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Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

nytimes.com

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Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#131

Post by leggomylibro »

Bartweiss wrote: post #104
dclowd9901 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my experience as well. While my family are enjoying their Amazon Dots and "Hey Siri" and everything else, I'm constantly reminding them of how evil these companies are, and how they're constantly consuming and eating information, while Uncle Sam syphons every drip of internet off the pipeline. Convenience, in my mind, has never been worth the price of losing anonymity.

I'm honestly pretty baffled by the whole "techies hate privacy and undermine consumers" genre. I mean, sure, engineers built Echo/Alexa and the Equifax website. But engineers also built Signal and HIBP. Programmers vary in their concern for privacy, just like any other group, but my general experience is that they skew more privacy-conscious than the general consumer. The writers who admit that often frame it as hypo…

Right; it's suits that hate privacy and undermine consumers, but they only do it because they think it's the best way to wring money out of you, and it's their job to figure that out without any sense of empathy, remorse, or morals.

Techies generally like privacy in my experience, but most of them also value a steady paycheck more than they value your privacy.

Sort of like how many factory workers like fishing, but they value a steady paycheck more than they value the health of your river. And again, the suits just see the river as a free way to get rid of otherwise expensive waste.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#133

Post by gm-conspiracy »

pascalxus wrote: post #116

I think 2017 is the year we have a turning point in the media's opinion of Silicon valley. I don't remember seeing this much SV bashing in the last 10 years. I think it has less to do with what SV is doing precisely: it's more about the threat of automation and the consolidation of power in the hands of a few companies. Pieces like this, so enfused with bitterness show a fundamental lack of understanding of how capit…

The media is probably upset about the excessive amount of javascript code the advertising networks force upon them when viewing their articles.

This was interesting (Carlos Slim has a 17% stake in the paper):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_The_Ne...

Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#134

Post by ghaff »

gm-conspiracy wrote: post #126
hprotagonist wrote: post #2

I grew up reading 2600 and the jargon file and early slashdot, and hanging out on freenode and usenet, so i've been indoctrinated in this way of thinking this way for 20 years. In my experience, the people who built the net are among its sharpest and most vocal critics, and there's some cause for that. I'm not sure what the implications of everyone else thinking this way will be.

Were you a BBS guy? That is how I learned to never give your real identity in an electronic world.

Depends on the BBS. On the one I was on for a long time, many people used their real identities and even got together IRL.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#135

Post by dragontamer »

KirinDave wrote: post #72
dragontamer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now it’s used as a political divider and a cesspool of mis-information. As a longtime user of the internet, from the 90s days of Usenet, to Gamefaqs LUEsers, to Something Awful, to Slashdot, to 4chan and to Reddit... public discussion has always been a political divider and a cesspool of misinformation. I'm not old enough to comment about the "early web" or the days before the "Eternal September". But my understand…

> As a longtime user of the internet, from the 90s days of Usenet A big difference from those days is that most of the major troll communities actively shunned people for what we'd call doxxing today. It's quite striking how as folks became more and more interested in the outside world, it became more and more important to attack people.

I think the turning point that "normalized Doxxing" was the anti-Scientology brigade a few years back.

There are other bits and pieces here and there. "Forum Invasions" in the early 00s were frowned upon, but Stephen Colbert's call to edit the Wikipedia "Elephant" page basically normalized that practice somewhat. Furthermore, while Forum invasions were considered poor-taste, they are extremely effective in Reddit (at least a few years ago) to "Vote Brigade" certain topics to the top page.

These actions are frowned upon, but the blood is in the water and people are now accustomed to their efficacy. Like sharks, the trolls smell the blood and enjoy their newfound powers.

Furthermore, when these online attacks are looked upon with favor in the mainstream (see South Park, which glorified the anti-Scientology fervor, and of course Colbert), it only led to more widespread acceptance of these tactics.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#137

Post by hprotagonist »

ghaff wrote: post #134
gm-conspiracy wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you a BBS guy? That is how I learned to never give your real identity in an electronic world.

Depends on the BBS. On the one I was on for a long time, many people used their real identities and even got together IRL.

This was true on freenode for me. I’ve never told anyone exactly who I am, but I’ve got some actual friends there I would feel comfortable meeting in real life.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#138

Post by conanbatt »

pm90 wrote: post #82
conanbatt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they took it as an example of reducing regulation in the others, instead of adding regulation to these ones..

There is a reason regulations exist. While I don't think regulations should be so onerous as to destroy businesses, they are definitely a good way to ensure that our economy is working for the benefit of everyone, including the environment.

There are many reasons for regulations to exist, most of them are pretty terrible. There is a typical reaction that if people are bound by some limitation, and some other, then we should create artificial limitations on the latter.

Regulatory capture, increasing costs, increasing tax revenue, all things that are not aligned with the general public. Just by the opportunists on the other side of the table.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

#139

Post by Nokinside »

All the companies mentioned are in business where network effects dominate. They absolutely can't stop growing, because there are no second places.

The problem here is that the playing field dictates the how the game can be played. This is new marketplace and new dynamic without established rules or balance. Governments slap sanctions to Google, Facebook and Amazon from time to time, but they don't do them consistently or solve the real underlying issues.

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