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Comment by badbird3

19 days ago

Quite the high horse you got there

Considering there are hundreds or thousands of users on this site who have taken cash—either directly or indirectly—in exchange for building the world's most egregious examples of privacy-abusing software that were formerly only memes in 80s sci-fi movies. Yet they choose to focus their energy on getting upset over things they don't understand and can't control—like immigration enforcement.

No, my conscience is clean.

It’s worth pointing out that a non-insignificant subset of tech workers know the impacts and still don’t give a fuck though.

  • @anoym - There isn’t something inherently bad about working for law enforcement or national security agencies as long as what you’re doing cannot be used now or in the future unethically. But too be honest I think this is a ‘don’t hate the player’ type things, if palantir didn’t exist, another company would take its place - privacy legislation is the only thing that prevents it, not relying on ethics of the masses.

    • > legislation is the only thing that prevents it

      I strongly agree. There's even the argument to be made that if no legislation exists, even if you're anti X, you might get incentivized to build a company for X just so it's not a fan of X at the helm of the top company for X.

      Blaming it on the employees is pointless. It's the law that should dictate what's allowed and what isn't and if the lawmaking or enforcement isn't working you probably want some "good" people in those companies.

    • Laws are a reflection of the collective ethics of the masses, or at least they should be in a democracy.

  • A lot of them are even proud of being the loyal partners of the US intelligence community, which includes DHS and ICE.

Hey there, I quit a job over similar concerns, knowing it would lead to a >70% decrease in comp. Without a significant nest egg or wealth, whether personal or through family.

Now let me say the same: But those tools buy Teslas and $8 donuts and cardboard apartments in trendy neighborhoods for people too young to understand how money works.

There, now there's no longer a high horse concern.

  • >...I quit a job over similar concerns, knowing it would lead to a >70% decrease in comp. Without a significant nest egg or wealth, whether personal or through family.

    Hey, thanks for doing the right thing.

  • Thank you!

    It takes real courage and it costs to have principles. And just like I detest those that fall for the money I have insane respect for those that stand up.