Earlier quoted context omitted.
People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. Still, most people I know are vaguely aware that there's something creepy going on. They aren't really comfortable with Facebook, Inc owning their digital social life, but they rely on it because of the obvious network effect. Try asking someone "hey, you know Facebook use a lot of state-of-the-art technolog…
>People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. But neither do you really, right ? Sure, you may have a better idea than them of what's technically feasible, but the general HN consensus on the motives, values and internal decision-making process at these companies ("always assume the worst from them, they're optimizing for money!") is in my experience (…
I don't think it's nerd-bias... it's more that many of my friends and acquaintances who aren't nerds are still instinctively skeptical of large corporations and the power structures they create with respect to privacy.
As for what people in general think, we really should ask around. I heard about a consumer trust survey where Facebook's trust was very low, and based on how I see people relate to Facebook, I'm not surprised at all.
I think we ought to be suspicious and critical of corporations that collect large amounts of private and personal data, just as we ought to be so of government surveillance (of course they're inseparable).