On: Tech Companies Manipulate Our Personal Data

[crsmithdev]

And media outlets like the NYT manipulate our opinions. An endless parade of articles written by non-experts with no incentives to get anything right, but plenty to keep the story going and traffic coming in.

[elipsey → overAndOver]

>> you can see that they began to campaign HN specifically about two years ago

No, I can't see that. If your going to accuse people of things, please explain what you mean and furnish some evidence.

EDIT: It looks like your account is new. How do you know what was happening here two years ago? Did you change accounts or just lurk?

[bepotts → crsmithdev]

I can't remember who said it, but someone once compared the outrage over how tech companies use data to Yellowpages. There used to be this free book that had everyone's name, address, and phone number and the only way to opt out was to pay. This is much more egregious act than Google and Facebook; the only difference is the scale.

At least Google and Facebook only take what you give them.

[staplers → bepotts]

Horrendous analogy. Yellowpages never tracked your real-time location, served hyper-targeted political ads, or tested emotion-manipulation on its readers.

[bepotts → staplers]

All that stuff is private and is never disclosed to anyone without a court order; or at least that is supposed to be how it works.

Yellowpages told the public. That is the point.

[staplers → bepotts]

Step away from the bong for a sec and reread what I just wrote.

[darkpuma → bepotts]

> the only difference is the scale.

Well, no. But assuming for the sake of argument that were true; scale is important. Quantity has a quality all of it's own.