It is not enough to develop technical solutions to circumvent the privacy erosion,
as these will soon be branded as aiding crime or the enemies of the state,
and eventually regulations like these will be passed almost everywhere.
Companies standing up for the privacy of their users should be held to a
higher standard than simply imposing limits on their own data collection.
They must band together to actively lobby to counter these kind of policies
to not run the charge of moral hypocrisy.
Another problem is that the party leadership on all sides is often more or less
in favor of these policies.
If there is to be any effective political opposition to this it must be organized
from the bottom up.
I think I'm just going to leave in the next decade.
GF is Hungarian, speaks fluent German and I have a reasonably in demand skillset (and frankly I'd rather wash pots in a free country than program in what this one is terrifyingly rapidly becoming).
And what's the name of that magical place? The UK may be more extreme than other countries at this point in time but "free countries" are a myth of the past. Even the privacy conscious Germany is heading in the same direction. For instance, many politicians of the current administration want to limit the legality of encryption or demand video monitoring with face recognition in public places.
I don't mean to be snarky but where exactly would you start to work on it? Every major scandal so far has shown that society by and large doesn't care about privacy (or isn't even willing to learn about the implications which could result from reduced privacy) and these very same people go to the polls.
I'd start at home - that's New Zealand for me. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that easy to change the government but I wouldn't say I'd given up on it. Quite how the current government got in with the scandals revealed during the election is beyond me, but says a lot about their opposition.
Hungary may not be the best option, unfortunately. Germany is certainly a good option in terms of sane politics, job opportunities, and only hating foreigners a little bit (on average–find the right neighbourhood/friends and you'll have no trouble whatsoever).
If only the weather were better... Another option may be going to South Africa, and just not caring about politics.
Companies standing up for the privacy of their users should be held to a higher standard than simply imposing limits on their own data collection.
They must band together to actively lobby to counter these kind of policies to not run the charge of moral hypocrisy.
Another problem is that the party leadership on all sides is often more or less in favor of these policies.
If there is to be any effective political opposition to this it must be organized from the bottom up.