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> "It's kind of creepy, but if it gives me good suggestions, I don't really care." This is an Unpopular Opinion, but IMHO thats kind of a reasonable stance to

> "It's kind of creepy, but if it gives me good suggestions, I don't really care." This is an Unpopular Opinion, but IMHO thats kind of a reasonable stance to take.

elipsey 7y ago
You could say the same thing about any externality.
navigatesol 7y ago
>This is an Unpopular Opinion, but IMHO thats kind of a reasonable stance to take. I disagree. The recommendation is immediate and apparent to the end-user. The negative potential uses/consequences of all the other data collection are not. It's funny, but when an unsuspecting person gets a home loan they can't possibly afford pushed on them by a shifty mortgage broker, people here cry bloody murder. But when people ignorantly consent to having their data harvested for the pleasure of better targeted advertising, the tech community happily says "but they asked for it!"
- MegaButts 7y ago
  > But when people ignorantly consent to having their data harvested for the pleasure of better targeted advertising, the tech community happily says "but they asked for it!" What? I feel like the only topic the tech community gets worked up about that nobody else cares about is digital privacy. There are always people on hacker news condemning a lack of privacy and targeted ads - I'd venture it's the majority of people on this site that feel that way.
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  All Reddit twitter and HN do is complain about data privacy and ads. It’s the complete opposite of ever being “they asked for it”. Can you find any big thread with more than a few small comments Resembling “they asked for it”? I can give you tons of examples for data privacy and anti ad stances. Just go to any FB thread. Or even this thread.
jethro_tell 7y ago
That's not unpopular. That's the idea of a two sided transaction, you learn a little about me and point me in the right direction as a personal shopper and I'll buy something from you. Also, point out that you're going to sell that data to anyone who asks, link it to your facebook profile and CC data and people start to get a little uneasy. The reason people tend to view these things as OK, is that they see it as a 2 sided transaction and don't realize the implications of unregulated data. If we had clear laws around data, and consent of use of data like GDPR in the EU, it's a completely reasonable stance to take. (even with GDPR, there's a lot of data in things like tracking beacons and video recognition in public that are difficult to consent too or have data removed . . ..)
SomeOldThrow 7y ago
If you don’t consider impulse buying or recreational shopping or private surveillance networks a problem, sure.

> "It's kind of creepy, but if it gives me good suggestions, I don't really care." This is an Unpopular Opinion, but IMHO thats kind of a reasonable stance to take.

elipsey 7y ago

You could say the same thing about any externality.

navigatesol 7y ago

>This is an Unpopular Opinion, but IMHO thats kind of a reasonable stance to take. I disagree. The recommendation is immediate and apparent to the end-user. The negative potential uses/consequences of all the other data collection are not. It's funny, but when an unsuspecting person gets a home loan they can't possibly afford pushed on them by a shifty mortgage broker, people here cry bloody murder. But when people ignorantly consent to having their data harvested for the pleasure of better targeted advertising, the tech community happily says "but they asked for it!"

MegaButts 7y ago
> But when people ignorantly consent to having their data harvested for the pleasure of better targeted advertising, the tech community happily says "but they asked for it!" What? I feel like the only topic the tech community gets worked up about that nobody else cares about is digital privacy. There are always people on hacker news condemning a lack of privacy and targeted ads - I'd venture it's the majority of people on this site that feel that way.
skinnymuch 7y ago
All Reddit twitter and HN do is complain about data privacy and ads. It’s the complete opposite of ever being “they asked for it”. Can you find any big thread with more than a few small comments Resembling “they asked for it”? I can give you tons of examples for data privacy and anti ad stances. Just go to any FB thread. Or even this thread.

jethro_tell 7y ago

That's not unpopular. That's the idea of a two sided transaction, you learn a little about me and point me in the right direction as a personal shopper and I'll buy something from you. Also, point out that you're going to sell that data to anyone who asks, link it to your facebook profile and CC data and people start to get a little uneasy. The reason people tend to view these things as OK, is that they see it as a 2 sided transaction and don't realize the implications of unregulated data. If we had clear laws around data, and consent of use of data like GDPR in the EU, it's a completely reasonable stance to take. (even with GDPR, there's a lot of data in things like tracking beacons and video recognition in public that are difficult to consent too or have data removed . . ..)

SomeOldThrow 7y ago

If you don’t consider impulse buying or recreational shopping or private surveillance networks a problem, sure.