"Who audits that?" We just did. And if there was a law against that, Zoom would just have been exposed for breaking it. Any sane company will try their best to adhere to laws. Some big players like Google can afford to mess around pay a few billions in fines, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. Eventually, even they can't afford to pay the fines in the long run (Even Google bowed to GDPR or at least its getting bashed with steeper fines until they wake up).
"How do you determine what's legal and what's not?" You pass a law, read the law? This is a self-contradiction. Laws are open for interpretation but the interpretation is quite clear after a supreme court case (for the better or worse).
"We should be pushing for a platform that makes it obvious what the software you're running is up to". Oh the web of trust? Did you ever install Snitch or some other firewall on your system? Its utterly hopeless even if you are knowledgeable. There is simply not way to audit that. Who audits that? Here you CAN ask this question.
I can't for the life of me understand how you can believe that it is better for everyone, including parents and grandparents to audit their phone, instead of having researchers audit phones and report companies who break the law. This is non-nonsensical. You must either be some expert without a connection to the real world, or some elitist who thinks everyone is like him.
Specifically on this point, I think the HN comment sorting algorithm may take account of how many votes child comments have too, so you may find that it’s the top child comment which has brought this to the top.
"Who audits that?" We just did. And if there was a law against that, Zoom would just have been exposed for breaking it. Any sane company will try their best to adhere to laws. Some big players like Google can afford to mess around pay a few billions in fines, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. Eventually, even they can't afford to pay the fines in the long run (Even Google bowed to GDPR or at least its getting bashed with steeper fines until they wake up).
"How do you determine what's legal and what's not?" You pass a law, read the law? This is a self-contradiction. Laws are open for interpretation but the interpretation is quite clear after a supreme court case (for the better or worse).
"We should be pushing for a platform that makes it obvious what the software you're running is up to". Oh the web of trust? Did you ever install Snitch or some other firewall on your system? Its utterly hopeless even if you are knowledgeable. There is simply not way to audit that. Who audits that? Here you CAN ask this question.
I can't for the life of me understand how you can believe that it is better for everyone, including parents and grandparents to audit their phone, instead of having researchers audit phones and report companies who break the law. This is non-nonsensical. You must either be some expert without a connection to the real world, or some elitist who thinks everyone is like him.