Controversial Tech Issues

Tech Talk
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I’m wondering about everyone’s opinions on the following issues:

  • Huawei
  • Tik Tok
  • Big Tech
  • Elections Tech
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You go first…what do you think?

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  • Huawei Not sure what that is…
  • Tik Tok A social media site, they all spy on you so whats the big deal…
  • Big Tech what do you mean is Amazon, Apple, Microsoft too big? Yes and no :wink:
  • Elections Tech mail in voting works very well, we have been doing that in Colorado for years no problems…
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Huawei: hot air, the British equivalent of the NSA has had access to the source code for over a decade and has found no back doors, just typical security blunders. If you really want tainted hardware, buy from Cisco, they have been removing one backdoor after another from their kit for over 2 years now! And the NSA was caught actually doing exactly what the US Government is accusing the Chinese government of being capable of doing. The US Government need to get their own house in order first, before they can start making accusations about other people.

Tik Tok: Meh. On the one hand, people are claiming it is a restriction of the first amendment, but nobody is stopping people from saying what they want, just that they can’t use a service controlled by a foreign company. It still sounds more like the first one, making the Chinese the bogeyman. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are far more insidious.

Big Tech: Don’t get me started. I don’t understand this “big must be better” stance of the US. I prefer specialised products made by specialists.The US Government, again, is making the use of Big Tech pretty much a non-starter. They failed to properly implement Safe Harbour and it was thrown out by the EU courts. It was replaced by Privacy Shield, but the US Government received non-compliance notifications from the EU in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, before the courts, under the guise of Schrems II, made Privacy Shield null and void, so using any cloud service tainted by US holdings, whether head office or a branch office, is untenable, until the US rescind The Patriot Act, The CLOUD Act, the FISA courts and National Security Letters, for a start.

The other problem with Big Tech is that they think they are above the law. They come into non-US territories and carry on as if US law trumps the sovereign law of the territory, then act all hurt and start FUD campaigns, when they get their knuckles rapped.

Elections Tech: as long as there is a paper trail, all is good. Anything that is networked over the Internet should be treated as suspect.

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I don’t know. I find that knowing other opinions and the details of said opinions helps me form my own.

Actually, I think the Huawei and TikTok situations are kinda stupid due to lack of proof at least tech-wise (if Huawei is stealing IP from US companies that should be dealt with but the proof of that is even iffy), Big Tech is a confusing one for me because the fact they’re investigating multiple companies means that by nature none are monopolies. Google, Amazon, FB and, Apple are odd choices because from my outside look (I’m Canadian) it seems that the major telcos are closer (we have that same issue here). But Election tech I have very little of an opinion on because here we just use paper.

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