7 ms·

All this is heading towards a small fraction of the human population controlling and watching everything the rest of us do, with no way for us to do anything ag

All this is heading towards a small fraction of the human population controlling and watching everything the rest of us do, with no way for us to do anything against them, and I cannot help but hate the engineers who are helping to make that dystopia happen. Western developers who work for such surveillance tech (and that includes "mere advertisers" like Google and Facebook) should really go get an honest taste of life as an ordinary citizen in authoritarian countries like China or the rich Middle East.

rvense 7y ago
I would like to opt out of this, but how? I don't think my life has improved in the least since my bus pass stopped being a piece of paper I replaced every month. Physical cash is a good concept, it works and it would continue to do so until the sun burns out. Even before we get to all the derived socio-political consequences of all of this, it's just not necessary at all.
- sethammons 7y ago
  I liked when my train started offering digital tickets. I switched to using their app immediately. The first of the month would have very long ticket lines and you would have to arrive early. Not to mention their system always having load issues on the first of the month. Using the app, I could buy my ticket as I sat down on the train.
  - Grimm665 7y ago
    I feel your comment, perhaps inadvertently, really describes the whole issue. Privacy has been traded for convenience, bit by bit, app by app, and very few seem to still care about what has been lost along the way. I include myself in this, I signed up for my auto-renewing subway pass as soon as I could. I worry about this culture of acceptance of convenience over privacy, and I don't feel there is much I can do to stop it even in my own life. All of my friends have Venmo for example; am I going to be the one person they can't easily split bills with? and look like a tin-hatter all the while?
    - labawi 7y ago
      On our train network, you can buy paper ticker anonymously, or you can buy e-tickers with your name on it. They don't really need your name to reasonably prevent fraud / reuse, they don't even check your name/id. GDPR says you shouldn't collect PII without good cause, yet noone cares to do anything about it.
- Ntrails 7y ago
  > I don't think my life has improved in the least since my bus pass stopped being a piece of paper I replaced every month. Did you use the bus a lot when they only took cash? Hope you carry small change because the driver won't take a 20. Hope you like waiting whilst someone counts out coins. Hope you enjoy watching an argument when someone is 10pence short of fare etc etc etc. Contactless payments are in general significantly easier and quicker. I reckon the time for 10 people to get on a bus now is less than half what it used to be on average.
  - labawi 7y ago
    Some places only took paper - prepaid tickets you (possibly) validated in machines and paper monthly passes. Other places would have a driver and a conductor for paying/checking tickets. Neither of those involved the bus waiting for people to pay, and many of these systems are still used today.
nashashmi 7y ago
This dystopia is more about convenience. Losing freedoms for convenience. Nothing you can do but opt for the least convenient systems. And be looked on by others as backward. Or ask for government to allow and prohibit such systems. But then you will have to give government the key. You will have to trust one entity. People create things like cars. But they trust society to regulate those instruments. Don't blame the creator.

rvense 7y ago

I would like to opt out of this, but how? I don't think my life has improved in the least since my bus pass stopped being a piece of paper I replaced every month. Physical cash is a good concept, it works and it would continue to do so until the sun burns out. Even before we get to all the derived socio-political consequences of all of this, it's just not necessary at all.

sethammons 7y ago
I liked when my train started offering digital tickets. I switched to using their app immediately. The first of the month would have very long ticket lines and you would have to arrive early. Not to mention their system always having load issues on the first of the month. Using the app, I could buy my ticket as I sat down on the train.
- Grimm665 7y ago
  I feel your comment, perhaps inadvertently, really describes the whole issue. Privacy has been traded for convenience, bit by bit, app by app, and very few seem to still care about what has been lost along the way. I include myself in this, I signed up for my auto-renewing subway pass as soon as I could. I worry about this culture of acceptance of convenience over privacy, and I don't feel there is much I can do to stop it even in my own life. All of my friends have Venmo for example; am I going to be the one person they can't easily split bills with? and look like a tin-hatter all the while?
  - labawi 7y ago
    On our train network, you can buy paper ticker anonymously, or you can buy e-tickers with your name on it. They don't really need your name to reasonably prevent fraud / reuse, they don't even check your name/id. GDPR says you shouldn't collect PII without good cause, yet noone cares to do anything about it.
Ntrails 7y ago
> I don't think my life has improved in the least since my bus pass stopped being a piece of paper I replaced every month. Did you use the bus a lot when they only took cash? Hope you carry small change because the driver won't take a 20. Hope you like waiting whilst someone counts out coins. Hope you enjoy watching an argument when someone is 10pence short of fare etc etc etc. Contactless payments are in general significantly easier and quicker. I reckon the time for 10 people to get on a bus now is less than half what it used to be on average.
- labawi 7y ago
  Some places only took paper - prepaid tickets you (possibly) validated in machines and paper monthly passes. Other places would have a driver and a conductor for paying/checking tickets. Neither of those involved the bus waiting for people to pay, and many of these systems are still used today.

nashashmi 7y ago

This dystopia is more about convenience. Losing freedoms for convenience. Nothing you can do but opt for the least convenient systems. And be looked on by others as backward. Or ask for government to allow and prohibit such systems. But then you will have to give government the key. You will have to trust one entity. People create things like cars. But they trust society to regulate those instruments. Don't blame the creator.