Comment by rand_user_100
3 years ago
On one hand, thank you for showing us all how easy it is to make something like this. No doubt organizations with more resources already have more sophisticated systems in the same vein.
On the other hand, can we agree that this product is unethical?
In many cases, when a person uses an alt, it is a direct and strong signal that they do not wish their other posts to be associated.
So this product is circumventing the explicit will of the person, and making it available to anyone with zero effort i.e. there is no barrier to getting this info.
I met someone about 10 years ago who said they built this at a university. And their argument also was "actually this enhances privacy because it lets you know something something something". And yet their research grants were coming from one source only.
It can be used for good, but most often it won't.
<< On the other hand, can we agree that this product is unethical?
It does create a high level of discomfort, because it illustrates well what privacy advocates try talking about to the population at large, but all that said.. how is it any different from regular scraping and analyzing it any other way?
This is a real question.
It's different because you're removing all barriers to access and making it easy and convenient to stalk/dox people.
Imagine you get the urge to track someone, but in order to do that you have to spend a week writing some new software. That's a barrier. And because of it you may change your mind because it's a lot of work with little payoff.
But if that info is just one click away, it's a whole different ballgame.
> On the other hand, can we agree that this product is unethical?
No.