Aral Balkan
Today, you can choose not to drive a Tesla if you don’t want Elon Musk, Inc. knowing everywhere you go. Tomorrow, you might have to limit where you live because you won’t live in a Google Home and reconsider having 20/20 vision again in exchange for the artificial lens company seeing everything you see. Privacy is not something you can “vote with your wallet” on. We either protect it as a human right or we lose it altogether. 13 comments
Ben Evans
@aral An older UK person I am close to needs to use a heart monitor. The doctors advised us that the best-available tech is the Apple watch and the ecosystem associated with it. The alternative, non-BigTech solution was obviously inferior and had a horrible UX that even relatively tech-savvy seniors were clearly going to struggle with. "Give up your data to BigTech or have worsened healthcare outcomes" is already here - even on what's left of the NHS.
Aral Balkan
@kittylyst And, to be fair, Apple are by no means perfect (and no trillion-dollar company is your friend) but they do design their tech differently so your health data stays on your own device. In the West, at least, they’ve made it their differentiating factor. (If you’re in China, though, that’s a different market and they have a different set of principles they apply there. Surprise, surprise.) 
Paul Quirk
@aral @kittylyst Apple's policies are decided by Apple and Apple alone, and are subject to change at Apple's whims at any time it suits them for any reason at all. Just ask Power Computing.
Sarcasmo220
I remember in the Winter of 2020 I was exposed to COVID and I went to schedule a test. That's when I discovered the only convenient way through the state website was to use my Google account. The other ways were so convoluted that it didn't really feel like a choice. 
Erik Uden :verified:
This is such a shame... It's crazy how these CEOs will then go on and market themselves as awesome world saving entrepreneurs whilst just exploiting the new way of making money this century: data.
Dynom
@aral i ask that question all the time and it's amazing how often you're seen as an idiot for not clearly seeing <mischievous earning structure here> as the obvious model. Even though it's often possible to just have a subscription model and have a fair pay-for-when-it-costs-us system. Optionally supported with privacy respecting ads, to keep it affordable for much more people.  
Paul Sutton
You can get reading rulers, which partly consist of thin plastic, but the set has different colours, you put these over the text to make the text easier to read. 
Aviva Gary
@aral lol I wish I could say you are wrong but that is the whole point of these products. The service they offer is almost secondary... Like Harvard is a Hedge fund that just so happens to offer Educational services. Sometimes. |
Gregory's Server
By the way, if you think the artificial lens bit is hyperbole, think again. Quite a few years ago now I was sitting at dinner with some CEO of some startup that had developed a free tool they said helped people with dyslexia read more easily.
So, as I do, I asked him my favourite question: “how will you make money with this?”
He looked at me like I was rather daft before answering, matter of factly, “well, we know what you’re reading.”
Say no more, my friend. Say no more.
#PeopleFarming