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I'm sorry, but appealing to companies makes no sense. For one, it is against their financial interests, and second, if it can be introduced, it can be reversed.

I'm sorry, but appealing to companies makes no sense. For one, it is against their financial interests, and second, if it can be introduced, it can be reversed. He should appeal to the media instead: they should make people aware not how much control they are giving away now, but how dangerous it can become in the future. But it seems to me very few people would listen or care.

pessimizer 5y ago
> But it seems to me very few people would listen or care. Everybody cares, they just understand that they're powerless to change anything. The companies in question and the media share ownership.
- mrguyorama 5y ago
  Nope, not everybody cares. My father is staunchly in the "I have nothing to hide" camp, more specifically, he thinks "what does it matter if <company> knows I do <thing>?" Meanwhile many of my other relatives are afraid of being tracked, but they attribute that tracking to spy chips bill gates put in the covid vaccine. Meanwhile, as my father above pointed out, they carry their phones with them everywhere, and use facebook prominently.
core-utility 5y ago
I'd be curious on the media using this from a fear angle. In everything you have to ask yourself "where's the incentive". For decades, the Media (big-M) have relied on fear for viewership, because it sells. Sounds like they could pretty easily sell government surveillance as fear if they chose to. There's a lot of information to be had in why they're not currently doing this, be it their own fear of US government, China, etc.
lukifer 5y ago
One could interpret this call to action being targeted as much at individual workers in SV, and its general culture (as in, quit your high-paying VC-backed job, and work on something FOSS/federated). In either case, I agree appealing to corporations makes no sense; in those rare cases where their bottom lines aren't aligned with future authoritarian states, it's because they want to become quasi-authoritarian fiefs themselves.

pessimizer 5y ago

> But it seems to me very few people would listen or care. Everybody cares, they just understand that they're powerless to change anything. The companies in question and the media share ownership.

mrguyorama 5y ago
Nope, not everybody cares. My father is staunchly in the "I have nothing to hide" camp, more specifically, he thinks "what does it matter if <company> knows I do <thing>?" Meanwhile many of my other relatives are afraid of being tracked, but they attribute that tracking to spy chips bill gates put in the covid vaccine. Meanwhile, as my father above pointed out, they carry their phones with them everywhere, and use facebook prominently.

core-utility 5y ago

I'd be curious on the media using this from a fear angle. In everything you have to ask yourself "where's the incentive". For decades, the Media (big-M) have relied on fear for viewership, because it sells. Sounds like they could pretty easily sell government surveillance as fear if they chose to. There's a lot of information to be had in why they're not currently doing this, be it their own fear of US government, China, etc.

lukifer 5y ago

One could interpret this call to action being targeted as much at individual workers in SV, and its general culture (as in, quit your high-paying VC-backed job, and work on something FOSS/federated). In either case, I agree appealing to corporations makes no sense; in those rare cases where their bottom lines aren't aligned with future authoritarian states, it's because they want to become quasi-authoritarian fiefs themselves.