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

Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 307 posts

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#261

Post by randusername »

hawkice wrote: post #254
randusername wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: e-bikes are more climate friendly than human-powered bikes. 5 grams CO2 equivalent emissions per mile e-bike, 40 grams per mile for human eating exclusively bananas. Much, much worse for other dietary choices. Embodied carbon emissions in the bike itself are essentially equivalent. The Carbon Footprint of Everything (2022)

The carbon in food is not captured or emitted in any coherent sense here. The crops are grown (capturing the carbon in the first place) for the purpose of feeding people -- in the same way that modern American forestry for paper is functionally carbon neutral (ignoring transport and processing) because the trees are in equilibrium. The counterfactual of not eating the food results in fewer crops and basically the sam…

From the end notes, I think the author's response would be that the carbon equivalent emissions come from the fossil fuel used in growing, fertilizing, harvesting, transporting, refrigerating, packaging, and so-on.

The larger point of the book is that specific accounting is messy, but if we proceed anyway we can get to the rough orders of magnitude that are more useful.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#262

Post by tinfoilhatter »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #176
jjav wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We live in a hell of our own creation Well not "our" creation since only a few oligarchs control most of the companies that engage in this. > and only new legislation and regulations can get us out of here. The same oligarchs control nearly all the legislators, so no way out.

>Well not "our" creation since only a few oligarchs control most of the companies that engage in this Do not excuse the millions upon millions of useful idiots who lent credence to the "rulers" stupid projects at every step of the way. A lot of this problem is in the mirror. Those oligarchs would have infinity less power if a whole bunch of people din't agree with them. I mean hell, go look at HN comments from before…

Now that we know how positive reinforcement works, and why negative doesn’t, we can be more deliberate and hence more successful, in our cultural design. We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled… nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That’s the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcement—there’s no restraint and no revolt. By a careful design, we control not the final behavior, but the inclination to behave—the motives, the desires, the wishes. The curious thing is that in that case the question of freedom never arises.

- B.F. Skinner

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#263

Post by watwut »

bluGill wrote: post #206
watwut wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best argument against "voting with your wallet" I heard was following: billionaires have much bigger wallets. They will outvote the rest of us every single time voting with wallet is used as political strategy.

Well, billionaires do have bigger wallets. The common person as a collection has bigger wallets than the billionaires. Remember, too, that the billionaires are not a 100% alignment on everything.

> The common person as a collection has bigger wallets than the billionaires.

They don't. And remember, the billionaire has 100% alignment on everything with himself and that gives him huge power when voting with a valet. A collection of "common people" is a true collection of people with very different priorities and needs.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#264

Post by ACV001 »

sfRattan wrote: post #12

With cars, networked computers are encroaching on privacy from two sides: the computers inside the car sharing sensor data and the computers outside the car sharing camera data from known points on the road. Older cars may not have cellular data, and some new cars (e.g. the Slate electric car) may be specifically designed without cellular connections or with easily removable chips, but so much can still be inferred f…

There is a lot of legislation missing in the world. Partially to blame is corruption (so called lobbying), greed and so.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#265

Post by coliveira »

bflesch wrote: post #216
coliveira wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Bill Gates. People generally don't know he's heir of one of the richest banking families in Washington state.

One thing is old money, another is telling everyone you are selfmade when in fact you are a nepo kid. If you are old money you tend towards intelligence roles because they give you diplomatic passport and make you immune to the law. It is much better than owning 5 passports from some banana republic because in the end only military might of the colonial powers counts (e.g. the british crown). So many of the silicon v…

Many of these people follow a pattern, where they (apparently) come from nothing and very early in their careers become advisors or get capital from a very rich and powerful person/company. This should give you pause and realize that it doesn't happen to a normal person. The true answer is either their parents or close associates, people they trust. Bill Gates is an example where his true golden ticket was a contract with IBM that was only possible because IBM's CEO was a trusted friend of his mom.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#266

Post by nickthegreek »

itopaloglu83 wrote: post #162
phantomathkg wrote: post #83

It is fascinating that we still haven’t have a law that forbid the car company from automatically share the data. The car owner is buying a car, using computer to handle complicate hardware I understand, but at what point it make sense to share the data automatically without consent?

In Honda vehicles, you can turn it off but then it will show a permanent warning on your dash saying your spying settings are off and keeps bugging you as if you’re out of fuel.

Here is an opt-out page for those with Honda's who want to know more.

https://www.honda.com/privacy/your-privacy-choices

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#267

Post by SapporoChris »

bluGill wrote: post #232
SapporoChris wrote: post #141

Do passengers have any rights against their personal data being collected when riding (not driving) in someone else's vehicle? I tried to look this up on my own but my results were always polluted with public transportation, or vehicle accident situations or just this gem "share your concerns with your driver, they can explain the data being collected".

You probably do, but it would cost you tens of million in lawyer costs that you won't get back.

I'll keep wearing my surgical mask, dark glasses and tin foil hat.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#268

Post by allthetime »

randusername wrote: post #252
allthetime wrote: post #40

Just here to remind you all about bicycles.

Fun fact: e-bikes are more climate friendly than human-powered bikes. 5 grams CO2 equivalent emissions per mile e-bike, 40 grams per mile for human eating exclusively bananas. Much, much worse for other dietary choices. Embodied carbon emissions in the bike itself are essentially equivalent. The Carbon Footprint of Everything (2022)

Is this accounting for the production of batteries and electrical components?

That asked, some things I do for myself, and self-propelling is great for my health and longevity.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#269

Post by coliveira »

bflesch wrote: post #251
jamwil wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it mean to be ‘in intelligence’ in this context?

Performing privileged work for the government in some shape or form which allows you to skirt the legal rules and makes you immune to certain issues (e.g. travel with diplomatic passport or invent fake identities to hide your real family tree). In force-colonized countries such as South Africa, the local colonial overlords openly looted the country, first in the name of the monarch and later for their own wealthy cla…

The connections between Trump and intelligence have really been hidden by the media, but they're quite obvious. He was running a "model agency" just like Epstein, so he was in the same business. His luxury real estate business for rich foreigners from East Europe follows the same pattern, and there he employed Felix Sater who came out publicly as a CIA operative during the "Russiagate" investigations. His businesses were in part a facade for intelligence operations. Nobody should forget Trump was a protege of Roy Cohn, of all people... This explains why he makes so many moves with almost certainty of impunity.

Re: Cars collect a startling amount of data about you

#270

Post by J_Shelby_J »

allthetime wrote: post #268
randusername wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: e-bikes are more climate friendly than human-powered bikes. 5 grams CO2 equivalent emissions per mile e-bike, 40 grams per mile for human eating exclusively bananas. Much, much worse for other dietary choices. Embodied carbon emissions in the bike itself are essentially equivalent. The Carbon Footprint of Everything (2022)

Is this accounting for the production of batteries and electrical components? That asked, some things I do for myself, and self-propelling is great for my health and longevity.

Yes. I wrote a paper on it a long time ago. Even on the lowest carbon footprint, vegan, diet and even with coal power and even accounting for production and lifetime costs, electric bicycles have a smaller footprint than walking or traditional bicycles. Probably even more so now as the numbers I were using were 20 years ago when e-bikes were not fully enjoying economies of scale.

E-bikes are really power efficient, and food production is very inefficient. Your average American commute probably uses less power per day than a refrigerator.

That said, it’s not really meaningful when comparing to the carbon footprint of driving. Diet and e-bike vs bike just really does not matter compared to the choice of driving an ICE or not driving an ICE. It’s more of just a neat fact.

Post reply on HN