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>> People want to maintain their privacy > I will start believing this when people start acting like it rather than just saying it. I would be surprised if the

>> People want to maintain their privacy > I will start believing this when people start acting like it rather than just saying it. I would be surprised if the group of people who care enough about their privacy to do anything about it is above 1% of internet users in the US. That's like saying, "I will start believing people don't want viruses when they stop opening attachments, start carefully examining every URL before clicking on it, and verify MD5 checksums before installing any downloads. We don't blame the spread of computer viruses on untechnical users. The creators of operating systems and browsers have the vantage point and the expertise, and are in the best position to do the right thing. But of course profits always come first. The same goes with privacy.

thxaoe7oiu 9y ago
Thank you for saying this. I sometimes feel like I'm taking crazy pills when people bring up arguments about how users don't care about privacy, yet when polled, polls tend to show that they care very much about it but are just helpless to do anything about it. [1] [1] http://boingboing.net/2015/06/08/internet-users-care-about-thei.html http://boingboing.net/2015/06/08/internet-users-care-about-t...
- Eridrus 9y ago
  I guess I should restate my comments to be clearer: I don't think people are willing to sacrifice anything when it comes to privacy, specifically I do not think consumers will pay money to avoid tracking. The study you linked to asked people "whether they would take discounts in exchange for allowing their supermarket to collect information about their grocery purchases" and found 43% of people said yes, but I believe that the conclusion you would draw if you asked people "would they pay more to stop their supermarket from collecting information about their grocery purchases", you would get different data. In the same way that people dislike price discrimination more when it is framed as raising prices on some people rather than giving some people discounts. And I'm sure this behavior will change further when you actually ask people for money and not just whether they would hypothetically pay money.

thxaoe7oiu 9y ago

Thank you for saying this. I sometimes feel like I'm taking crazy pills when people bring up arguments about how users don't care about privacy, yet when polled, polls tend to show that they care very much about it but are just helpless to do anything about it. [1] [1] http://boingboing.net/2015/06/08/internet-users-care-about-thei.html http://boingboing.net/2015/06/08/internet-users-care-about-t...

Eridrus 9y ago
I guess I should restate my comments to be clearer: I don't think people are willing to sacrifice anything when it comes to privacy, specifically I do not think consumers will pay money to avoid tracking. The study you linked to asked people "whether they would take discounts in exchange for allowing their supermarket to collect information about their grocery purchases" and found 43% of people said yes, but I believe that the conclusion you would draw if you asked people "would they pay more to stop their supermarket from collecting information about their grocery purchases", you would get different data. In the same way that people dislike price discrimination more when it is framed as raising prices on some people rather than giving some people discounts. And I'm sure this behavior will change further when you actually ask people for money and not just whether they would hypothetically pay money.