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MOB's avatar

“I was a design ethicist at Google, where I studied how do you ethically steer people's thoughts,” he says as he introduces himself. “Because what we don't talk about is how the handful of people working at a handful of technology companies, through their choices will steer what a billion people are thinking today.” That is the scariest quote I’ve read in a long time. Just the thought of people being hired to “ethically steer people’s thoughts” makes me cringe. There is nothing ethical about any of this.

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Warren Swil's avatar

You certainly nailed it with "there is nothing ethical about any of this.”

You are absolutely right to “cringe!” It is extremely scary that we all are being manipulated on such a massive scale — and most of us, including me, are very often not even aware that it's going on.

Tristan Harris is doing his best to bring his message to the world, and that is why it was my intent to amplify it just as loudly as my megaphone would permit.

Yes, our technology overlords are much more powerful than any of us knows. I always tell my best friends, Google knows much more about you than you know about yourself!

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Rex M's avatar

I only joined F**k book because it was the way that a business interacted real time with each other.

It can take over

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Warren Swil's avatar

Facebook is bad in all the data it collects about us and sells and shares it to anybody in the world. But I think Google is worse by an order of magnitude. The information google collects is so incredibly extensive and secretive, and the software it plants so deep in your computer you can never find or get rid of it, is insinuous. I am reminding people all the time that Google knows more about you than you know about yourself.

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Bjorn Palenius's avatar

Big brother is watching and his name is Mark Zuckerberg! I am on Pinterest but I only make boards that I like, and don't really care about followers. I do know that Google owns Pinterest, so I jump directly to my stuff, and don't interact much with others.

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Warren Swil's avatar

You would be surprised how much Google knows about you — more than you even know about yourself!

That is true for all of us. I have just discovered the back door to google and it's absolutely awesome what they know and what they do with their knowledge.

No way you can be too careful on the Internet. You are not paranoid if you think somebody is always watching your every move. You are wise.

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Android's avatar

Isn't this guy Harris a bit paranoid? He may be smart but Mark Zuckerberg is probably smarter. After all, Zuck has almost conquered the world: he didn't get to billion users by sleeping late. Yeah, their motto was/is “move fast and break things” and they seem to have broken a few things, including the rules. But for my money, the free service they do provide is worth what you pay for it.

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Warren Swil's avatar

Facebook will continue to break the rules – until someone in the government decides to stop them. The public is clearly addicted to the algorithm, and no amount of shaming is going to change that. The only organization big enough to do anything about it is the federal government. It seems like Congress is moving in that direction – even if it's at a glacial pace. It may just come too late to make any difference.

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