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I have just deleted WhatsApp from my phone. I am not really sure though what to replace it with for the occasional foreign phone calls.
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There is such a thing as business ethics. Facebook's complete disregard for them should not be the norm, even if it, sadly, might be more often than not.
>> What year would it be ok to be naive enough to think that any for profit company’s main motivation is not to make as much money possible? > There is such a thing as business ethics. > Facebook's complete disregard for them should not be the norm, even if it, sadly, might be more often than not. It's alarming how businesses' lack of business ethics is getting normalized by comments like the grandparent's. We should…
Yes, we should require them. The WhatsApp founder didn't attempt that, he just hoped they wouldn't.
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While I understand the sentiment and generally agree with you, someone has to pay for the service, right? And businesses have been paying for all those Toll Free calls customers are making. It's only toll free for the caller.
If Skype hadn’t been a thing I’d agree, but it was. The fact that we aren’t using peer-to-peer encryption in our message apps today is solely because companies want to charge you money for sending messages. Because Skype had the capability to operate as a decentralized encrypted messaging app, and now 10-15 years later, there isn’t an app like that. Not because it’s not possible but because giant tech companies have…
Imagine an App on every platform/device that forms a mesh amongst its users and communicates short messages in a P2P way. Perhaps some simple state could be stored in some special nodes that aid in co-ordination. The whole thing may come with a Wikipedia like openness goal. I'd donate generously for such a cause.
I have just deleted WhatsApp from my phone. I am not really sure though what to replace it with for the occasional foreign phone calls.
How an individual can leave $850M on the table to prove a point blows my mind. I'm in awe at that guy, but I can't help but think that with $850M he could have funded so many interesting projects/research.
I'd call it suboptimal. Why not wait out the few months, then donate all the money to privacy focused NGOs / investing in competing businesses? That would be a much more impactful way of proving a point, imo.
Shkreli could donate some of the profits of EpiPen for patients, should this be considered a net positive?
I have just deleted WhatsApp from my phone. I am not really sure though what to replace it with for the occasional foreign phone calls.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What year would it be ok to be naive enough to think that any for profit company’s main motivation is not to make as much money possible?
There is such a thing as business ethics. Facebook's complete disregard for them should not be the norm, even if it, sadly, might be more often than not.
TL;DR version of which is "Make as much money as possible or become irrelevant note in history"
Edit: Oh, please. Downvotes keep demonstrating a total disconnect between HN responses that require pushing a downvote button and say mass resignation from Google or Facebook or Whatsapp or Well Fargo or Equifax that might trigger a response.
So yes, the only business ethics that is relevant in the real world is "Make as much money as possible".
I think he's acknowledging that his company was un-monetizable and selling was obviously the best thing they could do. And 10 years later, it remains unmonetizable, that's sad.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Skype hadn’t been a thing I’d agree, but it was. The fact that we aren’t using peer-to-peer encryption in our message apps today is solely because companies want to charge you money for sending messages. Because Skype had the capability to operate as a decentralized encrypted messaging app, and now 10-15 years later, there isn’t an app like that. Not because it’s not possible but because giant tech companies have…
Now, this would be a thing I'd get excited about - if a non-profit company gets behind developing it. It was a given that whoever bought Skype would milk it for the money. Imagine an App on every platform/device that forms a mesh amongst its users and communicates short messages in a P2P way. Perhaps some simple state could be stored in some special nodes that aid in co-ordination. The whole thing may come with a Wik…
Would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that room!