God, I get sick of these articles on hacker news. The same regurgitated horse bleep.
This has become a meme around here to laud articles like this that use not so subtle words like "surveillance" and "manipulate" to suggest that something much more nefarious is going on here than actually is.
There are already adequate protections in place to deal with these issues. If you don't want to be tracked don't use Facebook or Google or use them and opt out of tracking. It's that simple.
We don't need these hyperbolic articles exaggerating the nature of this problem.
People have been collecting data on us before the digital age.
Credit Card Companies, Banks, and Credit Bureau's have long maintained profiles on us and sold them to partners.
I differ with you. Assuming, for sake of argument, data is not being scraped for nefarious purpose today then the time when it will be is not too far away.
There are no protections in place as proved by multiple data leeks stories. There are no settings provided by tech companies that let use use there services in total anonymous way or without being a research subject. Do you think gmail will ever implement end-to-end encrypted email service ever?
We need such articles to remind people of what they are getting them-self into and encourage communities to build alternative solutions. Remember those few privacy settings provided by tech companies are result of such stories.
Data that was collected before on an average citizen is puny as compared to what they collect now.
> There are no protections in place as proved by multiple data leeks stories.
Are you referring to data breaches? Not sure what protections you think will prevent them.
> There are no settings provided by tech companies that let use use there services in total anonymous way.
Again, these aren't essential services that you have to use. You can use Google via Duck Duck Go if you like.
You can't use Facebook but you can use What's App if you want end to end encryption.
> Do you think gmail will ever implement end-to-end encrypted email service ever?
I believe they already provide a browser plugin for pgp encryption.
Full end to end encryption would probably require changes to existing email protocols.
> We need such articles to remind people of what they are getting them-self into.
This is a valid point, however the hyperbolic tone of these articles is off putting to me.
I think these companies are handling data in a responsible way.
A more rational conversation around the real risks of these data collection practices, the value of the data,and the exchange of this data for services would be more enlightening, IMO.
Too often these articles and the comments degenerate into X is bad and this bad without any nuance.
Also, as I have stated, it is very easy to not use these services.
> encourage communities to build alternative solutions
I'm all for this. What I am not in favor is asking the government to force these private companies to make these.
> Data that was collected before on an average citizen is puny as compared to what they collect now.
I worked at Credit Card companies a long time ago, and I wouldn't call the data they collected on people puny. In many cases these companies had access to every purchase a person made, every place they lived, their income, etc.
To me that is very sensitive information.
Again, I would like a rational conversation around how is the information that is being collective sensitive.
I believe privacy is a tragedy of the commons - individually nobody cares, because in each case there is a very small chance that the loss of privacy will have an impact on a life, but as society we give up on the idea of democracy. This is because of two things: First for democracy it is important that everybody can start to hold an office - but with the amount of data that google or facebook has now oit is so easy to smear anyone. Second there are also other ways to manipulate the public with this data.
In addition, if you are a US citizen then you can have hopes that there are or will be laws governing this, but for everyone else it is quite different.
This has become a meme around here to laud articles like this that use not so subtle words like "surveillance" and "manipulate" to suggest that something much more nefarious is going on here than actually is.
There are already adequate protections in place to deal with these issues. If you don't want to be tracked don't use Facebook or Google or use them and opt out of tracking. It's that simple.
We don't need these hyperbolic articles exaggerating the nature of this problem.
People have been collecting data on us before the digital age.
Credit Card Companies, Banks, and Credit Bureau's have long maintained profiles on us and sold them to partners.