Congress Concerned about Privacy: Silk Browser

[Blossom]

Don't they have anything better to do? I hope this doesn't change the release date on the Kindle Fire. I use Opera Mini as my browser so I really don't care what Silk does. I know Verizon does the same thing if you use the Default browser that comes on my phone. Only difference is it makes the loading of sites super slow which is why I changed over to Opera Mini.

[gweminence]

The patent lawsuit is much more likely, I would think, to change the release date. Here's to hoping not.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Barton is from Texas, and Texas is struggling with the downfall in the economy. The Republicans have dominated politics here for at least two decades and our economy is suffering in a huge way. They would love nothing more than to sink their grubby little claws into Amazon's empire and start charging state sales on every item Amazon sells in Texas. They can only collect state sales tax on items sold by companies with a brick and mortar presence within the state, so items sold and shipped directly through Amazon are exempt from tax. For books, as an example, some publishers are located in Texas so we pay tax on their books, while others have no presence here and thus we don't pay tax. It is a huge amount of revenue for the state which is at stake. I think this is just Barton's way of trying to make Amazon seem like an evil empire in a lame attempt to turn public opinion against them. We the public are not that stupid and will fight any state sales tax on items sold by Amazon with NO connection to companies that have a presence in Texas.

It's not only Republicans. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois wants an online sales tax nationwide.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by sadievan

It's not only Republicans. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois wants an online sales tax nationwide.

Actually, Amazon supports that bill.

Amazon opposed a California online sales tax law and is leading the effort to overturn it. The online retailer, however, supports Durbin’s bill, arguing a nationwide system of sales tax collection is preferable to a patchwork of laws.

“Amazon.com has long supported a simple, nationwide system of state and local sales tax collection, evenhandedly applied to all sellers, no matter their business model, location, or level of remote sale,” said Paul Misen, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by TimW

Actually, Amazon supports that bill.

Yes, I heard that.

[Serpentine]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

Wait, isn't this what Opera mini does already? Were the congressmen living under a rock all these years?

It's been doing it for years, Opera are also very open about the security and advise people to only use the Mini browser for confidential stuff as it does break end to end encryption, the mode can be disabled in the Mobile and Desktop versions (where it's not even remotely default, and is not used with SSL).

I think the complaint is more about forcing defaults on people - it's the whole cloud issue at play and most people are too ignorant to accept that when the first big security fiasco goes down, it's going to be spectacular, and forcing unwitting people to use a tech that exposes them - that's a bit of a problem. People also like to think their fave company is somehow their friend, "Google didn't meeeean to collect all that wifi data". I guess it'll also be a mistake that they collected and stored all of your visited urls linked to your personal data. I guess the guy that finds a dump of that in 3 years and uploads it somewhere nice - well he's now public enemy #1?

The same could be said about all the analytics crap and the rest of it - the point is still valid imho, ground rules need to be set down that arnt overly direct - see how Google uses your lovely html5 persistent storage to get around cookie laws, how most large companies release toolbars which are essentially the malware - and now entire browsers :3.

So yeah - you should be aware of exactly what is kept, how and where it is kept for what duration, duplication etc. EULAs arn't exactly a good way of conveying that... or being legally binding.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by sadievan

It's not only Republicans. Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois wants an online sales tax nationwide.

I believe in getting rid of income tax and funding the government by sales tax -- that's what the free market and our economy is based on right, sales!
Oh and high, very high corporate taxes!

[patrickt]

I will agree that Congress, and the President, are consumed with concerns for their privacy. Our privacy, nah? That's why the persecute encryption folks who don't give the government the key to get in.

What Congress has that more important is all things they don't want to do so this is something they can play with to stall.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I believe in getting rid of income tax and funding the government by sales tax -- that's what the free market and our economy is based on right, sales!
Oh and high, very high corporate taxes!

The problem with a sales tax is that it falls dispoportionately on the poor whose budget is already eaten up with necessity buying that currently isn't taxed. The Republicans want the sales tax on everything and every purchase, including food and clothing staples.

Even if the sales tax is refunded to the poor at tax return time, it means the poor will have had to advance the money to the government and that whatever they advanced all year meant less ability to buy the staples.

It has the same illogic as the Republican effort to decrease taxes on the wealthy and increase taxes on the poor. If the poor could afford to pay taxes, they wouldn't be poor.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by rhadin

The problem with a sales tax is that it falls dispoportionately on the poor whose budget is already eaten up with necessity buying that currently isn't taxed. The Republicans want the sales tax on everything and every purchase, including food and clothing staples.

Even if the sales tax is refunded to the poor at tax return time, it means the poor will have had to advance the money to the government and that whatever they advanced all year meant less ability to buy the staples.

It has the same illogic as the Republican effort to decrease taxes on the wealthy and increase taxes on the poor. If the poor could afford to pay taxes, they wouldn't be poor.

I disagree, but since this is a political issue I will not take it further.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I believe in getting rid of income tax and funding the government by sales tax -- that's what the free market and our economy is based on right, sales!

Agree.

Oh and high, very high corporate taxes!

That will only lead to companies moving their business overseas to a cheaper tax rate and lead to loss of jobs.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I disagree, but since this is a political issue I will not take it further.

Yes, it's gotten a bit too political...I see Harry heading this way, shouting "EXTERMINATE!" with the dancing lock in tow.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by sadievan

Agree.




That will only lead to companies moving their business overseas to a cheaper tax rate and lead to loss of jobs.

Perhaps true, but as the tax law is currently written they are getting away with murder anyway and probably not paying any taxes so better they do it on foreign soil.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by TimW

Yes, it's gotten a bit too political...I see Harry heading this way, shouting "EXTERMINATE!" with the dancing lock in tow.

[Daithi]

Apparently, Rep. Ed Markley isn't happy with Amazon's answers (or non-answers) and Information Week is reporting on it today.

Personally, I don't like companies keeping information on me, but I want Congress getting involved even less. Especially when you consider that Congress mandates entities like banks maintain copies of every transaction we make and provide it to the government when they demand it. If we have a transaction over certain dollar amount the bank not only has to keep a copy of the transaction, but also has to explicitly notify the government of the transaction. Phone companies are also required to maintain records of our calls by federal laws. The government make us drive around with license plates on our vehicles and now have cameras and computers run your plates. I just bought a plane ticket and was required to provide both my name and date of birth. Every 10 years the census takers not only count me, but want to know who I am and where I live. Sorry, if I just don't believe the government is interested in helping me protect my privacy.