It is not very fair singling out Kaspersky and assuming that other AV companies are not a threat to foreign countries. Foreign software and hardware is always a threat. And US was caught spying even on their allies.
> The US, while hardly benign, have not orchestrated multiples of "largest attack in history"
You must be using a very personal interpretation of what "largest attack in history" is.
The US is literally the owner and operator of the largest surveillance and intelligence collecting apparatus in the history of mankind. I bundle in here all kinds of legal and illegal surveillance, interceptions, hacking, etc. directly state run, or leveraging other intelligence agencies, or leveraging the largest private data collectors in the world which are mostly US companies. It was already proven by the Snowden leaks, it's absolutely reasonable to assume this apparatus only grew stronger.
If that's not a never ending "largest attack" on everyone in the world I don't know what is.
You can't ignore this fact: The US and Australia partner on Pine Gap, which violates the human rights of literally billions of human beings every single second of the day.
Russia and China have a long way to go to catch up.
Sorry, but that's crazy exaggeration. Calling snooping "violation of human rights of literally billions of human beings" just because "privacy" gets a mention in the UNDHR doesn't make it as bad as anything Russia and China have done lately. And that's not even touching upon what "privacy" would mean that that declaration.
Privacy is a key human right that should not be abrogated by the state, ever.
Fundamentalist-authoritarian chauvinism for your own state is no justification for these human rights violations - assuming of course you are a citizen subject of the criminal 5-eyes alliance ... If you cannot imagine it being okay for other states to harvest your data, you should not be okay with your state doing it, either.
You know why? Because violating your privacy without recourse is how states ramp up to commit genocide and other atrocious crimes against human beings, whether their citizens or otherwise, by a process through which the states ruling classes deem their victims inferior and thus subject to attention by further repressive state apparatus.
Mass harvesting billions of human beings data every single second of the day, without their permission, is therefore a heinous crime against humanity and a massive violation of human rights at scale - especially when its being done by a violent, belligerent state with the blood of literally millions of human beings lives on its hands. Or do you really think that China and Russia have murdered as many civilians as the USA and its minion states have done, this century, in one illegal war after another?
With the Pine Gap apparatus, the USA is primed with information about who to target in its victim states. It is a key method by which effective mass murder can be manifested in illegal wars - of which, the USA is the undisputed leader, this century.
Just by way of a single example - the Holocaust was made feasible by the mass harvesting of private citizens' data by IBM. Is this not well understood, today?
Would you be 'okay' with Russia and China operating their own Pine Gap, since "its no big deal to 'just be snooping a little (a lot of) data'"? Would you be 'okay' with your own state knowing absolutely everything about you without your knowledge or control, now .. or in the future, when perhaps your political attitude changes as you grow older?
You most likely wouldn't be happy with China and Russia doing this, even though they have not murdered as many innocent human beings on the basis of lies in one illegal war, after the other, as the USA and its war-crime committing cohorts have.
> Privacy is a key human right that should not be abrogated by the state, ever.
Nonsense. The state definitely has the right to seek out criminal and undermining elements. Better, a democratic state has the obligation to do so.
> Would you be 'okay' with Russia and China operating their own Pine Gap
They do. And there's nothing I can do against it.
> even though they have not murdered as many innocent human beings on the basis of lies in one illegal war, after the other, as the USA and its war-crime committing cohorts have.
Oh dear, aren't we rabidly anti-West today? I wonder how you square that with your "Privacy is a key human right that should not be abrogated by the state, ever." stance.
> Or do you really think that China and Russia have murdered as many civilians as the USA and its minion states have done, this century, in one illegal war after another?
Why the sudden switch to "this century"? Your argumentation is switch-and-bait throughout. But China probably has perhaps already murdered more Uygurs, and if we add its "minion" Myanmar, they'll top it.
>The state definitely has the right to seek out criminal and undermining elements.
It has the responsibility to do so without violating its citizens human rights.
What you are describing is fascism - the totalitarian-authoritarian elevation of the state over the individual.
>I wonder how you square that with your "Privacy is a key human right that should not be abrogated by the state, ever." stance.
What needs to be squared? This is non-sequitur.
>Why the sudden switch to "this century"?
There was no 'sudden switch' - its a fact that in the past 25 years, Western forces have murdered at massive scales more innocent human beings than any other state or entity.
Why do you defend criminal acts (violating human rights) and minimize mass murder? Are you in the 'might makes right' misanthrope camp?
