<story><title>Google’s become an obsessive stalker</title><url>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/14/google_location_location_location/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yummyfajitas</author><text>&lt;i&gt;We are witnessing the birth of a new phase that will leave a scar on mankind and make the sins of the Church, Hitler, North Korea and every other despotic regime that has tried to limit human freedom through the ages look amateurish if we do nothing about it now.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nazis killed approx 40M people. Communists add another 100-200M to that total. Are you really suggesting that &amp;quot;large unbridled corporations&amp;quot; have proven through history that they will kill more than 240M people?&lt;p&gt;The only mechanism I can think of by which google might even approach this is by creating evil AI. Is that what you are referring to, or something else?</text></item><item><author>Lordarminius</author><text>I find it curious the tone of some responses on this issue. Google (and not just google; FB, Bing,Baidu) snooping is not a petty issue that will just go away. It is a matter of deep concern at par with any existential threat mankind has ever faced; up there with climate change and nuclear war. Never before has mankind had to face such an assault to privacy. The data google collects is the next best thing to reading its users minds. This is all the more scary because&lt;p&gt;1. It is a private company
2. state actors have a vested interest in aligning with google and other such companies and  (as the article points out) will deliberately lapse in their regulatory obligations.&lt;p&gt;The privacy wars are on and google et-al have won the opening skirmishes. I predict that in response to rising public awareness (not outcry, there is no outcry) google and other invaders of privacy will come up with algorithms that tone down recommendations and mask the amount of data being captured without actually reducing it. The citizenry will be lulled into false complacency and the encirclement will proceed apace.&lt;p&gt;Large unbridled Corporations with unchecked power have proven through history to be venal and predatory. We are witnessing the birth of a new phase that will leave a scar on mankind and make the sins of the Church, Hitler, North Korea and every other despotic regime that has tried to limit human freedom through the ages look amateurish if we do nothing about it now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ta_donk_gt</author><text>&amp;gt; Nazis killed approx 40M people. Communists add another 100-200M to that total.&lt;p&gt;Without wanting to start a political battle here, this is not behavior that is limited to political systems.  Western democracies have inflicted their fair share of death and carnage as well, though because they are &amp;quot;our team&amp;quot; we tend to see our behavior as justified and the other teams&amp;#x27; behaviors as unjustified.&lt;p&gt;Humans with sufficient power will always eliminate any potential threats to their power, and do what they feel is necessary to expediently reach their goals...once that course of action has been successfully justified.  That justification happens via one of or a combination of two ways: 1) rhetoric, propaganda, coalition building, education, etc. (various means of influencing those that might present road blocks to accept the behavior), and&amp;#x2F;or 2) possessing sufficient power that challenging the behavior is not an option.&lt;p&gt;Once corporations are able to politically justify eliminating those that stand in their way, they will...all humans in history with sufficient power have done so, and that is never going to change.  Many large corporations already have more wealth than half of the nation states on this planet.  That is a lot of power.  The cornerstones of future political justifications are happening in things like TPP effectively raising the corporation to the level of nation state in some regards.&lt;p&gt;It will happen, it is only a matter of time.  Initially it will be the ability to capture and imprison those threats to their power, and eventually it will lead to war and killing.  This is the nature of our species.  It&amp;#x27;s not going to change.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google’s become an obsessive stalker</title><url>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/14/google_location_location_location/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yummyfajitas</author><text>&lt;i&gt;We are witnessing the birth of a new phase that will leave a scar on mankind and make the sins of the Church, Hitler, North Korea and every other despotic regime that has tried to limit human freedom through the ages look amateurish if we do nothing about it now.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nazis killed approx 40M people. Communists add another 100-200M to that total. Are you really suggesting that &amp;quot;large unbridled corporations&amp;quot; have proven through history that they will kill more than 240M people?&lt;p&gt;The only mechanism I can think of by which google might even approach this is by creating evil AI. Is that what you are referring to, or something else?</text></item><item><author>Lordarminius</author><text>I find it curious the tone of some responses on this issue. Google (and not just google; FB, Bing,Baidu) snooping is not a petty issue that will just go away. It is a matter of deep concern at par with any existential threat mankind has ever faced; up there with climate change and nuclear war. Never before has mankind had to face such an assault to privacy. The data google collects is the next best thing to reading its users minds. This is all the more scary because&lt;p&gt;1. It is a private company
2. state actors have a vested interest in aligning with google and other such companies and  (as the article points out) will deliberately lapse in their regulatory obligations.&lt;p&gt;The privacy wars are on and google et-al have won the opening skirmishes. I predict that in response to rising public awareness (not outcry, there is no outcry) google and other invaders of privacy will come up with algorithms that tone down recommendations and mask the amount of data being captured without actually reducing it. The citizenry will be lulled into false complacency and the encirclement will proceed apace.&lt;p&gt;Large unbridled Corporations with unchecked power have proven through history to be venal and predatory. We are witnessing the birth of a new phase that will leave a scar on mankind and make the sins of the Church, Hitler, North Korea and every other despotic regime that has tried to limit human freedom through the ages look amateurish if we do nothing about it now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>z5h</author><text>Tobacco killed 100 million. Sugary drinks alone are linked to 180000 deaths&amp;#x2F;year. (And of course big sugar lied to us &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;well&amp;#x2F;eat&amp;#x2F;how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html?_r=0&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;well&amp;#x2F;eat&amp;#x2F;how-the-sugar-ind...&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;So, yes. Anything in the name of profit.</text></comment>