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Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

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191–200 of 221 posts

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#191
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On behalf all the non-millionaires out there, Fuck You. Money took away your ethics and morals and broke your brain. A right to privacy should be something we strive for, not maximizing profit by spying on people. We do not have a free market in the US either.

> On behalf all the non-millionaires out there, Fuck You. Money took away your ethics and morals and broke your brain. Less of this, please.

[deleted]

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#192
post #171
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like open source software? Given how poorly people often treat maintainers, I think "entitlement" is precisely the correct word. Your point about charity is well-made. Though it may perhaps strain credulity to expect email services on a truly massive scale to be offered as non-reciprocal charity.

>Though it may perhaps strain credulity to expect email services on a truly massive scale to be offered as non-reciprocal charity. Or anything that requires any sort of non-trivial capital to do. Video hosting/streaming (eg. YouTube), social media, news reporting, etc. I'm guessing the person you're replying to doesn't do their full time job for free and just accepts donations from their employers, either.

> I'm guessing the person you're replying to doesn't do their full time job for free and just accepts donations from their employers, either.

Eh, this is a false dichotomy of one can either be charitable or transactional in the entirety of the interactions in their lives.

In other words, your guess happens to be correct (gainful employment is not a mathematical rarity after all) but still provides no counterargument.

OPs claim was expecting anything with value without transacting something back was entitlement. My counterargument was that there exists charity and non-transactionality in many contexts.

The condition of anything requiring non-trivial capital is also wrong. We often pool tax money to render capital and services for things we don’t have direct, personal use of. And I am not saying this is necessarily charity, after all it is an obligation, but most folks don’t go after the particular line items of how their money is spent.

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#193
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it is locally done, I find it hard to see what isn't too like. That is, if I open an email and it asks if I want to make a reminder or add it to my calendar, that is cool. When I see that several emails I have not opened are already on my calendar, I am less happy about it.

That can still be done locally, no? You don't have to open an email for the phone to retrieve its contents.

I meant locally to be in my sight.

That said, I'd also assume that full emails are not sent to my device until I open them, unless I setup something.

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a chat with people who aren't into computers and the internet. A huge percentage of them don't understand any of this (and don't even understand why they should understand).

Well, do they not understand, or are they indifferent? I suspect that many of us here confuse the latter for the former.

A large percentage of the people I've talked to about this simply don't understand. Worse, many _think_ they understand.

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#195
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it is locally done, I find it hard to see what isn't too like. That is, if I open an email and it asks if I want to make a reminder or add it to my calendar, that is cool. When I see that several emails I have not opened are already on my calendar, I am less happy about it.

I don’t really see what’s different, honestly. They’re moving it from one system they control to another, big deal. Plus who says I even saw the original e-mail?

If they have given a side channel to impact my calendar, that will cause issues.

Sure, for many folks this will be fine. But it seems an unnecessary denial of service attack vector that needs more engineering to protect than makes sense.

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not, and should not, have a right not to be tracked. You should have a right to know if a given company wants to track you, and to decide if you want to still do business with them as a result. Similarly, they should have the right to know if you are going to block/evade tracking and be able to decide if they still want to do business with you as a result. This is how a free market works.

On behalf all the non-millionaires out there, Fuck You. Money took away your ethics and morals and broke your brain. A right to privacy should be something we strive for, not maximizing profit by spying on people. We do not have a free market in the US either.

Please don't do this on HN. I don't want to ban you and we can't have this kind of thing here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#197
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty simple - if its not profitable to run a service without spying on your users then it should simply not be run. That's it!

OK, that’s how you feel, and your choice. What do you think about people who wouldn’t mind being spied on in exchange for free or cheaper services? I’m personally with you, by the way, but I think it’s worth pointing out that it’s not the only valid position.

Should it be up to you to allow e.g. Google to systematically read incoming mail written by people with no relationship to Google whatsoever?

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#198
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On behalf all the non-millionaires out there, Fuck You. Money took away your ethics and morals and broke your brain. A right to privacy should be something we strive for, not maximizing profit by spying on people. We do not have a free market in the US either.

Please don't do this on HN. I don't want to ban you and we can't have this kind of thing here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[deleted]

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#199
post #64
post #8

Spon on. And that is why I will not pay for a YouTube abo. The day I can not stand the ads anymore, I will quit the cold turkey.

Ublock Origin, AdGuard or Brave gets you the best of both worlds.

Consider also: Sponsor Block

Re: Even if you’re paying, you’re still the product

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If I'm buying gas, I'm being served ads via the little screen. The first time I saw that, my immediate reaction was to hit the screen. My second thought was to pour gas on it and light it on fire. I refuse to use any place that does this unless it is a last resort. It's not terribly common where I live (yet) but I assume it is becoming standard. It's enraging.

In my area, I have one option for fuel without ads. That's a place that has old analog pumps that still ding when the gallon dial rolls over. Obviously there's no pay at the pump. If that store goes under or decides to modernize, then I will effectively not have a choice to get fuel without ads. It's really frustrating. I want to let competition and the market sort it out, but when there's no variation in the options…

Just because competition and the "market" don't think much of your preference doesn't mean it doesn't exist lol. What a self centered view! Also it seems to me when there are no variations in the options that's when it gets the most competitive. Commodity markets are the most competitive in the world. Jesus.
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