Live data from Hacker News

If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

escapebigtech.info

1–10 of 24 posts

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#2
error logging software helps software teams track the occurrence and frequency of errors together with the context of the browser/runner and the software stack, with the aim of reproducibility. It’s analogous to recounting the problem with the latest online purchase to customer support.

That should probably not be in the same class of analogies as a group of people following you shopping downtown noting every action you take.

I admit there’s the area in between where sports coaches record the performance of athletes in order to improve positive financial outcomes (telemetry)

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#3
> Call criminal behavior for what it is; don’t pretend it’s not criminal. If we all start identifying Big Tech for what it truly is, a band of stalkers, perhaps we can start changing the future.

I have a hard time taking this article seriously with hysterical statements like this.

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#4
post #3

> Call criminal behavior for what it is; don’t pretend it’s not criminal. If we all start identifying Big Tech for what it truly is, a band of stalkers, perhaps we can start changing the future. I have a hard time taking this article seriously with hysterical statements like this.

I didn't buy it. There are so many laws that at the very least we are all lawbreakers if not criminals.

Except for me.

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#7
> For bizarre reasons people throw away all their standard morals that are nothing short of common sense in “the real world” when it comes to tech. It’s as if standing 10 inches from a screen alters reality itself.

It’s not just tech. Well, not just tech with screens, anyway. Consider the behavior of many car drivers. Or your consumption of goods gathered or manufactured by very poor people in other countries, in unfortunate conditions. When you don’t have to interact with people directly, it tends to minimize the social constraints that usually keep people in check.

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#8

> If you’re a criminal, I will not use any application you write. Cool story, but I have bad news about the people who contribute to Linux, which you’re apparently into.

Yeah, the entire premise of the article is based on the idea that this seems obvious - yet it isn't really. What's your definition of criminal? You have to be pretty naive to believe that every rule the government has written is morally justified. Is it even possible to find a software developer who didn't pirate things at one point? Or try drugs?

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#9
Calling someone a "criminal" means he was found guilty, in a court of law, of violating a such-and-such law. What laws were violated here? If the claim is someone is a criminal, the burden of proof is on you to prove it because it's a significant claim. Simply finding someone disagreeable does not make him a criminal.

Furthermore, if you prefer judging software by who wrote them rather than what they are, then I have no confidence that your judgments will be valuable. I'm pretty sure there was a Latin phrase (or something similar) for this behaviour, judging a work by the merits of its creator rather than its own.

EDIT: Didn't realize this was presumably submitted by the author himself. Rephrasing as appropriate with that in mind.

Re: If you’re a criminal I will not use any application you write

#10
post #3

> Call criminal behavior for what it is; don’t pretend it’s not criminal. If we all start identifying Big Tech for what it truly is, a band of stalkers, perhaps we can start changing the future. I have a hard time taking this article seriously with hysterical statements like this.

Also, crime is whatever the law defines as such. Smoking weed is a crime, and data collection and processing is not.

But I’m pleasantly surprised the author puts the responsibility for abandoning the tech on users rather than governments.

Post reply on HN