Comment by Sohcahtoa82 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Sohcahtoa82 | Hacker News Reader

Meh, I'm still not convinced.

I mean, I suppose I get possibly being creeped out that Google knows you prefer Pepsi over Coke and that you recently purchased an adult toy or whatever, but...meh? So they'll use that data to sell me targeted ads that I'm just going to block anyways.

I just don't see how it's actually harmful beyond the government access issue that's just dropped in as a single sentence at the end of one paragraph.

> A relatively recent example is PayPal blocking individuals from transacting or fining them for having the wrong politics.

Any time someone cries about being cancelled for having the wrong politics, I always think of this famous tweet:

https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/105039166355267174...

Conservative: I have been censored for my conservative views

Me: Holy shit! You were censored for wanting lower taxes?

Con: LOL no...no not those views

Me: So....deregulation?

Con: Haha no not those views either

Me: Which views, exactly?

Con: Oh, you know the ones

My government certainly doesn't care what sex toys I buy; but there are some bronze plaques in the pavement around here, dedicated to victims of the earlier of the two times the government was evil and sent people to their deaths for such things; and I've been to the museum made from the headquarters of the people responsible for the second time it was evil and spied on anyone and everyone.

Public service announcement: the Texas government very much does care what sex toys you buy.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/the-texas-law-that-dictates-...

Legislation like this is not an abstraction confined to museums and history books. It's what the party of "Small Government" actively works to implement, day in and day out. It can happen here, along with much, much worse.

I went there (to the Stasi museum) for the first time a few weeks ago. Its an absolutely jaw dropping piece of (very recent) history.

The thing that struck me the most was how banal it all feels. Unspeakable acts of evil were committed in that building. There are office memos on display telling the story - complete with hand written notes on them like "recommend this (protester) be put to death". And around the memo is corporate filing codes and such to make sure the note is filed correctly. And yet, the whole office feels so generic. It could be any office building from the early 80s, complete with generic corporate orange/brown carpets, interdepartmental telephone systems and offices for the secretaries. You can just imagine the people working there coming in to work each day and bustling around like in any modern office. "Hello Janice. Sorry I'm late - traffic was terrible. Yes I got the memo! Blah blah blah"

Movies show evil acts being committed in evil lairs, clearly signposted with lava and torture chambers. But I think the truth is far more bland than that. On the surface, where we work and what we do there looks more or less the same, regardless of the effect our work has on the world. How many people's work harms the world today? I bet most people, when confronted, react more or less the same: "What? This job is wrong? Nobody told me. It wasn't illegal. And anyway, if I didn't do it, someone else would. I'm just trying to feed my family. Its not my fault."

I hope history holds modern data brokers in a similarly dim light. I certainly do.

I hope you're not a woman in a state with abortion bounties. Even buying a morning-after pill or a pregnancy test can end up on the wrong side of those stupid laws. The real concern isn't racists facing consequences for their public actions and statements but marginalized groups facing punishment for private actions or statements.

> I get possibly being creeped out that Google knows you prefer Pepsi over Coke and that you recently purchased an adult toy or whatever

Frankly, if I preferred Pepsi over Coke, I'd rather get ads (which sometimes include discounts/coupons) for Pepsi than for Coke.

Similarly, if I bought an adult toy, I'd rather get ads for similar adult toys than ads for <whatever the hell else the option for that slot would be>.

I'm definitely pro-privacy, but it's got nothing to do with "so I can't be shown relevant ads".

But being censored on a social media platform is not in the same league as being cut off from your own money. That's a real problem.

If you can find it, check the Murdaugh murder trial document of his physical movements on the night of the murder extracted from his phone and the phones of his contacts.

https://www.wjcl.com/article/hurricane-idalia-update-georgia... (set VPN to USA if not in the States)

Google employees can access this data too; and sometimes they get fired. Do you know anyone who has been the victim of online harassment or having personal data leaked online? Its a harrowing experience.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com