5 ms·

I actually can't believe this. How in the name of all the is holy are we letting them get away with this. Sure, we talk about the problem a lot. But we need to

I actually can't believe this. How in the name of all the is holy are we letting them get away with this. Sure, we talk about the problem a lot. But we need to take action. It seems every big corporation are abusing the trust we give them in some form or another. Please, for the love of God, can anybody prove me wrong. Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust?

tremon 7y ago
Microsoft, for all their other flaws, usually keeps out of the business of selling their consumers. Perhaps it's because they have better (internal) monetization possibilities.
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  That's a fair point. I think many companies are doing such bastardly deeds because they can and because it brings in a profit. To some extent, if a company does not need to do such acts to survive & thrive, they will perhaps act more legitimately. It makes a lot of sense to keep your customers happy in the long run (bottom line and stock value).
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  Last time I used a Windows computer, there were tons of advertisements in the start menu.
  - deadbunny 7y ago
    And on the lock screen.
- gear54rus 7y ago
  Ads in the start menu? Omnipresent data collection in their crappy new os?
- tim_sw 7y ago
  Microsoft sells your browsing and installed apps data to companies
  - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
    No way - do you know which?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
fghtr 7y ago
>Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust? I guess you need to look in the direction of GNU/Linux. For example, company https://puri.sm https://puri.sm. They have nice laptops and nice Debian-based OS and they are working on the phone (soon to be released).
TheCraiggers 7y ago
Abuse your trust? The better question is why are you trusting them in the first place? If you actually read the TOS of a service, you'd know that they are usually quite forthright with what they are going to do. If a murderer knocks on your door, informs you that if you let them in they're going to brutally murder you, but you choose to ignore that because they brought you free stuff, you don't get to complain about being murdered later.
- fghtr 7y ago
  >you don't get to complain about being murdered later Actually, you do; murder is illegal even if you were informed in advance. The same should be with the ad industry. See GDPR.
- Cthulhu_ 7y ago
  That is a stupid analogy which I hope I don't even need to explain. A terms of service is not a free pass to do whatever the fuck you want. Just because I agreed to Apple's terms of service doesn't mean they can turn me into a human centiPad, even if it says so in the small print.
  - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
    Yes exactly. Not to mention (pun intended) they don't mention in their TOS that they will be abusing their power and doing whatever they want with your data. They never say that. They just do it.
  - TheCraiggers 7y ago
    sigh Serves me right for using an analogy I guess. Or a "stupid" one. I dislike the need to defend against a strawman argument, but it looks like I am going to. Anyway, you're right, and so are the other people pointing out quite correctly that murder is still illegal and an agreement doesn't magically give them a right to kill me. But you know what isn't illegal? A company selling your data that you gave to them and agreed to allow them to sell in exchange for providing a service. Yes, I know there are some weak protection rules out there, and things like the GDPR exist in some countries. IANAL, but an app using permissions that you gave it, to do things it says it's going to do in its description and/or TOS is not illegal in most countries. If it was, we'd not be in the privacy clusterfuck that we're in today. The point is that trust has nothing to do with it. If anything, these companies tell you exactly what they're going to do (and if they don't, that's another problem altogether which I'm not getting into here) and you can trust that they will do what they said they're going to do to make as much money from you as they can. Treating companies like living, empathetic human beings worthy of your trust to "be nice and give you a product for free without selling your data you agreed to allow them to sell" is silly.

tremon 7y ago

Microsoft, for all their other flaws, usually keeps out of the business of selling their consumers. Perhaps it's because they have better (internal) monetization possibilities.

DarwinMailApp 7y ago
That's a fair point. I think many companies are doing such bastardly deeds because they can and because it brings in a profit. To some extent, if a company does not need to do such acts to survive & thrive, they will perhaps act more legitimately. It makes a lot of sense to keep your customers happy in the long run (bottom line and stock value).
lotsofpulp 7y ago
Last time I used a Windows computer, there were tons of advertisements in the start menu.
- deadbunny 7y ago
  And on the lock screen.
gear54rus 7y ago
Ads in the start menu? Omnipresent data collection in their crappy new os?
tim_sw 7y ago
Microsoft sells your browsing and installed apps data to companies
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  No way - do you know which?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

fghtr 7y ago

>Are there any companies than don't abuse our trust? I guess you need to look in the direction of GNU/Linux. For example, company https://puri.sm https://puri.sm. They have nice laptops and nice Debian-based OS and they are working on the phone (soon to be released).

TheCraiggers 7y ago

Abuse your trust? The better question is why are you trusting them in the first place? If you actually read the TOS of a service, you'd know that they are usually quite forthright with what they are going to do. If a murderer knocks on your door, informs you that if you let them in they're going to brutally murder you, but you choose to ignore that because they brought you free stuff, you don't get to complain about being murdered later.

fghtr 7y ago
>you don't get to complain about being murdered later Actually, you do; murder is illegal even if you were informed in advance. The same should be with the ad industry. See GDPR.
Cthulhu_ 7y ago
That is a stupid analogy which I hope I don't even need to explain. A terms of service is not a free pass to do whatever the fuck you want. Just because I agreed to Apple's terms of service doesn't mean they can turn me into a human centiPad, even if it says so in the small print.
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  Yes exactly. Not to mention (pun intended) they don't mention in their TOS that they will be abusing their power and doing whatever they want with your data. They never say that. They just do it.
- TheCraiggers 7y ago
  sigh Serves me right for using an analogy I guess. Or a "stupid" one. I dislike the need to defend against a strawman argument, but it looks like I am going to. Anyway, you're right, and so are the other people pointing out quite correctly that murder is still illegal and an agreement doesn't magically give them a right to kill me. But you know what isn't illegal? A company selling your data that you gave to them and agreed to allow them to sell in exchange for providing a service. Yes, I know there are some weak protection rules out there, and things like the GDPR exist in some countries. IANAL, but an app using permissions that you gave it, to do things it says it's going to do in its description and/or TOS is not illegal in most countries. If it was, we'd not be in the privacy clusterfuck that we're in today. The point is that trust has nothing to do with it. If anything, these companies tell you exactly what they're going to do (and if they don't, that's another problem altogether which I'm not getting into here) and you can trust that they will do what they said they're going to do to make as much money from you as they can. Treating companies like living, empathetic human beings worthy of your trust to "be nice and give you a product for free without selling your data you agreed to allow them to sell" is silly.