News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People. Parent comment

Re:Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People by Xylakant on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @06:11PM (#15752571)
It’s just not possible to be perfectly consistent in all your actions, we’re all hypocrites somewhere if you consider all down to the root. We probably all hate forced child labor, yet we all own smartphones, all of them most likely built with resources mined by children under grueling conditions. (This text Is typed on one) Still, don’t let that stop from doing the right thing once in a while. If we all did the right thing most of the time, we’d still be hypocrites, but the world would probably be a better place.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People by tabeth on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @06:13PM (#15752589)
> We probably all hate forced child labor

A false premise. If that were true, just like you stated, we wouldn't support it. Actions speak louder than words, and all that.

EDIT: I realize I sound far more judge-y than intended in these posts. My overall point is that people should just do whatever makes 'em happy while doing the best you can (w.r.t. everything else). Trying to emphasize the morality in your actions is just wrong, imo.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People by Xylakant on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @06:19PM (#15752628)
It’s not a false premise. It’s just not humanly possible to change everything you don’t support. We can’t move all back to self-dug caves and till the land with our bare hands. You need to pick your battles.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People by tabeth on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @06:27PM (#15752693)
It's not about changing things you support, it's just about consistency in your actions.

Taking the child labor thing into account, never being brand new electronics again would pretty much take care of that. One could make an argument that buying used goods is still supporting child labor, but I'd argue it's a sunk cost.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People by ForHackernews on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @06:42PM (#15752808)
> brand new electronics

Why choose this example? Child labour is rife in many sectors, particularly textiles.

It's also rampant in electronics recycling[0]. So even if you never buy any new electronics, you're complicit when you dispose of your old electronics.

The point is you shouldn't allow an impossible quest for perfect ideological consistency and moral purity to prevent you from doing good on a imperfect, inconsistent scale.

[0] http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/india-rising-tide-e-wast...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People by tabeth on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @07:02PM (#15752934)
Oh I completely agree.
[ Parent | on HN ]