301–310 of 463 posts
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What competitors are you using?
Walmart.com has stepped it up recently. Still a long way to go, and I doubt their intentions are any better, but competition is healthy.
I for one are happy to be tracked so that my experience is optimal. Edit: I understand the potential issues and especially with someone like Google using it for other things. But I am more concerned about the backlash against using data to improve our world. There are many different areas which would be improved greatly from more data and would be to everyone's benefit. Personally I have always shared as much as I ca…
I don't see people willing to share their data (with companies like Google) as the issue. The problem I'm concerned about is that there is a decreasing amount of choice in the matter. While you ultimately have a choice in a lot of these privacy-concerning cases, it's increasingly difficult and annoying to do so. People eventually cave and Google (et al) profits greatly by pushing them to do so. > There are many diffe…
It forces consolidation of data as a way to compete. You can't both have lots of competition and good use of data as the value is in the accumulated data.
What I think we still need a revolution in is how to make consumers data brokers of their own data. There are some attempts at making this a reality but it's not clear what the utility which will force this transcendence is going to be.
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Eric Schmidt, 2009
Eric Schmidt, 2009
Where did he post his e-mail address and password so we can all have a look? After all, if he's not doing anything wrong, he has nothing to hide.
My list of degooglifying actions: * switch default search engine to DuckDuckGo (can still use !s bang when one wants to see what Google has) * use tracking blocker (uBlock origin, BlockBear on iOS) * use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently) * use Zoho as a replacement for shared Google docs * use Youtube either in private window, and/or d…
> * use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently) instead of this, I just use Firefox and use the Multi-Account Container function to separate my browsing
(I'm also using Fluid for self-contained Facebook browsing, I suppose that would then become unnecessary).
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What are the consequences? I guess I don't understand them either
One consequence is that your personal data gets sold to whoever wants to pay for it. In the long run a serious consequence will be that all the data they collect could be used by a dictatorship to suppress opposition. I am sure Hitler and Stalin would have been very happy with the data Google and Facebook have. Once you have full-scale surveillance and the means to analyze the data in a country any kind of political…
This dark pattern seems to be spreading. Amazon recently pushed out an update to their (beta last I knew) web app that allows you to use their smile.amazon.com charity donation through the app. But in order to turn that on, you have to turn on all the notifications the app has, including their rather constant pushes of "deals I may be interested in". They're holding you hostage to their notifications because "it's fo…
Amazon finally exceeded my tolerance for slimy behavior last year, and I let Prime lapse. The amount of time and energy they have put in to making it hard to compare prices in their own goddamn store was enough by itself; behavior like this is motor-oil icing on the garbage cake. I had to readjust a few common purchases, but I was far less habituated to them than I thought I was. Having to actually pay attention and…
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What competitors are you using?
Walmart.com has stepped it up recently. Still a long way to go, and I doubt their intentions are any better, but competition is healthy.
That's like trading arsenic for cyanide.
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Goldman Sachs is obviously a “Wall Street” company because they are based in NYC and participate in the financial industry. Amazon, Microsoft, Concur and Expedia are all headquartered in Washington State which is nowhere near Silicon Valley. Similarly IBM is headquartered in New York. My question is what makes a company outside SV a “SV Company”. This usage of the term is new to me so I am attempting to get a more co…
Is it too hard to take the charitable view that by "SV Company" they mean "internet company?"
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what you’re pointing out is corporate social responsibility (CSR), which emerged decades ago. it’s an extension of branding, which advertising, among other marketing tools, supports. virtue signalling is on the consumer side, where consumption of the brand has the (positive) side effect of showing how with it and magnanimous you are. in any case, i also don’t see how it applies here (as sibling commenter points out).
Interesting, it's always good to know what the technical lingo is in these things, it helps us understand how the marketing minds think.
the prius is a prime example of virtue signalling used in marketing classes: honda was puzzled at why its civic hybrid wasn't selling while the prius sold like hotcakes, until it realized that the prius, with it's unique body styling, signalled virtuous environmentalism, while the civic hybrid, with it's standard civic styling, had no (additional) virtue signal.
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> * use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently) instead of this, I just use Firefox and use the Multi-Account Container function to separate my browsing
Interesting idea. I should give Firefox another try. (I'm also using Fluid for self-contained Facebook browsing, I suppose that would then become unnecessary).