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> It would be easy Why do these idealistic comments get voted to the top? As if Google could just simply change their entire business model if only they were e

> It would be easy Why do these idealistic comments get voted to the top? As if Google could just simply change their entire business model if only they were enlightened how "easy" it would be. > The web worked fine in the days before The web is the way it is today because there wasn't anything to stop it from becoming this way. There still isn't anything stopping it. If you want to see change to some historical point in time, start working on solutions to get there. I see these type of comments so often on HN but I really don't believe it reflects the majority opinion. I don't honestly think most people care about how the web used to be. It is the way it is because people don't know or care about the consequences of trading their privacy with a big company for free stuff.

paulryanrogers 6y ago
> If you want to see change to some historical point in time, start working on solutions to get there. The only solution I see is enforced regulation to respect DNT, or something like it. Do you have something else in mind?
- jameslk 6y ago
  If you mean respect for privacy in general by companies, I think this comes down to people needing to first want it more. Like a lot more. We only started seeing things such as GDPR and CCPA after Cambridge Analytica caused people to understand a bit more why privacy matters. But it wasn't enough to see drastic change since there isn't a clear problem and that's the crux of the issue: nobody really understands why it's a such a big deal. There isn't an easy to grasp response to "what is so bad if others know what I'm doing online." Start with justifications and education of why privacy matters, and if it's compelling, change will be demanded.
- Espressosaurus 6y ago
  Regulation is the only thing that can work. The goodness of their heart is not something that can be relied on. Asking Google (and other advertisers) to just back off their biggest money-maker is a non-starter. The only solution is regulation. Insufficient regulation is what brought us to this point. The harm here is too distributed, too abstract, and not obvious to the people it's harming. The people it's harming are the product, the people buying the data are the customers. There is no way Google voluntarily makes those changes. It will have to be forced to via regulation, enforcement, imposition of fines or potentially even jailtime in order to get it to comply. Its business model demands nothing less.

paulryanrogers 6y ago

> If you want to see change to some historical point in time, start working on solutions to get there. The only solution I see is enforced regulation to respect DNT, or something like it. Do you have something else in mind?

jameslk 6y ago
If you mean respect for privacy in general by companies, I think this comes down to people needing to first want it more. Like a lot more. We only started seeing things such as GDPR and CCPA after Cambridge Analytica caused people to understand a bit more why privacy matters. But it wasn't enough to see drastic change since there isn't a clear problem and that's the crux of the issue: nobody really understands why it's a such a big deal. There isn't an easy to grasp response to "what is so bad if others know what I'm doing online." Start with justifications and education of why privacy matters, and if it's compelling, change will be demanded.
Espressosaurus 6y ago
Regulation is the only thing that can work. The goodness of their heart is not something that can be relied on. Asking Google (and other advertisers) to just back off their biggest money-maker is a non-starter. The only solution is regulation. Insufficient regulation is what brought us to this point. The harm here is too distributed, too abstract, and not obvious to the people it's harming. The people it's harming are the product, the people buying the data are the customers. There is no way Google voluntarily makes those changes. It will have to be forced to via regulation, enforcement, imposition of fines or potentially even jailtime in order to get it to comply. Its business model demands nothing less.