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Comment by pkorzeniewski | Hacker News Reader

I feel like the tech in general is getting user-hostile... Everyone (websites, apps, cars, tvs, etc.) wants to track you and collect as much data as possible, websites nag you to install app on your phone, dark patterns everywhere, "smart" devices that won't work without an internet connection or become bricks after a while, smartphone manufacturers forcing you to buy new phone by making apps slower on older devices, more closed protocols and walled gardens - the list goes on and on...

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I'm starting to think all the crazy libre software people are on to something.

They're not "crazy", which is pretty disrespectful. Anyone paying attention has seen the writing on the wall for a while. Snowden just confirmed what they've been saying all along.

Data is the new arms race, those who collect the most have the most to gain, especially financially where data is being a core asset to a business.

Dumb is going to be the new gold, at least for those "crazies" you speak of.

Whoosh!

That post was reeking of sarcasm even if it was hidden well :-)

It's not the tech that's user-hostile. It's just the usual rent-seekers have cottoned on to how to leverage it to, well, seek rent.

Unfortunately those people will always be with us because it's not completely ethical to weed them out at birth.

Would it be unethical to genetically engineer embryos to eliminate sociopathy? Or how about engineering an airborne virus which modifies victims' DNA to eliminate sociopathy? (Of course, these could have drastic unintended side-effects, especially the latter.)

The potential unintended consequences was covered in the movie Serenity.

Through no fault of its own I don't think a better technology has ever existed for the rent seeker to leverage than current digital tech. The whole modern concept of a "platform" puts good old fashioned slumlording and payday loaning to shame.

It's not tech that is getting user-hostile, it's just bad tech.

The big problem IMHO is that some of the essential technology we rely on every day -- our operating systems, communication devices, vehicles -- has been moving rapidly into that category in recent years.

When the pseudo-malware stuff was only being done by individual applications or websites or quirky IoT devices, you could mostly avoid it by just not using those things. Now it's becoming unavoidable, and that's a serious concern.

Tech needs programmers and I put all the blame on them.

Everytime I see some despicable software behavior my mind always envisions and reviles the programmer that allowed it to happen. I'm always disgusted at the depths humans will go to make more money.

> I feel like the tech in general is getting user-hostile...

Of course it is. How else can tech sustain perpetual growth without wringing every penny out of users?

Productivity gains. But naturally people want more returns, higher stock prices, more profit. So we get both real technological change (innovation) and the dark patterns too.

Time to get out of tech and into starting the next revolution?

We’re not “tech people”, we’re just early adopters. :)

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