Comment by anger | Hacker News Reader

Comment by anger | Hacker News Reader

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We live in the information age, when information is the ultimate power.

One danger is that with all that data about you and very advanced AI/ML tech Google can push you into making irrational purchase decisions (yeah, I know YOU are special, and advertising doesn't work on YOU) - e.g. buying a red sports car in your 40s.

The other is this data will be available to NSA, GCHQ, etc. and their controlling governments, politicians, their wealthy sponsors/muppetmasters, etc. Do you trust the politicians in USA, or any other courtry?

We are all man and not angels. Having all data on someone, you can always find shady stuff. Using that government and big business can make sure there are no influential union leaders, political parties offering real change, etc. It will be the end of (however imperfect) democracy.

"We live in the information age, when information is the ultimate power."

That power doesn't come from your individual data point, but rather from the collective points. In order to have an effect on that power, you need mass action.

The rest of my comment back is already covered by the other child comment here by name_for_now, which I strongly agree with.

So, outside of giving your data to government agencies, you're saying the worst thing Google can do is use ML to turn you into a consumer-zombie? While I mostly share your stance on this, that argument just seems completely ineffective (in part to the sense of exceptionalism you mention). Unless there's some poster child case of this that I'm unaware of, I'm not sure why "big scary ML-injected ads" keep getting brought up when there are potentially more valid concerns out there.

Moving on, the remainder of the argument relies on the assumption of an antagonistic state, which if true, means you have a much bigger and immediate problem in the first place. Google or not, China seems to be doing pretty well as a surveillance state so that doesn't seem too convincing either.

So I don't think that opinions will change without a string of high profile incidents that substantiate both of the concerns you mention.

> So, outside of giving your data to government agencies, you're saying the worst thing Google can do is use ML to turn you into a consumer-zombie?

Or a political zombie. Did everyone forget ad-tech's role in the 2016 election?

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