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How is data hoarding evil? Data lets us improve things, know what services need to be made, connect everything better. There's potential for abuse as in anythin

How is data hoarding evil? Data lets us improve things, know what services need to be made, connect everything better. There's potential for abuse as in anything but we don't call cough syrup evil.

efnx 6y ago
I like the analogy and agree with you but the potential for abuse of cough syrup is for the user, not the manufacturer. Maybe another analogy would be like if you had to give your full banking information to every restaurant your family dines at?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
z0r 6y ago
I remember seeing Bruce Schneier talk about this - https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_toxic.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_tox... imo this is the single correct perspective to have about data
royaltjames 6y ago
Hoarding of any type is a disorder, just like how addiction used to (still is) be considered a moral defect. Cough syrup not being evil -used as intended to alleviate symptoms but not cure OR chugged like a panacea ambrosia delivered by the gods- is such a weird analogy to write as the burden of use falls on the individual rather than the collector. How dare people prescribed highly addictive advertised as nonaddictive cocaine start taking it spoonful up the butthole~
29athrowaway 6y ago
How to be evil: - Offer a service. - Claim that your service exists to make the world better in some vague way. - Train yourself to sound like a compassionate, altruistic person that cares about others. - Sell user data. Hide the information about what data is being sold and who is buying it and why as much as possible. - Become wealthy selling data from users who trusted you. - Buy bona-fide companies and put them to the service of your evil cause. - Normalize evil behavior. Force other companies to become evil in order to compete. - Turn the Internet into a privacy nightmare. - Turn the field of computer science into satanism.
- selfhoster11 6y ago
  I think I need context on that last one.
selfhoster11 6y ago
People thought that data is the new oil, but it turns out it's not. Data is the new uranium. Powerful, yet toxic and irradiates everything in proximity. You most emphatically do not keep large piles of it if you can help it, and if you do, you silo and audit the sh*t out of that to control access and prevent theft because the potential for abuse is very high.
- ryandrake 6y ago
  I love the oil vs. uranium analogy. Uranium can be powerful and useful, but risky to hold, difficult to protect, and probably more of a liability than an asset.
  - selfhoster11 6y ago
    This is exactly why I like to use this analogy as well. Being all naïve and starry-eyed about the potential of data without considering the fallout from its use belongs to the pre-GDPR stone age of technology.

How is data hoarding evil? Data lets us improve things, know what services need to be made, connect everything better. There's potential for abuse as in anything but we don't call cough syrup evil.

efnx 6y ago

I like the analogy and agree with you but the potential for abuse of cough syrup is for the user, not the manufacturer. Maybe another analogy would be like if you had to give your full banking information to every restaurant your family dines at?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

z0r 6y ago

I remember seeing Bruce Schneier talk about this - https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_toxic.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/03/data_is_a_tox... imo this is the single correct perspective to have about data

royaltjames 6y ago

Hoarding of any type is a disorder, just like how addiction used to (still is) be considered a moral defect. Cough syrup not being evil -used as intended to alleviate symptoms but not cure OR chugged like a panacea ambrosia delivered by the gods- is such a weird analogy to write as the burden of use falls on the individual rather than the collector. How dare people prescribed highly addictive advertised as nonaddictive cocaine start taking it spoonful up the butthole~

29athrowaway 6y ago

How to be evil: - Offer a service. - Claim that your service exists to make the world better in some vague way. - Train yourself to sound like a compassionate, altruistic person that cares about others. - Sell user data. Hide the information about what data is being sold and who is buying it and why as much as possible. - Become wealthy selling data from users who trusted you. - Buy bona-fide companies and put them to the service of your evil cause. - Normalize evil behavior. Force other companies to become evil in order to compete. - Turn the Internet into a privacy nightmare. - Turn the field of computer science into satanism.

selfhoster11 6y ago
I think I need context on that last one.

selfhoster11 6y ago

People thought that data is the new oil, but it turns out it's not. Data is the new uranium. Powerful, yet toxic and irradiates everything in proximity. You most emphatically do not keep large piles of it if you can help it, and if you do, you silo and audit the sh*t out of that to control access and prevent theft because the potential for abuse is very high.

ryandrake 6y ago
I love the oil vs. uranium analogy. Uranium can be powerful and useful, but risky to hold, difficult to protect, and probably more of a liability than an asset.
- selfhoster11 6y ago
  This is exactly why I like to use this analogy as well. Being all naïve and starry-eyed about the potential of data without considering the fallout from its use belongs to the pre-GDPR stone age of technology.