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I'm sure you believe that corporations are evil and basically out to get you, but the vast majority of people doesn't. I think it's safe to assume that you're t

I'm sure you believe that corporations are evil and basically out to get you, but the vast majority of people doesn't. I think it's safe to assume that you're the outlier here. Have you ever tried putting yourself in the shoes of people who leave their GPS on? Can you see how much better the user experience is? Can you understand why someone who never had a negative experience involving their location data might prefer to leave their GPS on? I leave my GPS on all the time. I love going back in time and see where I was at any given time. I can download the data and correlate it with a bunch of other metrics I keep track on. If it wasn't free, I would pay for it. I'm not floored that you turn your GPS off. I've met many people just like you. Some of them had traumatic experiences in the past, others generally don't think other people are trustworthy. I can respect that. Just don't assume it's the default sentiment, because it's not. Here's an interesting survey about trust: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/05/ssc-survey-results-on-trust/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/05/ssc-survey-results-on-...

gdulli 8y ago
> I'm sure you believe that corporations are evil and basically out to get you, but the vast majority of people doesn't. I think it's safe to assume that you're the outlier here. I've worked in ad tech before. I used to write code to do some of this tracking and enable analytics on it. Nobody I worked with was out to antagonize users, but in principle I'd rather not feed a master profile about myself that gets matched, bought, and sold between companies and their partners. There's nothing controversial about my movement throughout the day but I feel better not being tracked.
- icebraining 8y ago
  You're being tracked anyway just by having your phone turned on.
oska 8y ago
Regarding your first paragraph, let me quote from the HN guidelines [1]: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
DoctorOetker 8y ago
ask some Rohingya from Myanmar?
- spunker540 8y ago
  That’s a problem with the Myanmar government, not location-based services. People have also been jailed for articles they publish in newspapers or private letters they write. In those cases no one blames the act of writing letters- it’s fairly obvious that the government that’s reading mail is to blame, not the letter-writing in the first place.
a11595 8y ago
this isn't about privacy. I literally charge my phone less, because not only does gps coming on randomly eat up battery - when it has data to collect from random apps they make a data connection and send stuff home. I could care less about going back, tracking my location history, and correlating it with other data. I have a life, and gps on, after a day of the phone sitting there on standby, eats an extra 5% of battery. turning gps on before i launch maps is 1 extra tap on the toggle on my home screen. I think the one with a traumatic experience here is you - one that prevents you from seeing very basic logic for the use case of GPS off.
- hawaiianbrah 8y ago
  off topic but it always irks me when people get it wrong: it’s “I couldn’t care less”
  - a11595 8y ago
    actually, it's the same as your vs you're. the correction you're giving here, everybody already knows very well. sometimes we make a mistake in both typing and speech. but people like you assume everyone is an idiot and jump right in to correct them. If you see someone deep in thought walking, and they cross on a red light - are you equally helpful to tell them red means stop and green means go? I guess if you need to make yourself feel superior without actually being superior, you are always free to pretend errors of attention are lack of knowledge. Let me ask you this - I'm on the toilet right now listening to news in French, and typing this in English. Sometimes a french word will sneak into my post. No, I don't proofread because I'm not typing a newspaper article, and I have a life. Will you point out to me that in an English sentence, words should be in English? I'm guessing what always irks people is you. Now, it's bed time. How do I brush my teeth again?
gvurrdon 8y ago
I’d also pay for the ability to see where I was at a particular time, as it does seem like a very useful feature. In fact, I did pay for it by obtaining an iOS app that stores location history locally. Google’s implementation looks really convenient but feels too creepy to me.
VvR-Ox 8y ago
It's not about the majority - don't you see that? It's about the 1-3% who will f* you for being a naive sheep. That is why we can't trust these corporations and that they get more powerful everyday doesn't ease my mind (accumulation until we only have "the shop"). The problem with our economy is the basis for that. In our world (at least in the west, can't really compare that to the east as I only know it from western propaganda) the biggest goal is MONEY (=POWER). Ethics, environment and people just don't count in this equation (ok they do if you want to improve your image). Sure that's not what majority of the people sees but also they don't know anything about computers & software and most of them probably haven't thought much about ethics & philosophy. Just because majority does something is not a very good argument (see lemmings).

gdulli 8y ago

> I'm sure you believe that corporations are evil and basically out to get you, but the vast majority of people doesn't. I think it's safe to assume that you're the outlier here. I've worked in ad tech before. I used to write code to do some of this tracking and enable analytics on it. Nobody I worked with was out to antagonize users, but in principle I'd rather not feed a master profile about myself that gets matched, bought, and sold between companies and their partners. There's nothing controversial about my movement throughout the day but I feel better not being tracked.

icebraining 8y ago
You're being tracked anyway just by having your phone turned on.

oska 8y ago

Regarding your first paragraph, let me quote from the HN guidelines [1]: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

DoctorOetker 8y ago

ask some Rohingya from Myanmar?

spunker540 8y ago
That’s a problem with the Myanmar government, not location-based services. People have also been jailed for articles they publish in newspapers or private letters they write. In those cases no one blames the act of writing letters- it’s fairly obvious that the government that’s reading mail is to blame, not the letter-writing in the first place.

a11595 8y ago

this isn't about privacy. I literally charge my phone less, because not only does gps coming on randomly eat up battery - when it has data to collect from random apps they make a data connection and send stuff home. I could care less about going back, tracking my location history, and correlating it with other data. I have a life, and gps on, after a day of the phone sitting there on standby, eats an extra 5% of battery. turning gps on before i launch maps is 1 extra tap on the toggle on my home screen. I think the one with a traumatic experience here is you - one that prevents you from seeing very basic logic for the use case of GPS off.

hawaiianbrah 8y ago
off topic but it always irks me when people get it wrong: it’s “I couldn’t care less”
- a11595 8y ago
  actually, it's the same as your vs you're. the correction you're giving here, everybody already knows very well. sometimes we make a mistake in both typing and speech. but people like you assume everyone is an idiot and jump right in to correct them. If you see someone deep in thought walking, and they cross on a red light - are you equally helpful to tell them red means stop and green means go? I guess if you need to make yourself feel superior without actually being superior, you are always free to pretend errors of attention are lack of knowledge. Let me ask you this - I'm on the toilet right now listening to news in French, and typing this in English. Sometimes a french word will sneak into my post. No, I don't proofread because I'm not typing a newspaper article, and I have a life. Will you point out to me that in an English sentence, words should be in English? I'm guessing what always irks people is you. Now, it's bed time. How do I brush my teeth again?

gvurrdon 8y ago

I’d also pay for the ability to see where I was at a particular time, as it does seem like a very useful feature. In fact, I did pay for it by obtaining an iOS app that stores location history locally. Google’s implementation looks really convenient but feels too creepy to me.

VvR-Ox 8y ago

It's not about the majority - don't you see that? It's about the 1-3% who will f* you for being a naive sheep. That is why we can't trust these corporations and that they get more powerful everyday doesn't ease my mind (accumulation until we only have "the shop"). The problem with our economy is the basis for that. In our world (at least in the west, can't really compare that to the east as I only know it from western propaganda) the biggest goal is MONEY (=POWER). Ethics, environment and people just don't count in this equation (ok they do if you want to improve your image). Sure that's not what majority of the people sees but also they don't know anything about computers & software and most of them probably haven't thought much about ethics & philosophy. Just because majority does something is not a very good argument (see lemmings).