StrypeyApr 24, 2023

"In his excellent book on #surveillance, Bruce Schneier has pointed out we would never agree to carry tracking devices and report all our most intimate conversations if the government made us do it.

But under such a scheme, we would enjoy more legal protections than we have now. By letting ourselves be tracked voluntarily, we forfeit all protection against how that information is used.

Those who control the data gain enormous power over those who don't."

https://idlewords.com/talks/what_happens_next_will_amaze_you.htm

#privacy

What Happens Next Will Amaze You

Show threadStrypeyApr 25, 2023

"It took a long time to establish that environmental smoke exposure was harmful, and even longer to translate this into law and policy...

... the harmful aspects of surveillance have a long gestation period, just like the harmful effects of smoking, and reformers face the same kind of well-funded resistance. That doesn't mean we can't win. But it does mean we have to fight."

#MaciejCegłowski, 2015

https://idlewords.com/talks/what_happens_next_will_amaze_you.htm

What Happens Next Will Amaze You

Show threadStrypeyApr 25, 2023

"Consider the spectacle of the Chrome team, employed by Google, fighting against the YouTube ads team, also employed by Google. Remember that Google makes all its money from ad revenue.

I've met people on the Chrome team and they are serious and committed to defending their browser. I've also met people on the YouTube ads team, and they hate their lives and want to die. But it's still a strange situation to find yourself in."

#MaciejCegłowski, 2015

https://idlewords.com/talks/what_happens_next_will_amaze_you.htm

#ConflictOfInterest

What Happens Next Will Amaze You

Show threadStrypey

This sums up beautifully why ads can't work as the primary funding model for the web, as it has for newspapers, radio, and television;

"Ad blockers help us safeguard an important principle—that the browser is fundamentally our user agent. It's supposed to be on our side. It sticks up for us. We get to control its behavior. No amount of moralizing about our duty to view unwanted advertisements can change that."

#MaciejCegłowski, 2015

#advertising #funding

Apr 25, 2023 at 5:05amWeb
Show threadStrypeyApr 25, 2023

"We had people like this back in Poland, except instead of venture capitalists we called them central planners. They too were in charge of allocating vast amounts of money that didn't belong to them.

They too honestly believed they were changing the world, and offered the same kinds of excuses about why our day-to-day life bore no relation to the shiny, beautiful world that was supposed to lie just around the corner."

#MaciejCegłowski, 2015

https://idlewords.com/talks/what_happens_next_will_amaze_you.htm

#CentralPlanning #VC

What Happens Next Will Amaze You