On: The Facebook phone numbers are now searchable in H...

[eru]

In German legal thought and practice, we have the distinction between Buergerrechte (civil rights, perhaps) and Menschenrechte (human rights).

The former is for citizens, the latter for everyone.

In the US, privacy falls in something like the former: there are supposed to be legal safeguards to keep US citizens from being spied on, but eg the NSA wiretapping foreigners is fine and even encouraged.

[kergonath → eru]

> In German legal thought and practice, we have the distinction between Buergerrechte (civil rights, perhaps) and Menschenrechte (human rights).

That is my experience in a couple of other European countries as well. Of course, some rights are reserved to citizens: vote (although that is changing for local elections), things like service at embassies and consulates abroad, and some aspects of immigration.

But except for these narrow aspects, the law should be the same for everyone: we are not a caste system.

[eru → kergonath]

Voting has already been open for people from other EU countries in local elections for quite a while.

> But except for these narrow aspects, the law should be the same for everyone: we are not a caste system.

I agree that it should, but the biggest factor in most people's life is not silly things like voting, but the right to work.

Billions of people would like to live and work in the EU and the US, but are not allowed.