HN Explorer

Time for non-US software, services, and Internet?

7 points by auctiontheory ↗ HN
I live in the US. Scott McNealy said it first: I have no privacy. But I wonder whether recent revelations will spur non-US countries to build their own, proprietary, alternatives to OS X, Windows, Android, Facebook, gmail, the Internet, etc. Is this the end of standardization on US-based technologies?

4 comments

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iveqy
linux is very much non-US and is already developed in non-US contries. Facebook alternatives has existed for ages, as well as gmail alternatives. The root-servers has long been distributed all over the world.

software from the us is huge, but there's a lot of alternatives, not always visible to US citizens though, they often aren't in english.

dholowiski
Built on non us designed hardware, using non us o's, that doesn't transit the us? Wait... If the hardware is manufactured in China, is that worse or better?

I'm Canadian so I don't quite understand, but isn't the nsa's job to spy on people outside of the USA? So... Servers outside the USA, good idea?

malandrew
Diversity is actually really valuable for everyone. For everyone that is not of geopolitical interest and a potential target of espionage (e.g. politicians, military, executives at multinationals), the best approach to protecting privacy is to adopt technologies from jurisdictions outside your own. A citizen or resident of of the US most likely has to worry more about his own government adopting the policies of "Lavrentiy Beria" than China. The same goes for Chinese citizens and residents adopting US technology to protect them from their government.

A US citizen worried about his privacy being used against him could use Yandex for email and a Russian citizen worried about his privacy could use GMail.

As a Canadian, you're probably more protected using Chinese technologies and services, since you're more likely to cross over into the US and because Canada is part of the Five Eyes.