What are some "new" rights you'd like to see countries commit to?

sumofchemicals@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 206 points –

I know some places are more progressive in this regard. But from the U.S., I'd like to see every person entitled to:

  • shelter
  • food
  • healthcare
  • education and higher education

(As an aside, not sure "right" is the best term here, I think of these more as commitments that society would make because we have abundance. One advantage of the word "right" is that a person is justified in expecting it - it's not welfare/ a benefit / a privilege)

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Digital privacy. It should be illegal to track and store data on people without their consent.

Hmm. If you were to assault me, and my friend took your picture while you're doing it, should you be allowed to forbid my friend from publicly posting that picture?

A picture of you is certainly data about you. And you'd presumably prefer that they not publish evidence that you assaulted me. However, I think it's in the public interest that my friend should get to publish their photo even without your consent.

A single picture is circumstantial. I'm more talking about mass collections of information for some kind of data analysis.

That's where the reasonable expectation of privacy provision usually comes into play. It is already illegal to go up to the window of someone's home and take pictures of them, why then is it legal for companies like google to gather information about your activity, such as browsing habits, without asking or even notifying you. Microsoft is another really bad offender here, modern versions of Windows collect and transmit massive amounts of telemetry regarding everything from what hardware you're using to what programs you run and how often, just as a basic part of the operating system.

I don't understand why people always talk about Microsoft. ALL mainstream operating systems track everything you do. If anything, Microsoft were the last to join the party.

The reason is that windows is used on nearly 3/4 of all desktop computers (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-7/), but that doesn't change the question of 'why the fuck should anoybody be allowed to do that?' Also I would call Linux at least mainstream parallel, in that I would guess most people have at least heard of it, and it doesn't inherently track your activity.

First of all, most people are using their mobile devices for the most time, so tracking in Android and iOS is a lot more important. Also more people have phones than desktops.

Second, Linux distros have tracking too. Ubuntu for example.

I won't argue that tracking on mobile isn't more important, but I will argue that it shouldn't be allowed at all, or at least not without an informative opt in for those systems who insist on having one. And when I say informative I mean telling the user exactly what information is being gathered, why, how often, and who else can see or gets sold it.

I agree, but once again - why so much hate towards Microsoft specifically? They have less invasive tracking of all, which can easily be disabled. Unlike what you're getting from Google and Apple.

I use Microsoft rather than Apple because I don't use any Apple products and am significantly less informed on the level of tracking they employ, and I use Microsoft rather than Google because Microsoft in in charge of the operating system I use and is making my user experience measurably worse with the amount of crap they run and track by default. Google on the other hand only tracks what I do over the internet, and even then not all of it (though they actually do probably get everything I do since I haven't worked up the motivation to switch to Firefox yet). I also will say I actually don't much mind someone tracking what parts of a website I visit, such as what products I view on Steam or Amazon, so long as I have an actual account that tracking is attached to.

It is also important I feel to emphasize I am only giving examples, hate all involuntary tracking, and hope that any theoretical anti-tracking laws would be broad enough to stop this kind of behavior from every company rather than just a few.

Cool, but you have a phone in your pocket and it's a lot more invasive.

I had forgotten about phones actually, yeah fuck that and fuck me for forgetting about it. When writting these replies I have been relying on memory for the rest of the conversation, rather than going back and seeing all the context.

I'm still mad about what they did to netflix. I should have the right to not have to delete IE when I get a new computer. I mean netscape.

Yes, innocent until proven guilty. The picture would be logged in as evidence to the authorities.

And we all trust the authorities.

Nope definitely not, but, you can't just post people's pics online saying they assaulted you.

I'm no expert but I think there are (or should be) exemptions in the case of crime

Often you don't know a crime has been committed at the time, which is why businesses are expected to have data retention periods for legal reasons.

But everyone keeps pointing to any data retention as some sort of big brother boogeyman.

Anyone held in prison, jail, or other confinement shall be permitted to post up to one kilobyte (1024 characters) of text every day. These posts shall be published on a public web site operated by the imprisoning authority, and in print form in the imprisoning authority's capital city or other central location. These posts shall be tagged with the prisoner's name, geographic location, and any identification number the imprisoning authority uses.

