Google (and other large tech companies) require a level of vigilance from their users in boundary-setting that would be unacceptable in almost any other context.
Not 'maybe later'. Not 'remind me tomorrow'. Not 'manage options'.
Just 'no'.
“ We respect your privacy! Do you agree to the use of cookies by this website?
[x] Yes, all of them, with some extra on top.
[] I would like to manually review and uncheck 859 individual checkboxes or be directed to some other 3rd party website to manage my settings there. Also, I would like these settings to expire after 7 days.
Your personal data matters to us! (In ways you can’t imagine) “
No, "we value your privacy (at a very high price!)".
Also watch out for the use of "legitimate interest". I have seen banks trying to deprive customers of their right to refuse data collection, data sharing and marketing messages, claiming legitimate interest.
See also a rare exception https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27060609
That requires an unreasonable amount of effort, and at least in the UK the DPA is completely useless, corrupt and/or incompetent.
do you accept your cookie policy ? [ yes | no, customize ]
and after you go through all that :
big green button [ continue with recommended settings ]
smaller gray one [ save my choices ]
guess what the green one does.
How can it be? You do nothing for 5+ seconds or you save a ton of cookies instantly.
Wes Borg from Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie did a skit called "Internet Helpdesk" that included this bit:
> Thank you for calling, your call is very important to us, please hold!
Otherwise, if companies can covert >0% of users and therefore make >$0 with every re-ask, they'll just ask again.
Large scale tech companies are predators when they want something. And they aren't going to magically stop being predators absent legal repercussions.
The American state prioritizes corporate interests by design. This is how industrial capitalism works and always has worked. And the EU is a dependent of the US, not an alternative to it.
The Western neoliberal consensus of the past half-century has caused people to forget how power works, and nowhere is that more clear than in these utopian calls for regulation on Hacker News.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Capitalism or a society. Pick one.
Since you mention “work hour limits”, look up the Haymarket Strike in Chicago that won the 40 hour work week for private employees in the US, but not before police shot and killed 4 peacefully striking workers.
> You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Capitalism or a society. Pick one.
You can have both. It just comes with people giving a shit and putting their lives and careers on the line in an organized fashion.
Which seems like a bargain, given the only alternatives have collapsed into "neither."
If organized workers withholding their collective labor to exercise power over the means of production is capitalism, then what do you consider socialism?
Not answering a strawman.
> If organized workers withholding their collective labor to exercise power over the means of production is capitalism, then what do you consider socialism?
Worker organization being mandatory and controlled by a bureaucracy, as opposed to freely opted in, from among a diverse set of independent options.
I think what we're seeing here is the breakdown of the neo-liberal consensus, and at least the specific form of capitalism that comes with it. We see this on both the left and the right (consider that neither Trump nor Sanders support neo-liberalism). It's still the status quo for now, but even amongst the mainstream of the mainstream I'm seeing a waning of support. That hasn't been followed by actions yet, but I think it's only a matter of time.
There seems to be broad recognition that these companies have too much control on our lives, and I expect a wave of regulation of things like consent for tracking, interoperability between services and right to repair to come through soon. Probably first in the EU with the US following. The GDPR has shown that it's possible, and already completely changed the conversation around data retention.
I'm not going to be saying this to attack people, but I am going to be pretty stern and resolute in my language here. Fair warnings have been given.
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Tobr, and anyone concerned...
For this kind of thing to occur, every single one of you out there would need to grow a backbone.(no offense, but its true.) I can't begin to start complaining about how many spineless fuckwits are out there letting these kinds of people like google get away with this all the fucking time, all because no one ever actually stands up for each other. Sure, they'll virtue signal when someone makes a scene, stuff like that.
But when the chips are down and its time to fight, these cowards run. These spineless fuckwits that ruin our society is all of you. All of you who never stand up against your boss. All of you who never tell your teachers off when they are in the wrong. All of you who never tell your families to be better, because they'll just act worse. Or your supposed so called 'friends'.
This problem is much deeper than just Google Tobr and crew reading this. This problem goes straight down to the heart of the reason as to why humanity just can't seem to catch a break in regards to evil people out there.
Remember, google's only good advice ever, they screwed up. "Don't be Evil."
They are evil, because all of you are gullible cowards; with only a few exceptions existing and not as a rule.
And to those who figure "You're wrong!"
PROVE IT. Get out there and do something useful for once in regards to this problem. I might believe you then.
I kinda solved that with fast mail + masked addresses, but still super annoying.
3 days later, the mails spontaneously reactivated themselves, but the french reverted to dutch. Which is what I want, so I presume it all worked out in the end.
if you enable it once, it will never ask you if you want to turn it off
Pain in my ass when that feature's disabled because my employer has skewed paranoia dials (so they don't trust Google with search history, but we're using Workspaces, so they trust them with... every corporate document stored in Drive? Wat?)