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Initial reaction: WTF?! The more I think about it though, the more I'm aligned with the idea — except the home address part, that's just mental and dangerous.
by ghusto 4y ago
Initial reaction: WTF?!
The more I think about it though, the more I'm aligned with the idea — except the home address part, that's just mental and dangerous.
So all your details like salary, social security number, etc. are public. What's the end result? For me, nothing. I _could_ care less, but not by much.
I know people get all worked up about things like their social security number being exposed, "because fraud!", but really? How? They'd go somewhere and try to open a bank account or something with your details? Without an government approved ID?
On the other hand, I can see a lot of good coming from this level of transparency. So much crap is possible due to secrecy being the norm. It's like how at work you're expected not to share your salary with co-workers, but the C-levels know how much you get paid. Same thing in society; we're expected not to share information with each other, but the government knows everything. Put it all out in the open and let's see what floats.
- luckylion 4y ago> So all your details like salary, social security number, etc. are public. What's the end result? For me, nothing. I _could_ care less, but not by much. I'm pretty sure my antisocial neighbor would consider robbing me if he knew my net worth.
- ojn 4y agoNet worth is not public, "only" your taxable income.
- exodust 4y ago> I can see a lot of good coming from this... Yet you don't name one single thing except that "bad things are possible" without it. I'm quite sure bad things are possible with or without everyone's personal data in a public lookup service.
- hiccuphippo 4y ago> I know people get all worked up about things like their social security number being exposed, "because fraud!", but really? How? They'd go somewhere and try to open a bank account or something with your details? Without an government approved ID? Yes, at least in my country knowing your ID/SSN does nothing. It is crazy that someone could open an account with the number alone.
- c7b 4y agoA strange comment to be coming from a pseudonymous account with no contact info. Why are you hiding your identity on HN if that's how you feel?
- eesmith 4y agoI can think of a couple not-so-strange reasons. 1) Note the qualifier "the government knows everything"? There are plenty of things the government doesn't know. ghusto's comment doesn't seem to be that those should be public too. 2) ghusto might be a $FAMOUS_PERSON who wanted to make comments on HN, but not let fame influence the conversation.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- systemvoltage 4y agoThere is a strange dichotomy between extreme transparency and extreme privacy. Both sound great despite of being mutually exclusive (you can't have transparency without loss of privacy). It seems like a complete mental blockage to reason about both simulatenously and it's hard to crystallize arguments.