Comment by janalsncm

1 month ago

We can go back and forth on whether police should have access to this data and what regulations should be put on how/why it should be accessed. I think reasonable people can disagree about details, and cultural expectations around privacy and safety probably means there isn’t a single best answer.

But I don’t think anyone can honestly say the right amount of regulation is zero, which is what we have now. It is absolutely bonkers to me that anyone off the street should be able to gather such highly granular data about any other person as long as they can pay.

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janalsncm

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burningChrome  1 month ago

I remember back in the early days of wireless data when AT&T had an app you could use on their phone where you logged in and it effectively used the GPS data of people signed in on app to tell you if they were near you or not. They marketed like you were downtown and got some free baseball tickets and needed to find someone to go with you. The app would tell you where your friends were and you could offer them to go over their simple chat app.

It completely bombed out because people were so freaked out about a device knowing where you were.

I also remember when Nextel came out with an enterprise tracking app for delivery companies where you could track the vehicle and make sure it was on time making its deliveries and could alert a person monitoring the software back at the office if say the van was sitting too long somewhere which indicated they had broken down or something similar.

Two companies tried to install on their vans and there was so much push back from so many people in one company, they canceled their order. The other company did install it and then they had three lawsuits from employees who claimed the software was a breach of their privacy - while in the employment of said company and on said companies time. The company voluntarily removed it after only a few months.

Its just so strange to me that we went from not wanting any of this, to just freely handing over any and all private information to these companies.

  • rightbyte  1 month ago

    > Its just so strange to me that we went from not wanting any of this, to just freely handing over any and all private information to these companies.

    I don't think the nature of the data collection was clear and have been creeping up on us.

    It took a while for me to realize. E.g. I didn't notice Google was spying on me and stalking on non Google sites until I finally realized it.

  • Intralexical  1 month ago

    > Its just so strange to me that we went from not wanting any of this, to just freely handing over any and all private information to these companies.

    Anything can wear people down— make it seem as if it were always normal, even— if it's just persistent enough.

    All the more reason it should have been nipped in the bud, I guess.