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Comment by olympus | Hacker News Reader

It's not illegal to record whether you think someone is gay. It's probably immoral if you hand that data over to a country that will prosecute someone for being gay (Russia).

I'm not aware of any US protections unless they came along with recently passed legislation, but the GDPR had some recourse for European citizens. They are now guaranteed a right to explanation and a right to correct the data. So if a person is given a higher health insurance premium, they are allowed to ask for an explanation. If the answer is "Google thinks you're gay, so we're raising your premium," the person is allowed to correct the information, basically saying, "I'm not gay, so please lower my premiums to what they were."

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(and then in the UK you sue for discrimination based on sexuality).

Right, but that is only if they discriminate based on what they had recorded about you. A company recording whether they think you are gay based on your location information isn't doing anything illegal until they discriminate against you with that information. There are things that a company can do (like advertising) that doesn't meet the bar of discrimination that they can still legally do with their inference about your sexual preference (or whatever else they infer about you from your data).

Advertising "gay" products to you based on the fact that your cell phone spends a lot of time in close proximity to a gay bar probably doesn't meet the bar for a discrimination lawsuit.

>prosecute someone for being gay (Russia).

where do you get this outlandish nonsense from?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia#National...

"Under the statute it is effectively illegal to perform any of the following in the presence of minors: hold gay pride events, speak in favor of gay rights, or say that gay relationships are equal to heterosexual relationships"

"The law subjects Russian citizens found guilty to fines of up to 5,000 rubles and public officials to fines of up to 50,000 rubles."

You didn't answer his question. Those are laws against promoting homosexuality - not being homosexual.

Of course just being gay isn’t a crime in glorious motherland, but promoting homosexuality is. That’s so broad that it includes being openly gay, or standing up for your rights if you’re gay. It’s sort of like saying that it’s not illegal to be alive, it’s just illegal to breath.

Typically thuggish laws from a state run by its own intelligence services-cum-mafia.

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