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I know it's been brought up before, but again, I would love to know the mental gymnastics Peter Thiel has done to rationalize backing this. The same Peter Thiel

I know it's been brought up before, but again, I would love to know the mental gymnastics Peter Thiel has done to rationalize backing this. The same Peter Thiel that sued Gawker for violating his privacy.

Gibbon1 7y ago
It's the difference between liberty and equality. Thiel loves liberty (his) and hates equality (yours).
burkaman 7y ago
This one makes him money.
railys 7y ago
Why are you surprised by him? He's highly intelligent, and absolutely without scruples. The perfect businessman. He's a good model for the future of AI, where superintelligence's goals conflicts with basic human values.
icanhackit 7y ago
> I would love to know the mental gymnastics Nothing special. Cognitive dissonance is alive and well in the filthy-rich through to the dirt-poor. As we can see - your level of personal agency will be the determining factor in how much the world suffers from it. Unfortunately we silo our processes in virtual-mental-machines at the expense of good ideas cross-pollinating terrible ones.
maram 7y ago
Thiel and Rudy Giuliani's pal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Here is a quote from a NYTimes story that was published last month, and got updated this month https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-priv... >>In addition to Mr. Ton-That, Clearview was founded by Richard Schwartz — who was an aide to Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was mayor of New York — and backed financially by Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist behind Facebook and Palantir.
tmpynews 7y ago
You are over thinking it. He has no principles as long as he makes money. That's very clear with his support of trump. He sued gawker because they hurt his feelings not privacy.
1propionyl 7y ago
He does not care about privacy as a principle, he cares about _his own privacy_. More generally, Peter Thiel is not a good person.
- stevespang 7y ago
  The same Peter Thiel who was buying blood transfusions from young people for himself . . . like a vampire. Whether it's milking the blood of young people or milking the privacy of anyone . . you can bet Thiel will be there.
dntbnmpls 7y ago
It's called greed. It's like how zuckerburg loves spying on people but is paranoid about being spied on ( covering his laptop webcam and mic and putting up walls around his hawaiian estate). Privacy and money for me, nothing for thee.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
onetimemanytime 7y ago
....mental gymnastics Peter Thiel... He'll donate $10 Million to EFF and get a badge.
aaron695 7y ago
This is not an equivalency. You freely put photos of yourself on the internet and they use them. Don't like it, don't publish it. This is 95% of what's going on here. Gawker took private information on Peter Thiel that he did not want public, and had not made public. Hulk Hogan was worse - "at trial he claimed that the videotaping was without his knowledge or consent" I think it's great a company is doing this openly. Do you think the TLA aren't? We also know private Russian companies have been doing this for years. This is a good move towards privacy.
- nolongerlowres 7y ago
  I don’t believe publicly posted photos are the privacy issue at hand here. Facebook tracks your activity online and sell it to advertisers regardless of your consent, even if you’ve never created an account in your life. That’s the privacy issue (amongst other things).
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  Uh, not so much. Hogan’s situation was worse, to be sure. But Thiel’s PROFILE PICTURE on a couple of sites was him, shirtless, on gay cruises. Saying that “he wanted that private, not public” flies in the face of pure common sense. Apropos of that, courts have long held that billionaires have reduced rights to privacy due to their “overwhelming influence on public affairs and events”. That’s why Thiel backed Hogan’s lawsuit (and to my mind, interfered unfairly), and was not able to sue Gawker.

Gibbon1 7y ago

It's the difference between liberty and equality. Thiel loves liberty (his) and hates equality (yours).

burkaman 7y ago

This one makes him money.

railys 7y ago

Why are you surprised by him? He's highly intelligent, and absolutely without scruples. The perfect businessman. He's a good model for the future of AI, where superintelligence's goals conflicts with basic human values.

icanhackit 7y ago

> I would love to know the mental gymnastics Nothing special. Cognitive dissonance is alive and well in the filthy-rich through to the dirt-poor. As we can see - your level of personal agency will be the determining factor in how much the world suffers from it. Unfortunately we silo our processes in virtual-mental-machines at the expense of good ideas cross-pollinating terrible ones.

maram 7y ago

Thiel and Rudy Giuliani's pal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Here is a quote from a NYTimes story that was published last month, and got updated this month https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-priv... >>In addition to Mr. Ton-That, Clearview was founded by Richard Schwartz — who was an aide to Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was mayor of New York — and backed financially by Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist behind Facebook and Palantir.

tmpynews 7y ago

You are over thinking it. He has no principles as long as he makes money. That's very clear with his support of trump. He sued gawker because they hurt his feelings not privacy.

1propionyl 7y ago

He does not care about privacy as a principle, he cares about _his own privacy_. More generally, Peter Thiel is not a good person.

stevespang 7y ago
The same Peter Thiel who was buying blood transfusions from young people for himself . . . like a vampire. Whether it's milking the blood of young people or milking the privacy of anyone . . you can bet Thiel will be there.

dntbnmpls 7y ago

It's called greed. It's like how zuckerburg loves spying on people but is paranoid about being spied on ( covering his laptop webcam and mic and putting up walls around his hawaiian estate). Privacy and money for me, nothing for thee.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

onetimemanytime 7y ago

....mental gymnastics Peter Thiel... He'll donate $10 Million to EFF and get a badge.

aaron695 7y ago

This is not an equivalency. You freely put photos of yourself on the internet and they use them. Don't like it, don't publish it. This is 95% of what's going on here. Gawker took private information on Peter Thiel that he did not want public, and had not made public. Hulk Hogan was worse - "at trial he claimed that the videotaping was without his knowledge or consent" I think it's great a company is doing this openly. Do you think the TLA aren't? We also know private Russian companies have been doing this for years. This is a good move towards privacy.

nolongerlowres 7y ago
I don’t believe publicly posted photos are the privacy issue at hand here. Facebook tracks your activity online and sell it to advertisers regardless of your consent, even if you’ve never created an account in your life. That’s the privacy issue (amongst other things).
FireBeyond 7y ago
Uh, not so much. Hogan’s situation was worse, to be sure. But Thiel’s PROFILE PICTURE on a couple of sites was him, shirtless, on gay cruises. Saying that “he wanted that private, not public” flies in the face of pure common sense. Apropos of that, courts have long held that billionaires have reduced rights to privacy due to their “overwhelming influence on public affairs and events”. That’s why Thiel backed Hogan’s lawsuit (and to my mind, interfered unfairly), and was not able to sue Gawker.