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I thought the question was valid: you looked down on people who would buy a device that spies on them, yet you bought a device that spies on you. The point was
by SamBam 8y ago
I thought the question was valid: you looked down on people who would buy a device that spies on them, yet you bought a device that spies on you.
The point was that the vast majority of people, even us techies, are willing to sacrifice some privacy for the benefits these devices bring us.
(And yes, sometimes these benefits are the direct result of spying. When I shop on Amazon, I often look at the section "Customers who looked at X ultimately bought Y." Thank you, Amazon, for spying on those customers, and recommending a better product.)
- nyxtom 8y agoThis doesn't necessarily mean that product Y is better suited for you in particular it may just mean people might have been artificially funneled into purchasing it either through wide advertising reach or through models such as this. It's certainly useful in some regards but it's not a catch-all and a lot of that is simply because of wide reach advertising, better marketing, and in the case of Amazon many products may just have artificial reviews. You still have to consider the alternative that what you are being recommended, even the "Customers who looked at" doesn't automatically mean there isn't bias or artificial incentives that push people in one direction over another. There's a reason Thaler won the nobel prize in economics for his work on "nudge" theory.