The EFF or some other watchdog should put out some public ads that depict corporations as a creepy person stalking someone:

It's a lot more disgusting and universally hated when you hear about a peeping tom, or a pervert, or a jealous ex hounding someone,

but when faceless corporations and governments do it to EVERYBODY 24/7, everyone's like, ehh.

I mean, right now, just think about me, clicking on your HN profile, googling your name, going through all your public photos.. Don't you find me repulsive just talking about that?

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tdeck an hour ago | parent | next [-]

This puts me in mind of the infamous GMail Man commercial that Microsoft put out:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oR4jTvxPruw

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jareklupinski 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

i get a little thrill knowing im that important to someone :)

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fragmede 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Right? There are 8 billion humans on those planet. You are 0.0000000125% of humanity. No one outside your family and friends even knows you, nevermind gives a shit about you, unless you stick out in some way. If GP wants to take a tour of my GitHub or my blog and send me a thoughtful email, I'd be delighted!

	▲	jagged-chisel 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		How about when that thoughtful email becomes a visit from law enforcement because your projects don’t align with the current administration’s views? When something you said offers support for anyone other than The Party’s chosen ethnic group?

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antics9 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No. Why should I find you repulsive?

You might find something I wrote interesting. Then whatever public info there is on me helps you to get to know me a bit better. You may stop there and forget about me, or you may try to reach out.

There is nothing wrong about that.

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Razengan 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> Why should I find you repulsive?

Me googling your shit might lead to your real name, your family photos etc

Just because it's all public doesn't mean you want the cashier from the supermarket following you around to your family picnic

or just because you like to let the sunlight in doesn't mean you want random pedestrians peering in through your windows..

I can't believe this needs to be spelled out here: "Public" life is compartmentalized.

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Permit an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> Just because it's all public doesn't mean you want the cashier from the supermarket following you around to your family picnic.

This has never happened to me. Out of the space of “bad things that can happen to me” I don’t have time to worry about things with such a small probability of occurring.

	▲	exe34 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I think if you're a fat middle aged man, it's not likely to happen to you personally. But you must have daughters, nieces, a mother, or some sort of female presence in your life. It happens to people like them.

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satvikpendem 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Don't put on the Internet what you don't want found as it's always and forever public, I thought everyone knew the first rule.

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Razengan 23 minutes ago | parent [-]

Oh boy. It's NOT about whether something's "public" or not:

It's about someone "connecting the dots" between ALL your public activities.

Someone following you OUTSIDE their "space" that you visited and then invading your other spaces.

People don't usually want to mix their social circles. e.g. nobody likes a snoopy overprotective parent following their [teen] kids around wherever the children go with their friends.

Nobody likes their spouse coming uninvited on a night out with the guys/gals.

Or, when you reply to someone on HN or Reddit, and they don't like what you say about 1 specific topic, then they go and downvote ALL your comments about everything else you said!

That's perfectly legal. It's allowed. Nothing's stopping it. And hey, you commented publicly so you were "asking for it", right?

BUT IT'S A FUCKING DICK MOVE

	▲	satvikpendem 8 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Someone would only be able to connect the dots based on what you publicly put out there. If you don't put anything out, there's nothing to connect the dots, unless you buy some sort of dark web leaked dataset. None of your analogies are comparable to online public information because you decide what to put out online, and I never said anything about legality so not sure why you bring that up.

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bossyTeacher 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think people's idea of privacy is very simplistic and personal and relies on the disgust of a human peering over your files. Most laypeople don't have the same disgust of machines peering over their personal files that is why the weirdo video recording elicits a negative response but Meta or Alphabet doing it doesn't. Plus the fact that they "depend" on Meta and Alphabet tech makes it easier to give them a pass not unlike fans of [insert your favourite celebrity] who happily look away or justify the celebrity's bad actions.

	▲	Laurel1234 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I think people would find it disgusting, it's just very hard to know what data is being used and how and sold to whom by these companies. It's a very opaque by design.