This serves a few purposes:

  • No government or other authority may hold a prisoner secretly.
  • All prisoners may plead their innocence to anyone who cares to hear.
  • No prisoner is to be held in such complete isolation that they can't communicate to the public about the conditions of their imprisonment.
  • Anyone interested in auditing the state of their government's prisons may begin by inspecting the stated locations of prisoners.
  • Any prisoner who is not literate shall be afforded literacy education to enable them to participate.

This may go awry if some prisoners are not remorseful. For example, let's say an extremist murdered some women because he believes them to be inferior. They could use this as a platform it to spout their ideals and to convince others to do it. It would also make it trivial to pass messages from imprisoned gang members outwards to the still-free members. Not exactly things we want to encourage.

It's also never going to be an effective method for transparency once the government/facility inevitably starts censoring certain contributors for more or less legitimate safety concerns. Most inmates already have ways to communicate with the outside world anyway through their lawyers and families, so I don't really see the point for either side of the cell door.

Yeah because what if the prisoners are like Hannibal Lector and use their speech to remote control people and commit crimes from prison?

I think there's some legitimate concern about essentially giving prisoners a broadcast. You're right that they ought to have some minimum amount of guaranteed communication, but more in the sense that they can call their family or friends without having to pay fees.

Also would love to see solitary confinement outlawed.

Also another problem would be that some languages are more character-efficient than others. E.g. Chinese vs English vs Navajo.

Yeah but what if the prisoners use their 1024 kb to talk about ivermectin, or about eating tide pods, or claiming that sriracha hot sauce is overhyped garbage, or other harmful disinformation?

Didn't think of that did ya?

/s

surprised no one has brought this up, but freedom from religion. Shouldn't have your life incessantly bombarded by people trying to pressure you into what amounts to a socially acceptable cult

There are some countries (Indonesia) which it is mandatory to have a religion, at least it must be listed in your ID. Atheists will just list any (official) religion they want on it and don't practice. Sucks that it's so easy to discriminate people based on that.

The right to die. At least in the US, the way we treat end of life is absolutely backwards and often the opposite of patient care. If someone wants to die despite therapy and health intervention, who are we to deny them?

Yes, this is what I want to see. We give animals more dignity at the end of their life than we give humans.

It's the same here in the UK. Even terminally ill people are not allowed to end their lives and end up having to go to Dignitas.

There was a story of one guy who was severely disabled. He needed 24-hour care and was just utterly miserable. He appealed for the right to end his life early to put an end to his suffering but the government denied him. He ended up just starving himself to death.

I agree 100%, but it's important to note that it's a very difficult issue. Whether someone actually wants to die or if they're mentally ill and are making a terrible irreversible mistake is often quite a tough line to draw, making this a very complex problem to solve.

Canada's MAID program is a step in the right direction, where next year even people with non-terminal mental illnesses will be eligible for assisted suicide.

I'm not comfortable with mental illnesses being included, because I think especially in the past (but more recently too) suicide being easy and accepted would've encouraged me to go ahead with it, which is something I'm glad I haven't done so far.

I absolutely agree when the person has an incurable physical illness, but I'm unsure where to draw the boundary for people with psychological illnesses.

For me it's the age of the person. If it's a 20 year old, their health can still get better. If it's an 80 year old who has lost his whole family and friends and is depressed that's a whole other thing. That's something that is probably not going to get fixed.

  • The right to solidarity, i.e. all should be allowed to partake in solidary action during a strike.
  • The right of initiative and right to recall.
  • The right to free software, or freedom from proprietary software.
  • The right to a third place, i.e. ready access to physical spaces that allow for socializing with strangers.
  • Freedom from eviction (mainly wrt rent strikes and squatting.)
  • The right to democratic education.
  • The right to cross borders.
  • The right to be forgotten.
  • The right to purpose, or freedom from meaningless labor. This includes the right to an employee fund.

And there are of course other things. I just think that under the world's current paradigm, these, at least individually, seem relatively attainable without a literal revolution.

This is a fantastic list. We’d love to have someone like you subscribed to https://infosec.pub/c/cypherpunk !cyberpunk@infosec.pub.

