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FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

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Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#21

I love the cognitive dissonance on display within the federal government. One arm: "everyone is a criminal; spy on everyone" Other arm: "hey you shouldn't really harvest all of that data"

I would be worried if the state was conscious of what it itself was doing as a whole

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cognitive dissonance is in the voters and users. Even right here on HN, where most people understand the issue, you'll see conversations and arguments in favor of letting companies vacuum up as much data and user info as they want (without consent or opt-in), while also saying it should be illegal for the government to collect the same data without a warrant. In practice, the corporations and government have foun…

HN is filled with folks that wrote the code in question, or want to create similar products. And they hate to have it pointed out that these tools may cause harm so they thrash around and make excuses and point fingers. A tale as old as this site.

I often have to remind myself who hosts this board and that I am hanging out on a site for successful and aspiring techno-robber-barons.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is filled with folks that wrote the code in question, or want to create similar products. And they hate to have it pointed out that these tools may cause harm so they thrash around and make excuses and point fingers. A tale as old as this site.

I often have to remind myself who hosts this board and that I am hanging out on a site for successful and aspiring techno-robber-barons.

> I am hanging out on a site for successful and aspiring techno-robber-barons.

that’s how we first arrive here (all of us). Time pass tho and most around fail then we become proper people capable of reasoning

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#27

Behind the ball by 15 years to start taking this seriously and beginning to think about pushing back, but better late than never. Next please reign in the CRAs.

I think Snowden was bang on when in 2013 he warned us of a last chance to fight for some basic digital privacy rights. I think there was a cultural window there which has now closed.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#28

I love the cognitive dissonance on display within the federal government. One arm: "everyone is a criminal; spy on everyone" Other arm: "hey you shouldn't really harvest all of that data"

It isn’t cognitive dissonance, the state does lots of things we’re not supposed to do. Like we’re not supposed to kill people, but they have whole departments built around the task.

Should the state do surveillance? Maybe some? Probably less? But the hypocrisy isn’t the problem, the overreach is.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#29

I love the cognitive dissonance on display within the federal government. One arm: "everyone is a criminal; spy on everyone" Other arm: "hey you shouldn't really harvest all of that data"

There are different organizations with different opinions. The government isn't a monolithic entity.

Re: FTC: Vast Surveillance of Users by Social Media and Video Streaming Companies

#30
"these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identify theft to stalking."

Is there any evidence that any of these things have ever happened as a result of this sort of data collection? I'm not talking about data posted to social media, I'm talking about the specific data collection described in this FTC press release.

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