Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
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Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#2Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#3My impression of these services are that they are simply available so people can feel they have "done something" about someone who seems suicidal by giving them the number, then wash their hands of the rest of it. Not that someone else's mental health puts any particular obligation on you, but that's the dynamic I see play out. I've called these services twice over the years when I was young and naive and had friends I was worried about, and their entire objective is to trick you into giving them details so they can sic the police on these people and ruin their lives with an involuntary hold in the psych ward. One of the calls was more of an advice call, as in I (then 16 years old) was trying to ask them what I should do, and when I refused to give them the person's address the person on the line straight up asked me "what do you want me to do?" I don't know! I was a scared 16 year old kid and you're supposed to be the one who knows that! What is the point of you answering the phone!
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#4This is quite disgusting. If there is one place where your privacy should be guarded it is there, plenty of places will forcibly admit you (at huge costs) if they see you as a suicide risk.
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#5Two sentences in that piece are particularly amazing taken together:
>"Data science and AI are at the heart of the organization — ensuring, it says, that those in the highest-stakes situations wait no more than 30 seconds before they start messaging with one of its thousands of volunteer counselors[...]"
>"Others questioned whether the people who text their pleas for help are actually consenting to having their data shared, despite the approximately 50-paragraph disclosure the helpline offers a link to when individuals first reach out."
They better start offering a speedreading course together with their suicide prevention service because otherwise that's hard to reconcile. In all seriousness, milking suicide prevention data in any shape or form to make more money, can we go any lower? There is only one legitimate way to handle data here, for law enforcement or medical professionals, otherwise delete it.
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#6[dead]
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#7Not the first recent controversy around this organization.
https://www.theverge.com/21293176/crisis-text-line-ceo-racis...
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#8My impression of these services are that they are simply available so people can feel they have "done something" about someone who seems suicidal by giving them the number, then wash their hands of the rest of it. Not that someone else's mental health puts any particular obligation on you, but that's the dynamic I see play out. I've called these services twice over the years when I was young and naive and had friends…
This is more of a reason for reverting police funds to other efforts, such as people that can help in cases like you brought up. Law enforcement has just become a huge bucket that encompasses too much.
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#9Two sentences in that piece are particularly amazing taken together: >"Data science and AI are at the heart of the organization — ensuring, it says, that those in the highest-stakes situations wait no more than 30 seconds before they start messaging with one of its thousands of volunteer counselors [...]" >"Others questioned whether the people who text their pleas for help are actually consenting to having their data…
I'm not sure, if you're an organization targeting people in distress for suicide prevention help, you can pretend that those people are in a state of mind to agree to any disclosure to terms of use.
Re: Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions
#10My impression of these services are that they are simply available so people can feel they have "done something" about someone who seems suicidal by giving them the number, then wash their hands of the rest of it. Not that someone else's mental health puts any particular obligation on you, but that's the dynamic I see play out. I've called these services twice over the years when I was young and naive and had friends…
Basically same experience. Even the mental health hotlines can be the same way. Unless you tell them you plan on killing yourself they say there is nothing they can do to help.