Microsoft and Google may have to surrender people's data to Saudi Arabia after signing huge deals there::Saudi Arabia is seeking to be an innovation hub, but activists are warning that tech firms could be complicit in the repression of dissidents.

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[–] 227 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (4 children)

For those who keep parroting that poor big-tech has to respect local cultures and laws and that there's nothing they could do, I remind you that atheists are literally considered terrorists in Saudi Arabia. So in theory, a court order could only invoke anti-terrorism as the motive and compel Google and Microsoft to hand over private conversations of suspected atheists and these companies would then say they did nothing wrong because they just complied with an anti-terrorism search warrant.

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  • [–] 98 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Not doing business in a country that is not your own is the easiest thing anyone can do.

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  • [–] 91 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    I think it might be time to advocate for individual ownership of our own ‘data’

    I don’t see any good reason why our data isn’t protected under law and any attempt to monetize should be done through contracts to each person who’s data is being used and payments made to those people

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago

    Gonna be real hard to pass any law about that when the companies making huge profits off of our data can legally bribe politicians to prevent the vote from reaching the legislative floor.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    That relies on a country’s goodwill to implement such a idea. In europe with gdpr we are kind of going there and it’s already a massive mess. I find also kind of hard to define ownership; where does it ends? Is derivative data one’s ownership ? When properly anonymised? Plenty of fun in the field really.

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  • [–] 33 points 3 years ago (1 child)
  • Yet more proof that each and every company is willing to sell human rights. Some companies price it higher than others, but they all have a price.

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago

    Wait, so Saudi Arabia hasn't requested this data, Microsoft and Google haven't offered this data, the only reason "analysts" think they could get this data is because if they have offices there they might request the data? Lol what kind of clickbait journalism is this, why on earth would Google and Microsoft, or any tech company for that matter, risk handing over user data to any country at all and locking themselves out of every other country on earth? Get this ragebait nonsense out of here.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (19 children)

    I can't believe I might go to Linux. It looks more appealing all the time.

    ...

    What are phone options?

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    LineageOS don't bother with any other phone OSes

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (3 children)

    So how does that work with say the pixel camera software?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    It's unfortunate that until PostMarketOS gets better support for phones like OnePlus 6, you really only have the original PinePhone. The PinePhone shares it's GPU with the Galaxy S2 (released 12 years ago). However, that OnePlus 6 support really is coming along. I still use my OnePlus7 as a bedside multimedia device and it works just fine.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (3 children)

    Unfortunately none, unless you can install /e/ custom rom on your phone

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I did once on a nexus 5. It was a pain in the ass, but it can be done. What phones are easier to get root access (is that the proper term? Idk. I think in Canada they can't be carrier locked.)

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    They could send some white noise mixed in?

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