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1. pembro+eb[view] [source] 2023-11-02 11:52:38
>>pbrw+(OP)
Ok, my contrarian hot take (for HN at least). The real entities we need to be afraid of in regards to privacy are governments & politicians, not companies & entrepreneurs.

The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap. The government on the other hand can literally ruin your life (or even end it in some countries).

The EU is doing a fantastic job of keeping everyone distracted by pointing the finger at the "evil American tech companies" while simultaneously doing the opposite when it comes to privacy from government...which is the real threat.

I could point to many instances of this but the easiest one is the EU commission currently pushing a ban on encryption.

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2. MereIn+5k[view] [source] 2023-11-02 12:43:40
>>pembro+eb
> The worst thing a company can do is try to sell you more soap.

A company can bar the exits, letting you burn to death [0]. A company can send private militias to force you to work [1] (or because you were sent the wrong set of MtG cards [2]). A company can improperly store pesticide, until the resulting explosion kills thousands [3]. A company can own every house and store in a town, managing your expenses to ensure you can't leave [4]. A company can bribe judges to provide them with child labor [5].

Some of these were illegal at the time they were done. Some of these were made illegal as a result of these events. All of them are within the nature of companies, optimizing in pursuit of profit regardless of the human cost. That nature is useful for improving lives, but must be carefully controlled to prevent it from trampling us all.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fi...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

[2] https://gizmodo.com/magic-the-gathering-leaks-wizards-wotc-p...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

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3. ActorN+yk1[view] [source] 2023-11-02 17:02:28
>>MereIn+5k
Try again, but keep things relevant within the past 10 years, and applicable to majority of the population.
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4. henry2+um1[view] [source] 2023-11-02 17:08:51
>>ActorN+yk1
As corporations get bigger. the issues described get more prevalent. South Korea is going through a birth collapse mostly because their corporations's shaping of civil life. We're going through a huge opioid crisis just because of our corporations.

Systemic > Isolated instances but also harder to point out.

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5. aegypt+Py1[view] [source] 2023-11-02 17:54:38
>>henry2+um1
Still quite the reach. An inverse correlation between income and fertility is observable across the entire developed world and across every form of economic organization present in developed/developing countries over the past century with zero exceptions.
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