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In my comment I’m not proposing that some purchases should be illegitimate. I’m only pointing out that there is an imbalance of power: a company can use a dron

by scotu 6y ago

In my comment I’m not proposing that some purchases should be illegitimate. I’m only pointing out that there is an imbalance of power: a company can use a drone strike on your mind, you can defend yourself with a popsicle stick. Good luck. I’m not proposing a solution but seems clear to me that individuals don’t have the power nor the weapons to defend themselves from what corporations with teams of psychology trained employees want them to do or think. The problem is not whether we should make the product illegal, it’s whether instilling the need/want for the product in the consumer, especially with creepy tracking, profiling, micro targeting techniques available for cheap nowadays should be regulated (I think it should, for full disclosure)

aww_dang 6y ago
>I’m not proposing that some purchases should be illegitimate >(sales) techniques available for cheap nowadays should be regulated If I am reading you correctly, you're saying that some sales techniques are illegitimate? Aside from outright coercion, marketing is not violence. Comparing it to a 'drone strike' sounds like hyperbole. Fraud and violence should be regulated. Segmenting an audience and targeting them with products is neither of those. I have trouble with, "there ought to be a law!". We have so many laws already. Regulations increase each year. The Internet has been a free and open place. It created so much growth because it was a new, largely unregulated frontier. We've observed regulatory capture in other industries. More laws will do little to protect consumers. Gov has almost no incentive to punish those who are collecting data for them. History shows that the big players will gain an advantage, while smaller publishers won't be able to afford the compliance costs. More platforms and walled gardens will follow. If regulation were a panacea, the developed western world would be a utopia. Perhaps individuals would be better served by educating themselves and thinking critically about advertisements, propaganda and the media they consume.
- scotu 6y ago
  > Aside from outright coercion, marketing is not violence > Fraud and violence should be regulated Fraud is just "fraud" because a law says so, otherwise it would just be a entity taking advantage of some other entity (that has a disparity of information about what is going on). It's not violence either, so I'm surprised you would want fraud to be regulated. I was going to respond further but I think we are in agreement that in the ideal world there would be less regulation. In the real world regulation not always works and has side effects. Some people still think that that imperfect solution is better than letting corporations do whatever they want, and that yes education is good, but (in my opinion) it's not only long term "solution", it might not be enough against psychology.

by scotu 6y ago

aww_dang 6y ago

>I’m not proposing that some purchases should be illegitimate >(sales) techniques available for cheap nowadays should be regulated If I am reading you correctly, you're saying that some sales techniques are illegitimate? Aside from outright coercion, marketing is not violence. Comparing it to a 'drone strike' sounds like hyperbole. Fraud and violence should be regulated. Segmenting an audience and targeting them with products is neither of those. I have trouble with, "there ought to be a law!". We have so many laws already. Regulations increase each year. The Internet has been a free and open place. It created so much growth because it was a new, largely unregulated frontier. We've observed regulatory capture in other industries. More laws will do little to protect consumers. Gov has almost no incentive to punish those who are collecting data for them. History shows that the big players will gain an advantage, while smaller publishers won't be able to afford the compliance costs. More platforms and walled gardens will follow. If regulation were a panacea, the developed western world would be a utopia. Perhaps individuals would be better served by educating themselves and thinking critically about advertisements, propaganda and the media they consume.

scotu 6y ago
> Aside from outright coercion, marketing is not violence > Fraud and violence should be regulated Fraud is just "fraud" because a law says so, otherwise it would just be a entity taking advantage of some other entity (that has a disparity of information about what is going on). It's not violence either, so I'm surprised you would want fraud to be regulated. I was going to respond further but I think we are in agreement that in the ideal world there would be less regulation. In the real world regulation not always works and has side effects. Some people still think that that imperfect solution is better than letting corporations do whatever they want, and that yes education is good, but (in my opinion) it's not only long term "solution", it might not be enough against psychology.