
Surveillance Evangelist Arrested in California - DiabloD3
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/02/when-mexican-surveillance-contractor-funds-us-political-campaigns
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ChuckMcM
When people are looking for solutions, there is always someone who is willing
to provide them. Its interesting that this guys was not only the president but
also a customer :-)

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tunap
So, besides unsavorily and surreptitiously profiteering off the death of
privacy and issuing otherwise-legal bribes to local guv players, it appears
his only crime is not being a US citizen.

edit: TIL unsavorily is a legit adverb, despite my spell checker's denial.

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rbanffy
Is it illegal for a foreigner to donate to US political campaigns? How about
working remotely as a volunteer? I am asking because I came very close to
offering some of my free time once.

I'm glad I was too busy at the time.

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_delirium
The U.S. doesn't allow contributions (monetary, in-kind, etc.) by foreign
nationals to election campaigns. Both the act of contributing and the act of
receiving the contribution would violate campaign-finance laws. Campaigns
should usually be enough on top of this to ask if you're a U.S. national, and
reject your contribution if not, though, so it should be relatively difficult
to accidentally violate this law, unless the campaign isn't doing basic
vetting. (For this purpose, permanent residents holding a "green card" are
considered U.S. nationals, not foreign nationals.) However there is an
exemption for providing uncompensated volunteer labor, because of a general
rule that volunteer labor is not considered a contribution-in-kind (even
though in some sense it is). That was written mainly so that you could
contribute the max $ and also volunteer, without that being considered an in-
kind contribution pushing you above the max contribution, but the exemption
also applies to foreign volunteers. Details:
[http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml](http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml)

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erichocean
> The U.S. doesn't allow contributions (monetary, in-kind, etc.) by foreign
> nationals to election campaigns.

In theory. There's no actual policing, so it's more of a guideline than a
rule. Also, smaller contributions receive less scrutiny than ordering
toothpaste from Amazon—exactly the kind of contributions you'd expect from
foreigners who don't have much at stake in US elections.

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rbanffy
The fact nobody is looking does not make it right.

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tzs
> At EFF, we’re often asked the question: Why should anyone care about
> surveillance in other countries?

> Here’s answer #645: The contractor that secretly sells electronic
> surveillance products in one country may also be secretly and illegally
> influencing elections in yours.

Foreign banana dealers could also be secretly and illegally influencing
elections in my country. Does this mean that I should start caring about
foreign banana markets?

Or is the EFF tacitly saying that secret and illegal foreign influence on
elections in my country is only a concern if the people doing them are not
nice?

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Natsu
I believe they're saying that corruption from other countries can spread to
ours, but that wasn't written particularly well and you seem to have a very
different understanding of it than I do.

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blueskin_
>Security Tracking Devices, or STDi

With a name like that, they just made themselves even more unappealing than
surveillance already is.

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olivermarks
perfect Chuck

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RevRal
Okay, but why "Mexican tycoon"? If he were white they probably wouldn't
mention that.

We don't need racism around here, please. Just look at his name for crying out
loud.

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Karunamon
Mentioning race != racism. FFS.

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wavefunction
Mexican is not a race. There are blonde haired and blue-eyed Mexicans. There
are indigenous peoples in Mexico that appear much as their ancestors did
before the arrival of the Spaniards. There are persons of Asian descent who
are Mexicans.

Both you and the other poster whining about racism are the committing the real
racism, fortunately I think you're both just ignorant rather than actual
racists.

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RevRal
As a Native American I think I understand how this identity problem feels. I
just asked a couple of my "Mexican" friends what race they were and they said
"Mexican...." They are not from Mexico.

It's a complicated issue and it gets marginalized in various ways, one which
way is to accuse of whining. Just because Mexican literally means "from
Mexico" does not mean that is how the brain understands it, especially to
people who live near the border.

