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A comment on Ask HN: I joined a big co, like the team, hate some policies, what should I do?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: I joined a big co, like the team, hate some polic... by ivraatiems on Saturday July 23, 2016 @11:11PM (#12152061)
Sorry, but, many of these companies are not as ethical as you claim.

Xiaomi sent user data to China without consent. [1]

Palantir proposed an illegal campaign agaisnt Wikileaks [2] and its very industry is by its nature fairly dubious and shady, though that doesn't mean it's doing things that are strictly illegal aside from what is known.

Snapchat ignored and didn't fix various privacy and security issues. [3]

Pintrest operates in a dubious copyright gray area. [4]

Spotify pays artists very little and most money gets sent to record labels. Even labels see almost nothing. [5]

Like Uber, Lyft engages in unethical treatment of its workers. [6]

I can go on. The badness of these things varies significantly. Not all of them indicate a company is totally unethical. But I think the assertion "most Silicon Valley companies are doing at least some illegal, scammy, or otherwise unethical things in order to get ahead" is completely true.

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/article/xiaomi-under-investigation-for-...

[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/02/11/palanti...

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/style/uber-facebook-and-ot...

[4] http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-illegal-faq-2012-2?...

[5] http://www.hearya.com/2012/11/28/david-macias-enlightening-l...

[6] https://www.reddit.com/r/Lyft/comments/2y16r3/lyfts_highly_u... (aggregates news articles)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: I joined a big co, like the team, hate some polic... by serge2k on Sunday July 24, 2016 @05:47PM (#12155064)
> Spotify pays artists very little and most money gets sent to record labels. Even labels see almost nothing. [5]

How is that shady? They have deals with the appropriate companies.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: I joined a big co, like the team, hate some polic... by kixpanganiban on Sunday July 24, 2016 @11:03PM (#12156197)
Exactly. That's not shady, that's just how their business works and labels are not blind from that fact.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: I joined a big co, like the team, hate some polic... by ivraatiems on Monday July 25, 2016 @11:42AM (#12159409)
It's unethical to exploit artists for the profit of streaming companies and record labels while simultaneously hailing yourself as a godsend for said artists.
[ Parent | on HN ]