Comment by deltron3030
6 years ago
>Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS)[1] is also inherently spyware, an increasingly popular feature as surveillance capitalism[2] infects our economy.
Sure, but it's how business in the real world works as well. You can't enter a shop without being observed or even recorded, either by cameras or the shop personal / owner in smaller ones. Your behavior during a conversation is analyzed in realtime and reacted to, that's the basics of selling. There is no invisible commerce in the real world.
That's a fundamental reality that you can't just omit, doing so would be irrational treating the web as something purely abstract, which it isn't. It's an abstraction / extension of the real world, because it's part of it.
What the web needs is obvious boundaries and private spaces that are basically extensions of your own home and those of your friends, make it clear that you can't do x or y (going in public) without being observed and analyzed. Right now the only real indicator is the tracker count of adblock plugins.
This analogy works for businesses like banks or stock brokers. Of course they'd keep a log of everything you do with their services. But in those cases, they provide service beyond the basics: banks insure your deposits and put their credibility behind transactions, and stock brokers (hopefully) give you advice.
But there are plenty of situations where the analogy shows how invasive surveillance can be. Imagine if your car mechanic kept a log of everywhere you drove. Imagine if the mattress maker knew everything that took place in your bed (for product improvement, naturally).
I'm alright with necessary data collection, like the banks and brokers recording what I ask them to do. But that's because there's no other way of doing those things except for services or becoming a professional myself. If the software can work as not a service, then I'm less okay with the data collection when it's only offered as a service.
If you know what's going on you can select a car mechanic or mattress maker who doesn't do that. The market consists of individuals, if nobody buys things under these conditions then the industry would stop doing that.
So the best thing would be to fight for better information, education and clarity about these things, instead of treating only the symptoms with regulations and laws that only excludes people from participating in the market.
Why not have mandatory indicators about different privacy levels and a driver license for tech that gives people the necessary foundations? This could solve the privacy problem from the ground up.