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Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

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Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still a better outcome than tossing your ethics overboard.

Why bother to join a union, pay dues, potentially have your career limited, and have another layer to deal with? Just leave or be fired without the song and dance.

Because you’re a person who cares about your fellow citizens and realize that collectively bargaining helps to lift all boats, not just yours

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#42

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

That’s what licensing is for, not unions.

A union could absolutely get involved in something like this.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something that has just never sat well with me. How exactly will the union provide this insurance? That insurance isn't free, so paid for by member dues? How many members are required to be able to afford the payout for just one member? How about the other services unions are touted as being able to provide? They all come from the same dues? I know that unions will put money into investment funds to attempt t…

that's definitely a big question and i don't pretend to have enough expertise to answer fully; however, i will point to the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan which is (per Wikipedia[1]) "one of the world's largest institutional investors [...] over $266 billion in net assets, with a one-year total-fund net return of 9.4%, and a 7.4% 10-year total-fund net return". the union runs their own investment fund; it's an extens…

That is only a pension plan. It provides no insurance to teachers who are still employed.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#45

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

That’s what licensing is for, not unions.

i don't believe that software development should require a license. imagine having to get board-licensed to download gcc; therein lies the death of free software and owning your devices.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#46

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

I'd wonder how you'd get into that arrangement to begin with when the entire job is based on unethical tracking

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still a better outcome than tossing your ethics overboard.

Why bother to join a union, pay dues, potentially have your career limited, and have another layer to deal with? Just leave or be fired without the song and dance.

union strong, bro.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#48

> Meta must face a lawsuit alleging that it secretly tracked Android users' browsing activity on mobile websites that embedded Meta's analytics pixel, and linked that activity to users' identities, a federal judge ruled Monday. > The decision, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco, grew out of a class-action complaint initially brought last June by California resident Devin Rose (and later joi…

Not at all to defend Meta but "a feature that allows software developers to test applications" is a dubious definition of localhost. I also can't come up with a better one.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#49

i would love to have a software engineer's union, not so much to get better working conditions but to be able to say stuff like "i can't implement that unethical feature, it's against union rules and i'd lose my membership".

To be fair; you don't need a union... you can just say no. Context; I told them they couldn't ship this exact feature as designed. (It worked until I left.)

yes, true sometimes (not always). but if more people have access to a way to confidently say "no" (with protection behind them), then i think saying "no" would happen more often, by people who might've otherwise complied.

Re: Ask HN: So what happened to Facebook "localhost" tracking?

#50
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something that has just never sat well with me. How exactly will the union provide this insurance? That insurance isn't free, so paid for by member dues? How many members are required to be able to afford the payout for just one member? How about the other services unions are touted as being able to provide? They all come from the same dues? I know that unions will put money into investment funds to attempt t…

> That insurance isn't free, so paid for by member dues? Yes, obviously. That's how every insurance works.

Yes, obviously. A question not asked as assumed a natural part of the thinking process is how many members does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? Just because other unions exists does not mean that the one that techBro Norma Rae starts is going to remain viable. How many claims can be paid out before the insurance no longer pays out? Lots of conversation left after your trite yes obviously unhelpful comment
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