Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball • Hacker News Board

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#51

Post by wellthisisgreat » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:42 PM UTC

dheera wrote: post #13

iamthejuan wrote: post #7

They did that here in the Phillipines and they exploit the poor. They give money for people to allow them to scan their eyes. These people do not know the consequences of what they are doing.

> These people do not know the consequences of what they are doing. They might have known the consequences, but money is money. I feel like for 99% of people there is a certain sum of money for which they will give into pretty much any kind of data collection. Even I'd give into it if they gave me enough . The bar is just higher, but there does exist a certain $X for which I would give in as well.

How much would you want for your genome?

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#52

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:43 PM UTC

preommr wrote: post #16

tuyguntn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

P.S. Not blaming him for this behavior, probably I would also change my mind immediately if someone offered me 7% of $300B

He already had enough wealth that he was in a threshold where it wouldn't matter if he got a few more billion if that the was the lifestyle he was willing to lead. There isn't a magical kind of sugar, or drug that's available to a multi-billionaire but not someone with 100s of millions. If somebody is trying to get billions, they're doing it because they're the type of person that wants to be a part of politicis, and…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#53

Post by sssilver » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:43 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #38

Even if you 100% believe in your heart that Altman would never do anything negative with these scans that doesn't mean someone else won't if/when they get access to them. People may trusted 23andMe with their genetic data but now no one knows who will end up owning it and why the buyer believes buying the data is profitable. https://wydaily.com/latest/regional-national/2025/05/08/23an...

Every company is exactly one CEO away from doing anything none would ever expect.

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#54

Post by alwa » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

andy_ppp wrote: post #24

alwa wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it certain that impoverished people would weigh those potential consequences more heavily than being paid today? For that matter, do we expect that the impoverished people the gp commenter refers to would resist, say, government-led efforts to compel their biometrics from them? [0] [0] e.g. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2022/0425...

Everyone deserves food and political freedom in my opinion. We could probably do it too if we actually tried.

I agree! I think what rubbed me was the idea that the people taking Altman’s deal “do not know the consequences of what they are doing.”

Down that road lies a paternalistic flavor of charity, a spirit of “protecting them from themselves.” And that seems to evoke the idea that poor is the same as ignorant. That there’s only one correct value to assign to your biometric data, and anyone who values theirs differently must do so because they’re ignorant, rather than just having different values from you.

We can advocate for political freedom, material security, and just societies—and probably get better results—if we don’t model people as helpless or uninformed or without agency just because they’re in a socially vulnerable position.

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#55

Post by andy_ppp » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

ptero wrote: post #50

hammock wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has your eye been recorded at the store?

What does a picture of your eye allow that fingerprints, face scans and other passport biometrics that have already been collected and linked do not? Honest question.

Yes the government and or private companies don’t have a copy of my fingerprints and I’d honestly rather they didn’t have pictures of my face on record either. Just because we’ve become accustomed to these breaches of our privacy doesn’t mean they are good.

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#56

Post by mzajc » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

voytec wrote: post #44

Biometric data is valuable. Assuming that Musk's DOGE crew copied data obtained from US gov agencies, they may have also obtained biometric data of EU citizens. At least some countries have shared citizens' fingerprints with the US. Not just Visa Waiver Program applicants' but as I understand, previous government of Poland made a deal to share all citizens' fingerprints. And these are collected from anyone renewing t…

> previous government of Poland made a deal to share all citizens' fingerprints

This piqued my interest, but I couldn't find anything. Do you know where I could find more information about it?

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#57

Post by Squeeeez » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

sssilver wrote: post #53

wnevets wrote: post #38

Even if you 100% believe in your heart that Altman would never do anything negative with these scans that doesn't mean someone else won't if/when they get access to them. People may trusted 23andMe with their genetic data but now no one knows who will end up owning it and why the buyer believes buying the data is profitable. https://wydaily.com/latest/regional-national/2025/05/08/23an...

Every company is exactly one CEO away from doing anything none would ever expect.

Not only companies sadly.

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#58

Post by usrnm » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:46 PM UTC

sssilver wrote: post #53

wnevets wrote: post #38

Even if you 100% believe in your heart that Altman would never do anything negative with these scans that doesn't mean someone else won't if/when they get access to them. People may trusted 23andMe with their genetic data but now no one knows who will end up owning it and why the buyer believes buying the data is profitable. https://wydaily.com/latest/regional-national/2025/05/08/23an...

Every company is exactly one CEO away from doing anything none would ever expect.

Most companies are exactly 0 CEOs away from that

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#59

Post by mapcars » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

creata wrote: post #45

mapcars wrote: post #40

Something I don't understand is how is that so bad? Even today one can buy passport data, social security numbers etc on black markets leaked by government employees in most countries. Once they start using more biometric data I'm sure it will be leaked as well. If we assume that all this information is permanently available in a public blockchain, how does it change anything for society really? I can think of securi…

Justifying what Worldcoin is doing by comparing them to black market leaks isn't helping their case.

I'm not justifying Worldcoin and I don't know all the details about what they are doing.

My realistic assumption is that all this data will become public one way or another, so I'm trying to understand how we can make sure it can't be abused.

Re: Sam Altman Wants Your Eyeball

#60

Post by wing-_-nuts » Sat, May 10, 2025, 5:51 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #38

Even if you 100% believe in your heart that Altman would never do anything negative with these scans that doesn't mean someone else won't if/when they get access to them. People may trusted 23andMe with their genetic data but now no one knows who will end up owning it and why the buyer believes buying the data is profitable. https://wydaily.com/latest/regional-national/2025/05/08/23an...

When talking about government surveillance, people often ask some version of 'well, if you're not doing anything wrong, what are you afraid of?'. My response is always, 'It's not that I don't trust our current government, I don't trust all future governments that come after this one'.

I hope given the recent events of having some hired thugs rifle through government databases (including the OPM, which supposedly has very sensitive data from security clearance applications), that maybe letting people collect and store data on you should be avoided at all cost.

The older I get, the more I understand the stereotype of the eccentric former techie who no longer wants anything to do with modern technology or society