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Comment by shajznnckfke | Hacker News Reader

Personally, I don’t care about what a computer system does with my data (to me, that’s no more bothersome than my underwear seeing my genitalia), but I do care if humans get to look at it. So overall I’m fine with what Google does, but bothered by government spooks looking through my data. I’m okay with humans looking if there’s a process with oversight limiting the search only to what is necessary. From this perspective, I don’t think Google harms my privacy much. I think the biggest privacy risk to me personally is probably from breaches/leaks (eg. if I gave my emails or messages to some dodgy service, and they end up on pastebin). To protect against that risk, I want entities that hold my data to have strong controls, and I think Google clears that bar.

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Personally, the fears around privacy are about harm being done to myself or others with my data. Google would be fine, except that big tech companies like Google sell your data to advertisers, who then use that data to coerce you into buying products and services that you might never have purchased if left to your own devices. That crosses into 'harm' territory.

For a more clear demonstration of harm, think about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, and the very real and tangible effects that scandal had.

I block ads, and Google doesn’t actually give your data to advertisers, so they don’t get anything from me. Just another case like my underwear seeing my genitalia, to my mind. Computers taking to themselves while I go on living my life.

Cambridge Analytica was a serious problem, although I thought Facebook had cracked down on that kind of thing, and Google did much further in the past.

> who then use that data to coerce you into buying products and services that you might never have purchased if left to your own devices.

That’s not what coercion means.

coerce: persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats

Don’t cheapen the word by misusing it.

cheap·en

/ˈCHēpən/

verb

reduce the price of.

"the depreciation of the dollar would cheapen U.S. exports"

synonyms: reduce, lower, lower in price, cut, mark down, discount, depreciate, devalue, depress, put down, keep down, slash, axe

So words cost money now? News to me.

> coerce: transitive verb. To bring about or gain by pressure, threat, or force.

There is a pressure exerted by controlling someone's environment. The use of the word fits.

I think “persuasion” is a good neutral term in this case. That’s what it’s called when someone tries to convince you of something.

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