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The reason you're being downvoted is that your point (as read) seems to be "Well, .gov funds research that kills babies!" This is rubbish, because it also fund
by angersock 12y ago
The reason you're being downvoted is that your point (as read) seems to be "Well, .gov funds research that kills babies!"
This is rubbish, because it also funds research that leads to medicine, better roads and health, the Internet, and all number of other things that are absolutely positive things. The balance is by far on the good, not the bad.
Private research brought us things like the Maxim gun, the Gatling gun, most of the shitty food you can buy today, lots of unhealthy chemicals, and all sorts of other things.
It's a comparison that, even if executed properly, is hard to make--and you failed to execute.
- Tycho 12y agoThe point is that private companies have no incentive to pursue things like wMD programs or PRISM. Only governments have that.
- mcguire 12y ago> or PRISM Google. Facebook.
- nickff 12y agoThose companies were complying with legal obligations, not eagerly helping the NSA collect any and all data because they were gung-ho.
- mcguire 12y agoNo, they are collecting data because that is how they make money. And I rather suspect that if you compare what the NSA knows about you, personally, with what th' Goog' knows, the NSA will come up well behind. I'm not trying to minimize what the NSA has done; what they do is supposedly done in our name, which is offensive, and they have more power than any company to do harm with what they collect, which is frightening. And I'm not trying to attack the companies; they have every right to what I give them, most of which is not private even if I would wish it to be, and they do provide useful services with that information. But if you are upset about an organization collecting information to use in some way that may be other than your best interest, the two are pretty equal.
- Tycho 12y agoBut if you are upset about an organization collecting information to use in some way that may be other than your best interest, the two are pretty equal. Gestapo. Stasi.
- angersock 12y agoPrivate companies have incentive to pursue whatever the fuck they want to pursue. Public companies have a nominal responsibility to shareholders, but as long as they can justify it they can do whatever so long as it makes money eventually. Governments have a nominal responsibility to their citizens, but can do other stuff if they are allowed to do so. WMD is such a stupid thing to bandy about, anyways--how many more are killed with cigarettes and cars than have died from these superweapons that rot in silos and labs? PRISM, as somebody else has pointed out, is a stupid example because massive data mining is literally the business model for vast swathes of industry. Just stop.