I wonder what the high level thinking at Google is these days around user privacy. They must be aware that the growing noise about it means it is going to be the stick they are going to be attacked with, and yet their business relies on people willingly giving some of it up.
While this particular announcement seems fluffy, I do somewhat applaud the intent. The question of how we expect to run the internet economy and preserve user privacy is becoming more pressing for everyone though.
"The question of how we expect to run the internet economy and preserve user privacy is becoming more pressing for everyone though."
It should be run like the economy should be run, with consumers paying for the things they consume directly, rather than via an advertiser proxy at significant additional costs to us all[1]. Then there would be zero need to violate user privacy except where it strictly required for end-user desired functionality, and users can vote with their wallets.
The invisible hand only works correctly with such a direct buyer-producer relationship.
This notion of "free" websites and web services is a lie and needs to be exposed[1].
Comments
I wonder what the high level thinking at Google is these days around user privacy. They must be aware that the growing noise about it means it is going to be the stick they are going to be attacked with, and yet their business relies on people willingly giving some of it up.
While this particular announcement seems fluffy, I do somewhat applaud the intent. The question of how we expect to run the internet economy and preserve user privacy is becoming more pressing for everyone though.
I feel "willingly giving some [privacy] up" and "being incapable of even assessing one's level of privacy" are two very different conditions to be in.
It should be run like the economy should be run, with consumers paying for the things they consume directly, rather than via an advertiser proxy at significant additional costs to us all[1]. Then there would be zero need to violate user privacy except where it strictly required for end-user desired functionality, and users can vote with their wallets.
The invisible hand only works correctly with such a direct buyer-producer relationship.
This notion of "free" websites and web services is a lie and needs to be exposed[1].
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773