The right to cross borders alone would require about a hundred revolutions. Which is a shame, because voting with our feet is a phenomenally good way of putting people in control of countries.

right to recall

I read this as having memory, and it made me think of robot rights. Does a robot have a right to have memory?

The right to a third place, i.e. ready access to physical spaces that allow for socializing with strangers.

So, going outside?

I could see a world where people are guaranteed shelter but it's a hole in the wall and they're not allowed to be other places like restaurants, businesses etc. because they don't have the money for it.

Data ownership.

Everything you do, every action you take, is commodified down to the very steps you take. Even if you refuse to participate, there will be a "you" shaped hole due to the amount of related data.

Overall we are all generating huge amounts of data, content and financial information. We need new laws to direct the ownership and related income of the data each person generates.

In regard to the US: if we are a capitalist nation, than being an American citizen is an investment. I want to see returns on that investment.

I truthfully think privacy is dead and we need to look forward at what we can control. We can control this, and companies should not be allowed to make billions off your mere existence.

Income tracking would create another cache of data. If anything you'd want a ban on cross domain tracking ("domain" in the traditional sense).

The right to access the internet via broadband wherever possible. Money should not prevent this.

Especially now, where it's pretty much impossible to do any administrative paperwork without any internet access

Maybe people should even have a guaranteed phone, for 2FA and connectivity.

I think we've reached a point technologically that it's entirely within our grasp to secure the base layer of Maslow's hierarchy of needs for everyone. Air, water, food, shelter, clothing, medical care.

I hadn't thought about air, but seems like it will become a more and more relevant right (and one everyone can claim even in a more traditional sense of a right)

A 7 year limit on having old posts, videos, writings, or other records of your words and opinions used against you. This includes no more lifetime bans on anything. If you change your ways and keep your nose clean for seven years, society can no longer use your past actions against you.

This does not apply to criminal sentencing of course, though that whole mess should be reexamined much more frequently.

Criminal sentencing should be the same as the posts, IMO. Prison should be rehabilitating, not just punishment/legal slavery. There should be punishment, yes, but even parents who spank their children usually tell their kids why they got spanked and how not to get spanked again. Prisons seem to forgo that second part of it, and focus entirely on the spanking aspect.

What's frustrating is there's an obvious and effective way to incentivise that too. You don't even need to give up private prisons.

Just split the payment. The prison gets paid say 20% up front. The rest is paid out over the 10 years post release. If the inmate ends up back in prison, the rest of the payments are lost.

Basically, 80% of their income is made by keeping the inmates from reoffending. Kicking them to the kerb with no skills becomes a big loss. Job training, and a robust post release support network are suddenly money makers, rather than sinks.

I'd never thought of this. This is a great idea. You need to shout it from the rooftops.

I'm not American. The prison system over here, while FAR from perfect, is an order of magnitude or more better than the US system. I'd rather not let private prisons get a foothold over here.

Then I will scream from the rooftops.

No one will listen to me, because everyone important is making money off the current system. But I'll try.

You could just not tweet something racist? Also how the hell do you plan on enforcing this? If I want to not be your friend because of something I know you did how are you going to force me?

A living wage for every human. This society have the money to cover all, but still we accept to let other humans die on poverty because "they don't contribute to the capitalism". Fucking disgusting everyday.

UBI, it's hard to believe people see the way things are going with AI and Automation and they're not talking more about Universal Basic Income.

Irrevocable right of bodily expression

Irrevocable right to abortion

Irrevocable right to euthanasia

No tax exemptions for any type of religion.

Bodily expression is too broad, also tax exemptions for no one would be better.

That means no helping the disadvantaged either?

We are taking about rights not assistance programs

I meant tax exemptions for the needy

There's already 0 income tax for the "needy" you don't pay any federal income tax if you make under a certain amount. That amount is not super low either if I remember correctly.

Maybe not a right but more a commitment for governments towards public transportation. Not having a car makes everything so much harder. Having as much coverage as possible within reason, more buses and drivers, expanding metro lines. Right now in my city it is just "bearable", I am at least grateful I can do things like see buses on the map and transferring to trains is easy. Was much worse before! Not like governments wouldn't be able to make their money back, and imagine how many less car crashes and traffic clogs we could have. Not to mention the environmental benefits.

