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An acquaintance of mine that I've known since high school (and apparently we had play dates when we were toddlers) works for Sandvine. Travels often to handle i
by mabbo 9y ago
An acquaintance of mine that I've known since high school (and apparently we had play dates when we were toddlers) works for Sandvine. Travels often to handle installations.
I had not realized this is what they do, what he was setting up. Kind of sad to hear it. He's no fool, which means he probably fully understands what he's doing. I do wonder how he justifies it to himself.
- Angostura 9y agoThey provide generic traffic management and acceleration tools. They can be used to provide this kind of bulk of interception but its not the only (or even most usual?) application
- kevin_nisbet 9y agoIt may be unfair to jump to the conclusion that your acquaintance does this type of work. From how far I've gotten through the report, it seems to more be pointing towards the procera equipment doing this, which is a recent merger with Sandvine late last year. Also, it's not like Sandvine only sells it's products to Turkey and Egypt for this feature set, it's entirely plausible that this person could work in a market that doesn't have these concerns. Disclosure: I used to work with Sandvine as a customer in a previous role
- Waterluvian 9y agoI've spoken to a few engineers at Sandvine. Both said they knew what their product was being used for. One quit (at least partly) because of it. I also went to school with a bunch of people who were pretty seriously environmentally-focused (environment faculty programs). Some ended up in the oil and mining industries. When probed about this, the general response boiled down to "I want to find something else but I also want to be employed." I'm no psychologist but I think it's just kind of part of the human condition that our needs > our wants. Morals are less of a need than employment, maybe? Just spitballing.
- dictum 9y ago> I'm no psychologist but I think it's just kind of part of the human condition that our needs > our wants. Morals are less of a need than employment, maybe? Just spitballing. Morals are part of the "self actualization" tip of the pyramid in Maslow's hierarchy of needs (and to some extent the middle part, belonging, but that's only if you're likely to be shunned for breaking a moral principle).
- Waterluvian 9y agoSo I guess if we accept Maslow's hiararchy of needs, morals would be a need, but less important than the money needed to have shelter, food, water, etc.
- dictum 9y agoI don't want to advocate for nihilism, but most institutions are unethical in some way, or pave the way for evil third parties. There are exceptions, of course. They just hire less often, pay less, want an specific cultural fit etc. Myself, I've taken the path of avoiding such businesses – thankfully I'm frugal – but when I imagine the expensive things I could have/do, or when I'm picking cheaper stuff to do with friends and dates, it's hard not to remember the allure of selling out.
- mabbo 9y agoOh I understand fully. I work for Amazon.
- wizardforhire 9y ago...and we've come full circle for WHY the Maker-Hacker movement / Internet / Silicon valley. Given that morals and ethics are weighed against economic decisions at the personal level. It is our responsibility as self-actualized individuals aware of this, and posseing the skills to do something about it to help create economic conditions to alleviate the dissonance that comes with choice. As a crust punk friend turned very successful investment banker said to me when asked about their career trajectory "you can do more damage from the inside than the out."