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Comment by not_kurt_godel | Hacker News Reader

There are many in tech whose jobs rely on selling personal information in ways that users would never consent to if they were made fully aware of what was being collected, how it was being collected, and how it was being used. I can't imagine it feels good to constantly deal with the cognitive dissonance required to participate in such schemes.

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This is not tech specific, this is the world we live in. It is built on ignorance.

- It is the steak I ate at dinner. - It is the AC I turned up in summer. - It is the car I drive etc.

Society does indeed effectively force us to participate in a number of immoral systems and choices but the ones you listed are not equivalent to voluntarily choosing a job whose fundamental basis is deceiving people into violating their privacy for your personal gain.

Agreed, there's greater sins and lesser sins and it's insane to think otherwise.

Some would disagree that opting into eating meat—supporting an industry that kills billions of animals each year—is better than any violation of privacy.

As I'm sure you're aware, the majority of the population doesn't bat an eye at that. I don't think it's at all surprising that enough people wouldn't be bothered by some non-lethal deception for monetary gain.

> - It is the steak I ate at dinner. - It is the AC I turned up in summer. - It is the car I drive

I know that this is just example. But are these specific things common?

The commonality I believe they're pointing to is the suffering that is often caused for these things to exist / function.

The problem is that this is a fake narrative. You're right, of course, I wouldn't approve of Facebook selling my contact list.

But compared to sharing of my private medical information within the government and to external private parties to enable government tax collection ... THAT I object to 100x more, but it never seems to make the news. I would like to see a blanket ban on government departments sharing ANY data beyond "this person exists", with exceptions approved on a case by case basis by congress plus heavy fines for government departments found in violating of these rules. Maybe even personal criminal liability for government employees actually doing the sharing if that's necessary to stop it.

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