Also electric buses are cool. So quiet and can charge in them.

Edit: To elaborate on why it should be a right: it is not like in the olden days when you could walk to the store or your job. Everything is simultaneously dense and far thanks to how zoning works and cities being car-oriented. The right to mobility exists in America, but what if we took it further and made sure you really could go where you wanted without having to invest in a car?

Public transportation should be free for everyone on top of that. We need to do everything possible to discourage driving in favour of public transport for the sake of the environment and our future selves, plus the bus driver would no longer be able to turn away poor people on hot days.

I've heard that in Sweden there's a group supporting free public transport called Planka.nu, which encourages fare dodging and operates an insurance fund for paying penalty fares.

I wouldn't encourage fare dodging at this point in North America because that would be the destruction of the transit systems.

I think rather it should be free if you are poor, like food stamps. The bus fare definitely stings but I'm always happy to pay it knowing it is going to maintain the system. This is even more important in this hypothetical situation if you have tons of projects towards improving public transportation going on.

Also great username. :)

The reason I think it should be free for everyone is to incentivize choosing public transit over personal vehicles and would gladly pay more taxes to make public transportation free. You have no choice but to pay the tax, so you might as well use the system you've already paid to improve.

And thank you 😊

and would gladly pay more taxes to make public transportation free.

So then donate that money to the government yourself and don't force everyone else to be stuck with your crappy taxes

It's called social spending and it is part of being a society.

Your ability to drive whenever and wherever you want is literally killing people and you don't even care. That's kinda gross.

Edit: To elaborate on why it should be a right: it is not like in the olden days when you could walk to the store or your job. Everything is simultaneously dense and far thanks to how zoning works and cities being car-oriented. The right to mobility exists in America, but what if we took it further and made sure you really could go where you wanted without having to invest in a car?

Walkability isn't some relic of a bygone era that we can't have back again; it's just a feature of building your city correctly. Traditional development patterns still work better than any of the modernist alternatives we've tried, even in 2023.

In other words, the Suburban Experiment of the last 70 years wasn't actually the progress people thought it was. Instead, it was simply a fuck-up that we need to correct. As such, although mandating access to public transit would be nice to have, it's not actually the necessary solution here. What we actually need is simply to fix or even repeal the zoning code so that property owners are allowed to build appropriately again.

I don't know where you got the idea walkability is an impossible goal, definitely agree with all of it. Much easier in the meantime to build up public transport though than it is to unfuck urban zoning.

They never said it was impossible, they said it was a feature of proper city building

Much easier in the meantime to build up public transport though than it is to unfuck urban zoning.

On the contrary, unfucking zoning can be done with the stroke of a pen. Sure, it takes time for the market to react to the change by building more housing etc., but so does planning and constructing transit projects. More to the point, building up public transit requires both legislation and allocating tax dollars, while fixing zoning requires legislation alone.

Fuck that. I don't want the government taking my money just to waste it on this garbage.

Access to open source, end to end encrypted technology. Particularly for messaging/ communication.

Seems like you might want to go broader than talking about a specific method or feature of technology. Maybe something like "right to private communication"?

Bro just download Whatsapp

WhatsApp isn't open source as far as I'm aware. Also weird seeing a plug for a Meta app on Lemmy...

I'll die first.

I'm not quite THAT hardcore, but if someone only has whatsapp... then apparently we're back to calling eachother on the phone like cavemen

Not opensource, not private, belongs to a company that is notorious for stealing and selling your data. They say it's encrypted, also they request the rights to access what you type.

I think you're using the word right correctly, ultimately you're pointing out things that you think people should have inherently and that shouldn't be based on merits or taken from someone based on crimes. I generally agree with your list, though to add on I think that the right to transportation is fundamental to enabling most opportunities in a society and that the United States could greatly improve upon their public transit system.

