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Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

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Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#72

This is particularly messed up because you know poorer people will take this option so they can afford their next phone or device. It preys on lower-income individuals unaware of what is going on. People who generally aren't aware of what rights are being tossed out, or may not even have the luxury to put personal rights above cost.

What makes you think that poor people are unaware of what's going on? Like they must be simpletons that can't comprehend the concept of privacy? In my experience, they know how messed up the world is. They don't have a choice, but they know... and they are constantly coming up with low-tech ways to screw the man.

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we stop punishing companies when they have a bad quarter, this probably would not be happening.

The level of mental gymnastics required to argue that a lack of regulation would improve customer privacy is ... olympian.

What about the level of mental gymnastics required to go from what I actually wrote to something about lack of regulations? Because that certainly is not what I wrote nor is it what I meant.

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#74

It seems to me that this is he future we are heading, where privacy is only accessible for higher classes, it's a shame we are going in this direction just in the name of profit.

If we stop punishing companies when they have a bad quarter, this probably would not be happening.

This sounds logical, but the issue is that the price of an asset should fall if its performance decreases. I don't know whether there is a real solution when the (bulk of) ownership of a company is disjoint from those participating in its operations. However, I can comfortably say that organized behavior against rational self-interest is probably not a solution.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of employee-owned companies. But to be 100% employee owned, that means no fundraising based on selling ownership. So growth is probably going to be limited by capital. (Which, also personally, I don't think is a terrible thing either.)

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#75
post #49

> "Deli Meeks, a 26-year-old forklift operator in Atlanta, said he doesn't mind Verizon accessing his data." I am perfectly fine with this. One of the biggest issues people have had in recent years is the level of invasive practices companies have been using in the name of advertising. My current assumption is that yes, while it is a breach of privacy, the issue is that is was something I produced that I didn't get t…

> "Deli Meeks, a 26-year-old forklift operator in Atlanta, said he doesn't mind Verizon accessing his data."

That's his prerogative but I wonder whether he truly understands what he is giving up?

He is giving up identifiable ISP data which can be sold. That means his future employers, dating interest and even family members can potentially get access to his data.

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#76
It's amazing how the internet used to be a decentralized tool of anonymity, freedom and exchange of information to a centralized tool of monitoring, information siphoning and control.

As a kid growing up with the internet in the 90s, I used to laugh at people who said the internet could become a tool of control and monitoring. Now it seems inevitable as the internet becomes more centralized.

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nyah, they still have a singular mission to make money for their shareholders. That's a myth. The idea was invented by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School economists in the 1970s. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-the-...

Not unless they hopped in their time machine and went back to infiltrate the Michigan Supreme Court in 1919. Dodge v. Ford Motor Company [0] established the principle in law almost 100 years ago. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co .

I like how anyone who actually reads the content of the article and checks the references can a) know how wrong it is to represent this case as a meaningful bit of law and b) find that it directly contradicts the assertions that it is a driving force.

"Among non-experts, conventional wisdom holds that corporate law requires boards of directors to maximize shareholder wealth. This common but mistaken belief is almost invariably supported by reference to the Michigan Supreme Court's 1919 opinion in Dodge v. Ford Motor Co." https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1013744

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nyah, they still have a singular mission to make money for their shareholders. That's a myth. The idea was invented by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School economists in the 1970s. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-the-...

Not unless they hopped in their time machine and went back to infiltrate the Michigan Supreme Court in 1919. Dodge v. Ford Motor Company [0] established the principle in law almost 100 years ago. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co .

That would only be a binding precedent in the State of Michigan though, no? And from the same Wikipedia page:

In the 1950s and 1960s, states rejected Dodge repeatedly, in cases including AP Smith Manufacturing Co v. Barlow[2] or Shlensky v. Wrigley.[3] The general legal position today is that business judgment that directors may exercise is expansive. Management decisions will not be challenged where one can point to any rational link to benefiting the corporation as a whole

Re: Verizon Up offers rewards in exchange for customers’ personal information

#80
This sort of disgusting privacy intrusion plus the rising costs of smartphones and their associated data plans have me thinking that eventually we'll just reach a breaking point where people choose to go back to dumbphones. I'm already nearly at that point myself.
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