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I understand that we're talking about feeding "AI" data here, so it's kind of moot, but I'd like to point out anyway that most of us don't want the merchants to

by dmos62 6y ago

I understand that we're talking about feeding "AI" data here, so it's kind of moot, but I'd like to point out anyway that most of us don't want the merchants to know who we are (or to feed the "AI" in general).

rmah 6y ago
It may surprise some folks here on HN, but in the real world, the vast majority of people don't care if merchants "know who they are". I'd bet that there are more people want merchants to know who they are than there are people who explicitly don't want them to know. But that said, the vast majority simply don't care. Just my opinion, of course.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  I think it's more like "the vast majority simply don't care, until they do". That is, I think most people think "Who cares if merchant XYZ knows I changed my shampoo brand", but when people are actually shown the full set of data that is known about them, and how that data is correlated with with tons of other data sources, and that data is used to make fairly accurate predictions about your behavior which affects what products and services are promoted to you, that's when your average person goes "holy shit!" Right now it's just "out of sight, out of mind" and the full capabilities of what is possible with aggregated data is just not apparent to your average person.
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    meh, people here in Germany are privacy focused as hell and even here nobody cares for more than five minutes when some data scandal breaks, of which we have at least one every year now. AI, surveillance capitalism, manipulation and so on have been in pop-culture and news for years now, 'the social dilemma' just aired on netflix and a lot of people seem to have watched it, there's a documentary about 'big data' on TV every month, every other sci-fi movie has it as a plot point, we're all aware of it. People are genuinely indifferent about it. People will complain about it in theoretic debates but the number of people who actually delete the apps off their phone is basically zero, which tells you what you need to know.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      > nobody cares for more than five minutes when some data scandal breaks, of which we have at least one every year now Perhaps they don't care because they are accustomed and desensitized to it?
yurlungur 6y ago
His point is less about what customers want but more about the value of the data being collected. By providing a payment service you are harvesting a large amount of data "for free" that can be directly turned into money.

by dmos62 6y ago

rmah 6y ago

It may surprise some folks here on HN, but in the real world, the vast majority of people don't care if merchants "know who they are". I'd bet that there are more people want merchants to know who they are than there are people who explicitly don't want them to know. But that said, the vast majority simply don't care. Just my opinion, of course.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
I think it's more like "the vast majority simply don't care, until they do". That is, I think most people think "Who cares if merchant XYZ knows I changed my shampoo brand", but when people are actually shown the full set of data that is known about them, and how that data is correlated with with tons of other data sources, and that data is used to make fairly accurate predictions about your behavior which affects what products and services are promoted to you, that's when your average person goes "holy shit!" Right now it's just "out of sight, out of mind" and the full capabilities of what is possible with aggregated data is just not apparent to your average person.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  meh, people here in Germany are privacy focused as hell and even here nobody cares for more than five minutes when some data scandal breaks, of which we have at least one every year now. AI, surveillance capitalism, manipulation and so on have been in pop-culture and news for years now, 'the social dilemma' just aired on netflix and a lot of people seem to have watched it, there's a documentary about 'big data' on TV every month, every other sci-fi movie has it as a plot point, we're all aware of it. People are genuinely indifferent about it. People will complain about it in theoretic debates but the number of people who actually delete the apps off their phone is basically zero, which tells you what you need to know.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    > nobody cares for more than five minutes when some data scandal breaks, of which we have at least one every year now Perhaps they don't care because they are accustomed and desensitized to it?

yurlungur 6y ago

His point is less about what customers want but more about the value of the data being collected. By providing a payment service you are harvesting a large amount of data "for free" that can be directly turned into money.