I guess the tricky part is when we think of something like freedom of speech, in order to exercise the right, a person can just start talking. If we think of the right to shelter, it's difficult for a person to just, have a place to live. It requires more active intervention by the government. And I think that intervention should happen. I only point it out because there does seem to be a distinction that could trip up the conversation. But I don't have a better term than "right." Anything less seems vulnerable to attack and gradual chiseling away by its opponents.

Anything less seems vulnerable to attack and gradual chiseling away by its opponents.

Almost like you're arguing for an aggressive policy agenda that a lot of people don't support. How about just discuss said policy instead of trying to find language that actively makes discussion more difficult?

It's not public opinion I'm necessarily concerned about, it's attacks by those who benefit from the way things are.

Also, choosing language that strengthens your position is the logical approach for anyone advocating for change. I'm not trying to obscure my position, I'm trying to make it clear.

The right to quit, if things get corporate and greedy and the people, the people who actually form the community only get screwed over. Whether it's a job, a club, or a social media platform.

Welcome to at-will employment. Be careful of exactly what you're asking for.

No one is forcing you to work the job you don't like.

Right to Information

Allowing the public to get access to information without it being censored or hidden.

Isn't that covered under the right to free speech and to peaceable assemble?

I think one problem with this is, most of you are all talking about positive rights. Rights are things government can't take away not things the government gives you. Rights are inherent. Think of it as more the government can't deny you food, not, the government will supply you food. The one post about abortion would be that the government can't deny you medical autonomy, that would cover it, as well as dying if desired. Then the debate just has to decide when a life is a life and requires protection (not having that debate here)

I believe in "to each according to need," (or to put it into the language of a "right," the right to fulfillment of your needs.) but I don't trust "countries" to do that. There's a long history of governments saying they're doing that while perpetuating the worst atrocities.

New? How about old. Aside from the recent rights lost in the US wrt bodily autonomy/privacy (see Dobbs, etc.), what about the "Second Bill of Rights" as put forth by FDR?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second\_Bill\_of\_Rights

No, let's not revive the abysmal policy of that good for nothing stain on American history that was too much of a worthless sack of shit to even figure out how to do something as basic as walking

Some countries have euthanasia, I want affordable suicide booths.

Having one of those days where you wish to unlive yourself? Well, wish no more!

Bro buy a gun or use a rope if you need death that badly

Not anymore, at least for now.

Also, I'm not in the USA, so I can't just go to Walmart and buy a gun. Besides, a rope is not a peaceful way to go.

Almost 3 years ago (by less than a week) I tried self deletion by taking 60 lorazepam pills with alcohol and attempting to create a toxic gas with HCl and Epsom salts inside my car. I don't know what the fuck happened, but here I am.

Nah, that shit needs a timer and a therapist visit at least.

Sometimes people just forget to take their meds for a while.

That's how it is here in NL. We have the right to die, but you need to have several consultations first, and these usually include your family and/or friends at a certain point.

I do not think it's too invasive or cumbersome if I believe a recent article (in De Telegraaf so maybe not the most accurate?) that said the process usually takes between six months and a year.

Control of my own work product.

That is, workplace democracy. Out with the oligarchs!

You can always go freelance or start a company, no one's controlling the projects you work on then.

Assuming I could survive that way, eventually my choices would be "become an exploiter" or "establish a worker's coop."

The owner class are parasites.

Most people are not in a financial position to start their own business. And in a sense, starting your own business in a best case results in a benevolent dictatorship. Every person makes mistakes and has blind spots. So one person should not be in charge of decisions controlling everyone's work.

I would encourage people to freelance or start a co-op, and I think in the long term large co-ops (like fortune 500 size) are the preferable path. But if we waited for bootstrapped co-ops to reach critical mass we'd be waiting hundreds of years. One thing I'm excited about is the Obran cooperative, because they look set to convert private businesses to co-ops at a relatively large scale.

From a government standpoint in the long term I think about businesses with more than one employee being required to use one person one vote governance. (not necessarily all direct democracy, for example it could be electing a board who appoints management) But we're a long ways away from that and it would be smart to move in phases to not destroy the actual value in existing corporations. So maybe some policies as a starting point would be: government funds for creating co-ops and converting co-ops, bidding advantage for co-ops responding to government RFPs and a requirement for corporations of certain size to have some minimum employee representation on their board.