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

Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Privacy Debate

news.bloomberglaw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 146 posts

Re: Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Privacy Debate

#22

Post by nihonde »

cj wrote: post #8

This quote from the article highlights the problem at hand: > Organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology, which received at least $960,000 from [Google and Facebook] in 2018, are often quoted in the media as unbiased third parties and influence how policy is developed in Washington as such, despite receiving the tech company funding. > The group supports allowing tech giants to sell user data to third…

This has been going on since the 1990’s. Take a look at TrustE/TrustArc: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrustArc

Re: Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Privacy Debate

#23

Post by calibas »

Many, if not most, of the "consumer advocacy" groups are completely fake. They're astroturf groups that are owned by various industries. Here's a small selection of the ones owned by big oil:

California Drivers Alliance

Washington Consumers for Sound Fuel Policy

Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions

The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition

Friends of Science

Re: Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Privacy Debate

#24

Post by SXX »

outime wrote: post #21

Not exactly the same topic but similar - reminded me of how Google also donates not a small amount to Mozilla, to the point where Mozilla’s survival seems to be quite dependent on Google’s generosity.

Can you clarify what Google donations are you talking about? I honestly interested since I know for sure they bought the right to be default search engine in many countries, but I doubt Google ever just donated a lot of money to Mozilla for no reason.

Re: Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Privacy Debate

#27

Post by malnourish »

raxxorrax wrote: post #17
cj wrote: post #8

This quote from the article highlights the problem at hand: > Organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology, which received at least $960,000 from [Google and Facebook] in 2018, are often quoted in the media as unbiased third parties and influence how policy is developed in Washington as such, despite receiving the tech company funding. > The group supports allowing tech giants to sell user data to third…

And they are quite effective. My government believes selling customer data is the road to riches. They plan to sell even patient data from mandatory governmental health services. Complete lunatics in my opinion.

If the data is truly anonymized (and that's a big if), would you still have an issue?

Could you share which government is doing this? It is very troubling.

Edit: thank you all for good responses, I wasn't aware of the risks of de-anonymization but I will do more research into this.

Re: Facebook, Google Fund Nonprofits Shaping Privacy Debate

#29

Post by bogwog »

malnourish wrote: post #27
raxxorrax wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they are quite effective. My government believes selling customer data is the road to riches. They plan to sell even patient data from mandatory governmental health services. Complete lunatics in my opinion.

If the data is truly anonymized (and that's a big if), would you still have an issue? Could you share which government is doing this? It is very troubling. Edit: thank you all for good responses, I wasn't aware of the risks of de-anonymization but I will do more research into this.

> If the data is truly anonymized (and that's a big if), would you still have an issue?

Hell yes. The only time it's acceptable is if they get my informed consent.

Post reply on HN