The ignorance here is stunning.
Every background check system is a database.
If it includes religion, it's a query without being a "database of Muslims." It works much the same (not as accurate) if you have country of origin instead.
Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
91–100 of 326 posts
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd argue "A citizen should _never_ have to register with the government" should really be the entire statement. Things like aid and whatnot should really be isolated and broken off to prevent mass collection dbs.
Doesn't every birth have to be registered with the government?
"select * from individual where religion = 'muslim'"
You would think it's that easy as the "government knows all". But from working on government databases and systems, it's hardly the case. Disparate systems, competing departments, endless workshops that hold up progress, political spats, etc. And this isn't even in a country like the US that has separate states!
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#93Sadly, there will always be tech workers willing to do this for the right price. As I get older, I'm starting to wonder if not following my "tech morals" would've brought more success.
Pretty sure Palantir is already thinking about their bid.
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#94Facebook are happy to provide a database of black people [0] to advertisers. People don't choose their race, but they can choose their religion. Arguably, allowing one over the other is supremely unfair. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/22/facebooks...
That may be distasteful but there is a wide, wide gap between letting advertisers target ads to groups based on ethnicity, and sending datasets of people with a certain ethnicity/religion to advertisers or to the government. The pledge is mostly focused on the latter.
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#95Post flagged as fake news. The only people talking about a database of Muslims are the ones trying to be outraged over something they fabricated out of whole cloth.
Indeed, self-righteousness ruins everything. Nothing short-circuits critical thinking like a religion.
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#96Unfortunately, with firearms registration and no-fly lists, Muslim registries are part of the slope we've set precedent for. A citizen should _never_ have to register with the government to exercise a freedom explicitly granted in the constitution.
It's an interesting argument. How could that work for things like driving, where you need to prove competency before you are legally allowed to do something?
There are people who believe that driver's licenses are a way of stealing the right to freedom of movement. But to the best of my knowledge courts have typically rejected this.
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#97Unfortunately, with firearms registration and no-fly lists, Muslim registries are part of the slope we've set precedent for. A citizen should _never_ have to register with the government to exercise a freedom explicitly granted in the constitution.
I'd argue "A citizen should _never_ have to register with the government" should really be the entire statement. Things like aid and whatnot should really be isolated and broken off to prevent mass collection dbs.
Not even for voting?
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#98What about a database of people from countries with high propensity for radicalization, for example Tunisia, or Somalia? Paradox: Tunisia is perhaps the most progressive of all the M/E Muslim countries, and yet they are the #1 M/E country in terms of Jihadis. They are overwhelmingly the greatest per/capita Jihadi producers in the world. By far. Tunisia is very small. Networks are very small. 95% chance that a young m…
"Some social workers have observed that they simply have absolutely no respect for authority - it's meaningless to many of them"
Sounds like a bunch of Richard Feynmans.
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#99This initiative is cynical and gross. Here's why I would say that:
Originally posted in a thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13169587
Do you really need to have sent a pull request to remind you to not do things that make you feel morally bankrupt?
That you signed it leads me to conclude that you have actually bought into the "Trump is a Nazi" rhetoric. I'll explain:
1. Neveragain.tech - the name itself is a well known reference among Jews, "Never Again", in reference to the Holocaust [1]. The creators do this in a cheap effort to position themselves as/with the aggrieved in a "new Holocaust" narrative.
2. Furthering on this thinly-veiled narrative of "new Holocaust" they make more references to past mass deportations and genocides -- grouping them as if they are similar items in a basket. They are not. They are unique events in history, each with their own unique political, social, and other dynamics. Yet more intellectual dishonesty.
3. The document is written as if there is something new in the coming administration versus the previous ones. You want to stop collecting information on race? Then end the census. Abolish the IRS. End the FBI national crime database.
You see, this is not a pledge against anything new. It applies as much to Obama, Bush, or any administration going back in time.
Last point -- my point of view is neither cynical or gross. This pledge is cynical and gross. It is cynical and gross to use genocide and the memory of the Holocaust to build a narrative of doom and gloom around the incoming administration. It is cynical and gross to paint only negative outcomes as a result of stepped up enforcement of immigration and counter-terrorism law.
As always, the answers are somewhere in the middle.
Re: Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims
#100What about a database of people from countries with high propensity for radicalization, for example Tunisia, or Somalia? Paradox: Tunisia is perhaps the most progressive of all the M/E Muslim countries, and yet they are the #1 M/E country in terms of Jihadis. They are overwhelmingly the greatest per/capita Jihadi producers in the world. By far. Tunisia is very small. Networks are very small. 95% chance that a young m…
Tunisia is not in the Middle-East.