Once again campaign finance reform should be on the ballot, and once again the duopoly has made sure we're not even talking about it let alone voting on it.
Duopoly? One party is totally unelectable
84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
31–40 of 116 posts
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#32Disappointing the article goes for the usual "congress is corrupt" instead of getting into details of who within the US congress is corrupt and being controlled by whom.
It's like the DJ-3000 automated DJ inane chatter bot from the Simpsons
"Looks like those clowns in Congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns."
"How's he keep up with news like that?"
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#33The real truth is that strong privacy laws would cause economic harm to flagship corporations. That would have a ripple effect on the economy as those corporations are responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs. The elected representatives know that people care more about the economy (specifically what's in their wallets) than about privacy.
This argument may well have some truth, but it shrinks the debate to
individual choices about "money in my wallet" versus "privacy".
Increasingly the debate is moving to national security. We hear that the US government has lost trust in Microsoft. In the UK the choice of GCHQ to use AWS has caused consternation. A much more complex and nuanced landscape is emerging. Two of the links in the Techdirt article reference national security issues.
National security and economic welfare of citizens are not separate. Private profit of a few global surveillance and data trading companies creates a problem that affects more than individual rights.
So even if one ignores ethics and rights and takes a purely economic perspective, one has to ask whether the damage to a nation caused by big-tech surveillance companies outweighs their net benefit to the economy.
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#34The real truth is that strong privacy laws would cause economic harm to flagship corporations. That would have a ripple effect on the economy as those corporations are responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs. The elected representatives know that people care more about the economy (specifically what's in their wallets) than about privacy.
Is this a trickle-down style of argument? Or that corporations are holy? Or that they always have the job takers interests at heart? Or that the elected representatives are elected by the 16% who don't want stronger privacy laws? I'm confused.
I think the argument is that people say they care about privacy, but they really care about money. Online privacy laws will cost at least some people some money, and those people vote too. And their representatives know they vote.
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#35The real truth is that strong privacy laws would cause economic harm to flagship corporations. That would have a ripple effect on the economy as those corporations are responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs. The elected representatives know that people care more about the economy (specifically what's in their wallets) than about privacy.
Is this a trickle-down style of argument? Or that corporations are holy? Or that they always have the job takers interests at heart? Or that the elected representatives are elected by the 16% who don't want stronger privacy laws? I'm confused.
I believe it's an argument for representative democracy instead of direct democracy. I feel that representative democracies allow for unpopular things to happen (e.g. taxes), if the alternative means the economy or country crashes. I'm not an expert in this field.
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#36The real truth is that strong privacy laws would cause economic harm to flagship corporations. That would have a ripple effect on the economy as those corporations are responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs. The elected representatives know that people care more about the economy (specifically what's in their wallets) than about privacy.
Privacy of majority of population is more important than income of a bunch of corrupt SV engineers, isn't it?
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#37The real truth is that strong privacy laws would cause economic harm to flagship corporations. That would have a ripple effect on the economy as those corporations are responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs. The elected representatives know that people care more about the economy (specifically what's in their wallets) than about privacy.
Safety laws, anti-child labor laws, environmental laws, worker protection laws all could cause economic harm to flag ship corporations.
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#38This is just another clueless populist article. The key to actually ask people "What are you willing to give up for X"? Are you ok being more annoyed with popups asking your permissions every time? Are you ok with a recession in Ad-based ecosystem (merchants, ad brokers, stock market depression, fewer IPOs) that may result due to this? Would you be OK with paying for services instead of an Ad model? (and before Virtu…
So just in case people occasionally vote for shortsighted policies, we should preventatively remove their democratic autonomy altogether, replacing them with corporate puppets just to be safe? The enlightened shills will lead civilization to a new golden age of personal prosperity and financial prudence.
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#39The real truth is that strong privacy laws would cause economic harm to flagship corporations. That would have a ripple effect on the economy as those corporations are responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs. The elected representatives know that people care more about the economy (specifically what's in their wallets) than about privacy.
As parasitic as the advertising business is, the "legitimate" commercial surveillance activities provides a nice cover for other types of surveillance, obfuscating the operations of state actors who can run their own programs or tap commercial networks to just buy whatever data they want.
Re: 84% want stronger online privacy laws, but Congress's corruption stalls progress
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
The economy grows or shrinks with productivity but advertising specifically is zero sum. Coke vs Pepsi makes a great deal of difference to those specific companies and little else. If anything it’s slightly negative due to inefficiency because the winner isn’t the best product.
[flagged]
> cost of acquiring a customer > cost of serving a customer
For a successful and popular product the cost of acquiring a customer is low. Heavy investments in advertising are needed for unpopular, overpriced products that naturally have a low demand.
For example, almost everything that I buy I bought not because of advertising but based on the comparison of product price and quality.