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The author pointed out that commercial machinery can be fitted with a kill-switch, which would have been easy to activate had Caterpillar decided that genocide
by mandmandam 2y ago
The author pointed out that commercial machinery can be fitted with a kill-switch, which would have been easy to activate had Caterpillar decided that genocide was against company values.
> What enabled this remote disabling was a practice known as “VIN-locking,” which manufacturers use to prevent unauthorized repairs to their products ... When it suits their purposes, then, the technology exists for heavy machinery companies to monitor, control and even disable products. Human rights abuses against Palestinians and Indians apparently don’t rise to the level of violating company values, let alone cause enough concern for the company to brick their machines
You can imagine more complicated safeguards if you like, but there's a simple solution sitting and waiting right there. All that's requires is for Caterpillar to decide they have any principles other than money...
> In 2017, an investigation by The Guardian and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that after the conclusion of the Corrie case, Caterpillar hired the corporate espionage company C2i* to spy on the family and report back on any subsequent actions they might be planning.
... Not fucking likely though.
* Think this was actually the Increment Group, Intelligence Company. C2i were in the same investigation for spying on environmental 'activists'.
- fc417fc802 2y agoIt's surprising to me that the conclusion reached here is "they should use the kill switch more" instead of a horrified "kill switches and remote monitoring in purchased products shouldn't be a legal practice".
- mandmandam 2y agoThat was not the conclusion, in either the article or my comment. Hypothetically - if you learned that your product was being used to run over people "dead and alive, in the hundreds", so that "everything squirts out", would you shrug and fob off responsibility? Even when you already had the technology to shut down those machines installed, and major human rights orgs are warning of genocide? ... Or would you just argue that your machines shouldn't have had that capability in the first place? ... Do you see how far that's missing the point? Tbh even that would be better than Caterpillar's likely response, which was probably to try and book even more sales based on the 'success' of their machinery and the pending reconstruction.