this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
126 points (98.5% liked)
Privacy
31982 readers
311 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
-
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Literally illegal in much of the US. Rentseekers must be protected.
God it feels good to have some of the only municipal fiber in the U.S.. gigabit symetric for a flat $60/mo, never get ads from them, price is always the same, never gone down, speeds are largely as advertised... there's even a 2.5 gig and 10 gig option. once i have the hardware for it I'm looking at the 2.5 gig. right now I'm almost saturating my 1 gig with jellyfin and stuff, but if I get some more hardware I'm looking at using it to properly get in on the self hosting scene finally.
Its a double edged sword. You don't want the government to be the ISP but banning community broadband is silly. It should be perfectly legal and acceptable for a bunch if neighbors to get together and make there own network. It could function like a community garden.
Why is a private business inherently better than the government as an ISP, though?
Either way it has to follow all relevant local laws about how to behave. The ISPs will respond to law enforcement requests either way. But at least a public entity will also need to be accountable to the public and respond to things like FOIA, as opposed to a private entity which has all kinds of ways to resist transparency and is more accountable to the shareholders.
Either way it is a near natural monopoly because running redundant wires/fiber is a waste of resources. There won't be much consumer choice.
The idea that the government would be inherently inefficient is one that presumes a private entity that is highly insulated from market force wouldn't. Free markets create a lot of pressure to improve products, but there's no free market happening in a utility like an ISP. Even in the most competitive markets, that's still choosing one from maybe 4 providers that barely compete with each other at all. And you have to sign longterm contracts with all kinds of complex pricing to "test" the competition, and testing it requires pretty advanced knowledge beyond most users -- if you have no freedom to easily change your ISP, there's just not any competition.
If the sword is double-edged, one of those edges is safe enough for a renfair.