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Comment by task_queue | Hacker News Reader

People have a blind faith in the watch guards and a natural tendency to hand them the rope necessary to be hung with.

I have a friend in the middle of a divorce. Her husband works for their cell provider. He has harassed her with allusions to "keeping tabs" on her because of his position of power.

When you point the panopticon inwards you realize just how scary unfiltered communication and location data taken out of context can be and how dangerous someone with malicious intent and access to that data can be.

No one should have that power over someone. It certainly shouldn't be consolidated into the hands' of any group of people, either.

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> People have a blind faith in the watch guards

People have an explicitly cultivated faith in the watch guards. Cop shows on TV promote an image of competency and good will. That's not what it's like in the real world, but even in this forum, you find people being way too deferential.

I'm in the UK and by and large we have reasonable policing (by the standards of many countries we have excellent policing).

That said, I have absolutely no deference to the police here either, it's a public sector job the same as any other staffed by people largely no better or worse than any other industry with the crucial difference they are sworn to uphold the law and have powers granted to them to that end.

They deserve the exact same respect as any other member of our society, we largely don't go in for all the "men in blue" stuff either - they weren't conscripted they chose to join as rational thinking adults.

> I have a friend in the middle of a divorce. Her husband works for their cell provider. He has harassed her with allusions to "keeping tabs" on her because of his position of power.

It never occurred to her to get a different phone? Yes, that's a burden, but people do much more difficult things for much worse reasons. The husband isn't really in a position of power there.

Lights need to stay on and mouths need to be fed every night. There isn't room in the budget to break contract, switch providers and buy a new phone.

Regardless, if you don't see the power play in the threat of being able to take one's communication and whereabouts out of context at any point, you need to look harder.

That is horrible and I'm sorry for your friend.

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