7 ms·

What is your credit card number? If you don't feel comfortable telling me that, would you instead take a calculator of your choosing, and find the cosine of yo

What is your credit card number? If you don't feel comfortable telling me that, would you instead take a calculator of your choosing, and find the cosine of your credit card number, and behold the mighty value it returns? Or maybe would you buy something online? :) I think you would probably be fine with the latter but not the former. People often don't even realize when they are sharing information with tools (see: how much people carry their phone everywhere). But you would probably feel uncomfortable telling me, a random internet stranger, everywhere you have brought your phone with you in the last month, let alone ever. We have a certain degree of trust for people and a certain degree of trust for tools. I think people almost strictly will trust the latter more than the former with sensitive information.

nozzlegear 2y ago
Ah, now you're asking me for a piece of info that we're all predisposed not to share =P. You're right, in that situation I think everyone's much likely to give a credit card number over to a tool with no personality and less likely to give it over to a human. > We have a certain degree of trust for people and a certain degree of trust for tools. I think people almost strictly will trust the latter more than the former with sensitive information. I agree with this, I just personally feel that I lean more toward trusting people. But honestly it all depends on the context of what information is being asked. Your credit card number is a great example. For an example on the other end of the spectrum, I'd be a thousand times more likely to hand over my real email address to a person than I'd be to give it to a tool (i.e. web form, app, etc.). These days I only assume the worst intent when something asks for my email address, but with a real person I know they just want to talk to me.

nozzlegear 2y ago

Ah, now you're asking me for a piece of info that we're all predisposed not to share =P. You're right, in that situation I think everyone's much likely to give a credit card number over to a tool with no personality and less likely to give it over to a human. > We have a certain degree of trust for people and a certain degree of trust for tools. I think people almost strictly will trust the latter more than the former with sensitive information. I agree with this, I just personally feel that I lean more toward trusting people. But honestly it all depends on the context of what information is being asked. Your credit card number is a great example. For an example on the other end of the spectrum, I'd be a thousand times more likely to hand over my real email address to a person than I'd be to give it to a tool (i.e. web form, app, etc.). These days I only assume the worst intent when something asks for my email address, but with a real person I know they just want to talk to me.