168 karma · joined December 14, 2017
Also, for the most part, FB is not getting your data without your permission(like a surveillance company), rather, it asks you to give it(eg: upload contacts so we could find your friends), or people voluntarily give data to it(eg: uploading selfies, with location and time metadata as bonus).
There are only two things of concern here, 1. How to make more people aware about the privacy implications of their online actions. 2. How to make these firms more responsible for properly protecting the data they have.
Regarding #1, when I told people about myactivity.google.com, at least one person switched to DuckDuckGo(although I don't know if he sticked with it). Attempts to make people switch to Signal have miserably failed, forcing me to use WhatsApp as well. No one ever quit FB though, rather they got deeper into the rabbit hole by using Instagram as well.
Regarding #2, countries should learn from EU and make stronger privacy laws.
Find why women don't take admissions in STEM as much as men do. If there isn't any human-made reason, then let it be. Don't force equal numbers down the throat of deserving candidates.
What is currently going on in the world isn't going to solve the problem of race/gender based problems.
I won't make any conclusion as that would get me tons of downvotes.
Unfortunately, most countries/organisations seem to prefer second one, because it's easier and shows effect earlier, although over long period of time, it's going to be the worse one.
https://youtu.be/LJf5JjZjsGI have a look at this video, this region which suffered hailstorm destroying most crops, is supposed to be a somewhat dry region.
A lot of wildlife requires specific environmental situation. A lot of species won't survive changes in temperature.
Most poor people will have hard time surviving either increased flooding or increased droughts. Where I live(South MH, India), we are already facing drought every other year, and I am preety sure this is going to get worse. Millions live in this area. Where do you think we will move when we don't have water? (clue: look for places with more water)
So in short, huge parts of world either get submerged in sea, suffer from severe droughts/flooding, from desertification, or from the destruction of crops. Without food, water and land, people migrate in large numbers, and thus exert more pressure on those places.
Some experts believe that a war is likely between India and China over water in next decade.
I haven't touched the issue of lack of antibiotics and resurgence of old diseases at all.
The effect it had on me is quite wierd. On one hand, I always wish to earn more so as to not have to go through that phase again, while on the other hand, I never care about spending money. Even now that we have more money, I rarely spend on clothes, fancy food, gadgets or whatever that is not necessity. That phase of borderline poverty has made me frugal for life.
If you really want to stop people from scamming the system, you need to make the system stronger.
For example, for learning Web Development, I'd prefer a project based model where I learn concepts and apply them to my project side by side. This way, although the end result would be mess and likely incomplete, I get to learn a lot from the mistakes and issues that come in the way.
On the other hand, for learning about compilers, a tradional semester-based course, with 2-3 lectures/week, and maybe an coding assignment/week that can be completed in an hour or two would work best. In this case, while I don't have any real project at the end, I do learn the core concepts.
So companies aren't getting anything from anti-piracy measures. Rather, they are wasting time and money on implementing these measures.
If I were to make a software, I'd keep it DRM free. Maybe I'll give occassional discounts to attract people who won't pay otherwise, but that's it.
That said, as we discuss this of HN, there will be millions out there falling prey to FB.
This is problem with any service where users care about userbase. For netflix, userbase is not a concern for users. Hence such services are more likely to survive long term, as long as they keep themselves relevant.
FB, Whatsapp and Instagram however, are destined to die very soon(I'd bet a lifecycle of 2 decades). Users are eventually going to move on.
I feel bad that we, otherwise peaceful people, have become reason of death for many people.