Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

abc.net.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 95 posts

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#71

Post by codyb »

jhall1468 wrote: post #69
denerio-a wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WRT point 1 - Wait what? You can work for not-not-evil employers now and all the ethical blame is on the CEO? > Corporation: an ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility - Bierce

Bad or good companies are subjective. My family > your ideals. Sorry man, I'm not going to take a pay cut because of your list of companies that are subjectively bad.

I hate to godwin this thread, but wasn't half the issue people claimed to have with ex nazis was that they never stood up and stopped following orders?

Obviously Googlers are not Nazis. I guess the subjective part ends up being where you draw the line.

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#72

Post by jhall1468 »

ErikAugust wrote: post #50
jhall1468 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google and all of its employees who make products like this are on the absolute wrong side of history. A few things: 1. It takes a fairly high throne to look down on people for their employers issues. 2. You assume a great deal about what people are willing to put up with for free services. I think you're probably going to be wrong. Most people will whore themselves out for convenience because they don't care if th…

Familiar with the “banality of evil”? Give it a good thought before you give employees a free pass for the behavior of their employers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem

Yes, because targeted advertising is just like playing along with killing hundreds of millions of people. It's almost like a grey area exists here.

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#73

Post by denerio-a »

jhall1468 wrote: post #69
denerio-a wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WRT point 1 - Wait what? You can work for not-not-evil employers now and all the ethical blame is on the CEO? > Corporation: an ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility - Bierce

Bad or good companies are subjective. My family > your ideals. Sorry man, I'm not going to take a pay cut because of your list of companies that are subjectively bad.

I’m struggling to read your comment as anything but a direct and unapologetic “Fuck you I got mine”.

Are my rights as beneath your family as my ideals? And how does the fact that you’re not self employed absolve you of this, exactly?

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#74

Post by jhall1468 »

codyb wrote: post #71
jhall1468 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad or good companies are subjective. My family > your ideals. Sorry man, I'm not going to take a pay cut because of your list of companies that are subjectively bad.

I hate to godwin this thread, but wasn't half the issue people claimed to have with ex nazis was that they never stood up and stopped following orders? Obviously Googlers are not Nazis. I guess the subjective part ends up being where you draw the line.

You aren't the first to do so. That line is an easy one to draw, and the moment you have to bring up Nazi's you're argument doesn't hold water. There's a huge swath of subjectivity between targeted advertising and murdering hundreds of millions of people.

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#75

Post by jhall1468 »

denerio-a wrote: post #73
jhall1468 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad or good companies are subjective. My family > your ideals. Sorry man, I'm not going to take a pay cut because of your list of companies that are subjectively bad.

I’m struggling to read your comment as anything but a direct and unapologetic “Fuck you I got mine”. Are my rights as beneath your family as my ideals? And how does the fact that you’re not self employed absolve you of this, exactly?

You don't have "the right" to no targeted advertising. You have every right to do whatever you legally can to prevent it from happening. Your rights aren't being violated. If I'm knowingly participating in a violation of your rights, I'm culpable. If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in something that bothers you, you are exactly right fuck you I got mine. I'm not subject to other peoples belief systems.

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#76

Post by 013a »

JacobJans wrote: post #59
013a wrote: post #39

One of my "wake up" moments was when I searched for the phone number of a local physical therapy office on Google. Within the day, I started getting Youtube video recommendations for massage techniques to relieve shoulder pain. Google and all of its employees who make products like this are on the absolute wrong side of history. Society will only take so much before breaking; they need to figure out their business mo…

I don't necessarily disagree with you. However, you are stating that ads for massage techniques could "break society." That just doesn't add up to me. What is not being stated here? How does this connect? (These are not rhetorical questions!)

When I say "society could break" I mean that there is a general acceptance, or stability, in society whereby we accept that these practices are alright. And that stability will break.

Google, and companies like them, are built on practices which only exist because their users don't fully comprehend the depth of discovery, correlation, and export Google is making on their data. Maybe deeper, users don't fully realize the value of their data.

