News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Google’s become an obsessive stalker. Parent comment

Re:Google’s become an obsessive stalker by nl on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @11:44AM (#12498113)
This is a good point. But Google's services make a person a more powerful agent compared to others: one can navigate quicker, find better services and access information faster and more accurately.

So yes, there is a trade off. But humans have been making trade-offs forever - civilization itself is one big compromise. Domesticating cattle meant human could not move as quickly and as fast as they used to. But they lived better and longer.

I don't see why information trade-offs are somehow different.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s become an obsessive stalker by the_other on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @01:13PM (#12499120)
> This is a good point. But Google's services make a person a more powerful agent compared to others: one can navigate quicker, find better services and access information faster and more accurately.

Google could provide most of those services without tracking individuals.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s become an obsessive stalker by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @02:20PM (#12499808)
> I don't see why information trade-offs are somehow different.

Because it is about power. We, as humanity, have plenty of experience with power trade-offs. We have so much experience with it that we have names for structures with centralized power, like "monarchy" and "dictatorship". Our experience with those trade-offs hasn't been particularly good. Maybe we should learn something from that.

[ Parent | on HN ]