Live data from Hacker News

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

abc.net.au

91–95 of 95 posts

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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 e…

Unfortunately, you are very very wrong, and World war 2 is a great example why:

Some countries had census data containing the religion of every family. People proudly declared themselves Jewish. When the Nazis invaded the countries, they grabbed the available data and instantly knew who to send to the camps. One reason why so many Jews died was the speed with which the situation evolved. Sometimes there were 2 weeks between 'nothing to wory' and the deportation.

The same principle holds for every big list of intrusive data. Yes, you are grabbing all the data you can only to target ads. Today. But that same data in other hands can block people's access to loan, deny them healthcare or make them look like terrorists.

The US democracy is eroding, fast. It is not that far fetched to see the data ending up with the government: 1) How many data has ended up in a FOIA request? You don't know, as you don't see them. 2) Snowden proved that Google already leaked data to the government without even realizing it 3) An executive order from the US president will give him any access to the data.

And that's just the US government. Businesses sell data to each other whenever they want. Today Google seems not to do it, but one CxO change or bad financial quarter can change a lot here, fast.

Basically, Google is playing with fire, in a political situation equivalent to a big gas leak. Be very carefull.

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

#92

Further proof, as if any was needed, why other countries require something like the GDPR, backed up be significant penalties, and well-resourced enforcement. It won't happen in Australia though, as we are governed by fools who barely understand technology, and if they need to, rely on the representations of business to make any decisions.

> we are governed by fools who barely understand technology This is an argument heard all around the world with regards to similar issues. I wonder to what extent it actually applies, and it is not your latter statement - that lobbying and commercial interests are at play - that is prevailing (so they are 'willing fools'). Hard to know, of course, but I'd say these lawmakers need not have to know the intricacies of t…

"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice".

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

#93
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.

> and the moment you have to bring up Nazi's you're argument doesn't hold water

Not really.

You are thoroughly misusing Godwin's law, and Godwin himself stated that he never intended people like yourself to stifle conversation on a subject by chanting his name.

Godwin stated that references and comparisons to Hitler or the Nazis are perfectly reasonable in a conversation, as long as the person shows sufficient understanding of history, which the posters you are arguing with seem to have.

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

#94

I use DuckDuckGo, XMPP, ownCloud, Firefox with bunch of privacy enhancing extensions... My main phone is Maemo based, and I keep one with LineageOS and microG (so no Google Play Services) around as well. I access Facebook and Twitter only via webapps, with isolated wrappers like FaceSlim on mobile. Not only I feel somewhat safer about my data - battery usage, speed and user experience is so much better! Win-win :D

Did you read the article? Author says he searched using DuckDuckgo.

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

#95

I use DuckDuckGo, XMPP, ownCloud, Firefox with bunch of privacy enhancing extensions... My main phone is Maemo based, and I keep one with LineageOS and microG (so no Google Play Services) around as well. I access Facebook and Twitter only via webapps, with isolated wrappers like FaceSlim on mobile. Not only I feel somewhat safer about my data - battery usage, speed and user experience is so much better! Win-win :D

Did you read the article? Author says he searched using DuckDuckgo.

What this article tries to tell is that using DuckDuckGo is just a one small piece of bigger puzzle, not that DuckDuckGo tracks you.
Post reply on HN