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I don't think it's disingenuous? Gun manufacturers develop guns that gun stores buy to sell to people, Shopify develops tools to track people that they sell to
by jerojero 4y ago
I don't think it's disingenuous? Gun manufacturers develop guns that gun stores buy to sell to people, Shopify develops tools to track people that they sell to business owners. The gun can be be bought by an individual that can do good or bad. Same for Shopify.
Shopify is developing tools that can be used to do harm or to do good. But when they develop tools they know will be used for surveillance, then they can't just wash their hands away. There is responsibility there. Shopify knows how people are using the tools they are creating.
I think facilitating independent shops is positive, but developing more and more tracking functionality to get these shops to be "data driven" is harmful to society. Although that seems to be "the market pull", a lot of times the most ethical choice is not necessarily the most profitable one. Shopify wants to compete with Amazon and they believe a good way of doing that is offering their customers (business owners) better ways to track their customers (shoppers).
All you're doing is giving a third party the gun and your justification seems to be "well if we don't do it, they'll get their guns from amazon anyway". Who owns the data matters, I agree, and I commend Shopify for that, but it's a problematic trend that is being facilitated by these tools anyway. I mean, we should get rid of the guns, not go "we need more good guys with guns". That's my opinion at least.