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But the thing is that Opera now sits on a trove of highly valuable information, and I can't imagine them not doing anything about it. As benign and non-evil as

But the thing is that Opera now sits on a trove of highly valuable information, and I can't imagine them not doing anything about it. As benign and non-evil as they are, they must feel pressure - be it internal, external or both - to capitalize on this "asset". Do you trust them enough to keep resisting this pressure, which is only guaranteed to rise?

rhizome 15y ago
All we know is that they've resisted it so far, right? I know the bar for ethics here is pretty low, but give credit where due.
- kaffiene 15y ago
  I think that's very important. We have to trust some companies to get by in the world so its very important being able to distinguish between those you trust and those you don't. For me, I killed my facebook account while leaving Google+ running. I know that Google is using its data on me to serve up ads to me, but I feel they're pretty up-front about this, unlike facebook. I think its important to be able to judge which companies are worth trusting and giving credit to those (like Opera) which haven't yet given anyone reason to doubt them.
vetler 15y ago
One of the things they use the data for is State of the Mobile Web (http://www.opera.com/smw/ http://www.opera.com/smw/), which is generated based on log files stored in a HDFS cluster and processed with Hadoop. At least it was like this a few years ago, and as far as I know they haven't changed it. Having all this information available is certainly valuable to Opera and both their current and potential customers. Any pressure to be more evil is countered by a few things: the scandinavian culture and the developers. In general, it is in scandinavians' nature to be nice to other people, so doing evil things don't come naturally in most cases. Really. Afer all, we're socialists. Of course there are plenty of non-scandinavians at Opera, but when I was there a few years ago the corporate culture was still scandinavian. Also, the developers have traditionally had a lot to say at Opera, probably partly because of the scandinavian culture, and partly due to corporate culture instilled by the founders. They are also very vocal about their opinions, and are against doing evil things. Actually, the Opera Mini team has been especially concerned about this. However, Opera Mini servers are located in countries around the world, and will be subject to local laws, so use and abuse of this may not always be in Opera's hands.

rhizome 15y ago

All we know is that they've resisted it so far, right? I know the bar for ethics here is pretty low, but give credit where due.

kaffiene 15y ago
I think that's very important. We have to trust some companies to get by in the world so its very important being able to distinguish between those you trust and those you don't. For me, I killed my facebook account while leaving Google+ running. I know that Google is using its data on me to serve up ads to me, but I feel they're pretty up-front about this, unlike facebook. I think its important to be able to judge which companies are worth trusting and giving credit to those (like Opera) which haven't yet given anyone reason to doubt them.

vetler 15y ago

One of the things they use the data for is State of the Mobile Web (http://www.opera.com/smw/ http://www.opera.com/smw/), which is generated based on log files stored in a HDFS cluster and processed with Hadoop. At least it was like this a few years ago, and as far as I know they haven't changed it. Having all this information available is certainly valuable to Opera and both their current and potential customers. Any pressure to be more evil is countered by a few things: the scandinavian culture and the developers. In general, it is in scandinavians' nature to be nice to other people, so doing evil things don't come naturally in most cases. Really. Afer all, we're socialists. Of course there are plenty of non-scandinavians at Opera, but when I was there a few years ago the corporate culture was still scandinavian. Also, the developers have traditionally had a lot to say at Opera, probably partly because of the scandinavian culture, and partly due to corporate culture instilled by the founders. They are also very vocal about their opinions, and are against doing evil things. Actually, the Opera Mini team has been especially concerned about this. However, Opera Mini servers are located in countries around the world, and will be subject to local laws, so use and abuse of this may not always be in Opera's hands.