> More to the point, if you’re in Saudi Arabia (or really anywhere), it might be prudent to think about avoiding insecure communication tools like WhatsApp and Viber

- by default they'll upload backups of your messages to Google cloud.

- (more importantly for me) I really don't trust Facebook to:

1.) not abuse metadata

2.) not mess up security somehow

3.) stand up against whatever oppressive regimes we might see in the future

In addition I don't want to make the Facebook ecosystem any stronger if I can avoid it.

A nice bonus is that I strengthen the network effect of other ecosystems when I use them by default.

There are two issues at play

1. Not everyone is prepared mentally to turn down big payouts. I have seen this happening up and down the food chain. You only understand how hard this is after you have been in that position. And these day some of the cheques that get waved in your face are insane.

2. People get sucked into a certain kind of "lifestyle" that they get insecure about loosing. And will do whatever it takes to maintain that lifestyle. Once they get "trapped" they are part of this global mega machine of similar folk. Sometimes it feels like watching ants in an anthill. All on autopilot.

The thing is they know they are trapped and convincing them to give it up is not simple.

Ergo, in response to your previous post, one of two things is true. (1) There is no true evil in the world. Or (2) one should be suspicious of elaborate arguments, because they're often coming from people paid to defend profitable evil.

The counterargument to (2) would be "Well, 'good' has PR too." But I think it's objectively demonstrable that evil pays much better.

Nobody is prepared for racial profiling and genocide either.

Let's try this again,

You said you haven't found effective ways to do anything about it.

How about you stop calling them friends for a start.

Secondly, say something. You're literally the only one who can.

Don't just sit there and try to justify their shitty actions so you can let yourself off the hook as if you tried but couldn't do anything because you know, what about their lifestyles.

The US sells more weapons than anyone else - obviously a LOT of people make a living selling them.

And some countries play harder ball than the CIA and SIS

If you're making this sort of software for one country or organisation then you're effectively a weapons trafficker so you might as well sell to all sides and reap in the profits.

It’s a very slippery slope.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_(The_Twilight...

And when your kids lost all respect for you after finding out what a shameless sell-out you are, well...

whatever.

This isn't as good an excuse as you think it is.

You might want to ask yourself if there is anything you believe in or care about beyond your own genetic code.

It's one of the reasons suicide bombers blow themselves up too.

But, as in this case he will live and it ignores the lasting psychological damage on those around them - becoming malevolent will affect the people around, and not in a good way.

Not really. By succumbing to this temptation he's contributing to creating a worse future for everyone, including his children and their children.

and then they'll shop around some more.

it will cost them, more and more, and hopefully it will be deemed not worth it.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/17/silicon-valley-hoped-the-k...

Don't let scumbags have their way, if you can tip the scale in the other direction. But again, don't want to take the moral high ground and tell people what to do.

Last I checked, they had people contact them and published material they liked.

Not discounting the work they do, but there's a huge difference between them and someone like The Guardian assigning reporters to investigate a story.

some companies/individuals would've jumped on it.

i dont know how engineers sleep at night who write spyware that track and ultimately contribute to people getting tortured to death, usually political dissidents.

also ppl designing new ways to kill humans. wtf is that shit? real contribution to humanity lol