If you build a business on the ignorance of your customers, you will fail. Period. Society always gets smarter. Google has so much amazing technology and legitimate value (G-Suite, Cloud, etc) to fall back on that they'll be alright, but companies like Facebook don't have that same level of breadth.

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#77

Post by wagutina »

rm999 wrote: post #61
wagutina wrote: post #60

If you block 3rd party cookies, can the (exact) scenario described in the article still happen ?

Pretty sure yes; after Safari started blocking third party cookies by default a few years ago, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have all started supporting the option to use first party cookies to get around this. As I understand it, they deploy code that stores tracking information on-site using first party cookies, then access that data directly. https://digiday.com/marketing/wtf-what-are-facebooks-first-p... https:…

This is terrifying, thx for the answer

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#78

Post by [deleted] »

jhall1468 wrote: post #74
codyb wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to godwin this thread, but wasn't half the issue people claimed to have with ex nazis was that they never stood up and stopped following orders? Obviously Googlers are not Nazis. I guess the subjective part ends up being where you draw the line.

You aren't the first to do so. That line is an easy one to draw, and the moment you have to bring up Nazi's you're argument doesn't hold water. There's a huge swath of subjectivity between targeted advertising and murdering hundreds of millions of people.

[deleted]

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#79

Post by denerio-a »

jhall1468 wrote: post #75
denerio-a wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m struggling to read your comment as anything but a direct and unapologetic “Fuck you I got mine”. Are my rights as beneath your family as my ideals? And how does the fact that you’re not self employed absolve you of this, exactly?

You don't have "the right" to no targeted advertising. You have every right to do whatever you legally can to prevent it from happening. Your rights aren't being violated. If I'm knowingly participating in a violation of your rights, I'm culpable. If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in something that bothers you, you are exactly right fuck you I got mine. I'm not subject to other peoples belief systems.

>I’m not subject to other people’s belief systems

You live in a society. Your actions have consequences, and if you can ignore that to get your fat paycheck then I can certainly judge the shit out of you, without a very high chair.

The fact that you claim rational discourse has ended when people invoke the lessons of Nuremberg - “because Godwin’s law” - is a stain on, and reflection of your own character.

Godwin compares people to Nazis sometime himself you know, when there’s a call for it. When this many people are calling you on it, maybe you should be listening a little better..

Re: How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies

#80

Post by jhall1468 »

denerio-a wrote: post #79
jhall1468 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have "the right" to no targeted advertising. You have every right to do whatever you legally can to prevent it from happening. Your rights aren't being violated. If I'm knowingly participating in a violation of your rights, I'm culpable. If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in something that bothers you, you are exactly right fuck you I got mine. I'm not subject to other peoples belief systems.

>I’m not subject to other people’s belief systems You live in a society. Your actions have consequences, and if you can ignore that to get your fat paycheck then I can certainly judge the shit out of you, without a very high chair. The fact that you claim rational discourse has ended when people invoke the lessons of Nuremberg - “because Godwin’s law” - is a stain on, and reflection of your own character. Godwin comp…

> You live in a society. Your actions have consequences, and if you can ignore that to get your fat paycheck then I can certainly judge the shit out of you, without a very high chair.

My actions don't involve the harm of others, outside of their fragile egos and obsession with what they think should be their rights. I couldn't possibly care less about your judgement.

> The fact that you claim rational discourse has ended when people invoke the lessons of Nuremberg - “because Godwin’s law” - is a stain on, and reflection of your own character.

The fact that you think an argument about a subject with a variety of opinions deserves comparison to one of the most horrible events in human history is a reflection on your character.

> Godwin compares people to Nazis sometime himself you know, when there’s a call for it. When this many people are calling you on it, maybe you should be listening a little better..

It's valid when their behavior is something akin to Nazism. Not very many people are calling me on it... on the contrary, my post is getting upvoted. Because the reality of the situation is, targeted advertising is a topic that needs discussion but it has no place in a comparison with the death of millions of people because of their heritage/religion.

It's pathetic hyperbole people use when they can't win an argument on its merits.

Post reply on HN