

Some lawsuits against the no fly list have been successful. https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/victory-no-fly-l...

I'm not sure that it would be seen as equivalent here given the overall push away from net neutrality over the last decade. I could see many government officials making the (out-dated) argument that the internet is a non-essential service and you online profiles are not as critical as physical government-issues IDs.

Edit: Forgot this post was a couple days old, working through my HN backlog haha

Government action could let you sue under (say ) free speech protections.

You can't sue FB for account termination

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