> All the things you mentioned, like discrimination, sound like ways that companies safeguard against losing money, not earning it like I asked.
A distinction without a difference? A company that can raise their prices for you because they know (or think) that you can afford the price hike isn't safeguarding them, it's just screwing you out of money. How would you feel if you got an awesome 20% raise at work, only to find that the next day the top 10 things you most frequently buy at the store were all suddenly 20% more when you went to pay for them. Why shouldn't a loaf of bread cost a percentage of your total income?
> if someone refuses to hire me because they found out something unsavory about me from a data broker, then they're really only hurting themselves.
I could agree that it might not be smart for them to lose candidates based on random crap dug out of a background search, but it happens and however dumb it is for the company, you would still be out that job. They'll never tell you why you didn't get hired. You just get ghosted.
> If someone tries to charge me more because they think I can afford it, then they're going to lose my business or get bad PR on X once I realize I'm being treated unfairly.
All the recent inflation shows that companies can get away with arbitrarily raising prices a whole lot as long as they all do it around the same time. Have you been boycotting them all recently? I've gone out of my way to avoid eggs associated with Cal-Maine Foods over price gouging (https://www.newsweek.com/egg-producers-accused-price-gouging...) but it's not been easy. Not every brand I see in stores advertises itself as being related to them. Boycotts are growing more difficult thanks to the massive consolidation of our food industry (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/...).
Most of the time when you end up paying more because of big data you'll never be told that. All of this is almost totally hidden from consumers. You'll just be charged more or get a bill that seems higher and you won't be told why.
You're very likely already paying more for some things because of big data. Same with store policies. You ask a store what their return policy and they'll tell you one thing while the next person who asks gets told something different. You can't feel cheated or even like you're being treated special because your good consumer score is so high because you don't even know there are multiple policies in effect depending on who asks.
I'd be willing to bet that a lot of people on twitter have complained about companies like comcast, at&t, tyson foods, facebook, 3m, monsanto, etc, but what has it accomplished? Many of the most wealthy and powerful companies in the US are also the most hated by the public. They don't have good reputations to protect. They just don't have to care if you like them or not.
> The best you could probably argue is that preventing corporations from having knowledge about people will protect the most vulnerable members of our society who can't fight or fend for themselves and are willing to tolerate being treated poorly.
It would protect all of us. No one can "fend for themselves" and everyone is being treated poorly. You have been being treated poorly already. You will continue to be treated poorly until it hurts a companies profits to treat you badly. Right now, they're not just getting away with it, they are looking for ways to screw you over even more than they are already and in new and innovative ways using resources unlike anything you'll ever have. It's highly asymmetric warfare where consumers are divided into buckets and ultimately conquered.
> How would you feel if you got an awesome 20% raise at work, only to find that the next day the top 10 things you most frequently buy at the store were all suddenly 20% more when you went to pay for them.
This is how the California economy works and it's something that I like, because if I'm allowed to have more money, then I can use my brain to figure out a way to not be scammed out of it like everyone else.
As for the rest, I don't think indignant agitators online who stir up fear are really representative of public opinion. Yes corporations tend to be slimy, but that's because people are slimy. I don't want to live in a society that takes away my freedom just to prevent the worst of us from exploiting the weakest of us.
>I don't want to live in a society that takes away my freedom just to prevent the worst of us from exploiting the weakest of us.
Well that's pretty antisocial in general. Sure, you have worded this in such a vague way that it doesn't really provide for meaningful discussion. But, I'd just as obtusely respond that the entire point of society is to prevent the worst of us from exploiting the weakest of us.
It just really seems besides the point to flaunt your own individualism as a response to social questions, as if the issue was whether or not you in particular felt it was appropriate for you.
Society is a great big machine that gives people the opportunity to be a part of building something greater than themselves. The pharaohs for instance would not have been able to build the pyramids without society supporting them and the roles of those workers were immortalized in every stone that was laid. The way the world works hasn't really changed since then. The tech industry is building a new kind of pyramids and that wouldn't be possible if it weren't for all the people looking at ads, which works best when you know what things people want to buy. The digital trail they leave behind will also grant them a kind of immortality like no generation before. Wouldn't you say that's a great system? It's much better than breaking your back in the desert.
A distinction without a difference? A company that can raise their prices for you because they know (or think) that you can afford the price hike isn't safeguarding them, it's just screwing you out of money. How would you feel if you got an awesome 20% raise at work, only to find that the next day the top 10 things you most frequently buy at the store were all suddenly 20% more when you went to pay for them. Why shouldn't a loaf of bread cost a percentage of your total income?
> if someone refuses to hire me because they found out something unsavory about me from a data broker, then they're really only hurting themselves.
I could agree that it might not be smart for them to lose candidates based on random crap dug out of a background search, but it happens and however dumb it is for the company, you would still be out that job. They'll never tell you why you didn't get hired. You just get ghosted.
> If someone tries to charge me more because they think I can afford it, then they're going to lose my business or get bad PR on X once I realize I'm being treated unfairly.
All the recent inflation shows that companies can get away with arbitrarily raising prices a whole lot as long as they all do it around the same time. Have you been boycotting them all recently? I've gone out of my way to avoid eggs associated with Cal-Maine Foods over price gouging (https://www.newsweek.com/egg-producers-accused-price-gouging...) but it's not been easy. Not every brand I see in stores advertises itself as being related to them. Boycotts are growing more difficult thanks to the massive consolidation of our food industry (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/...).
Most of the time when you end up paying more because of big data you'll never be told that. All of this is almost totally hidden from consumers. You'll just be charged more or get a bill that seems higher and you won't be told why. You're very likely already paying more for some things because of big data. Same with store policies. You ask a store what their return policy and they'll tell you one thing while the next person who asks gets told something different. You can't feel cheated or even like you're being treated special because your good consumer score is so high because you don't even know there are multiple policies in effect depending on who asks.
I'd be willing to bet that a lot of people on twitter have complained about companies like comcast, at&t, tyson foods, facebook, 3m, monsanto, etc, but what has it accomplished? Many of the most wealthy and powerful companies in the US are also the most hated by the public. They don't have good reputations to protect. They just don't have to care if you like them or not.
> The best you could probably argue is that preventing corporations from having knowledge about people will protect the most vulnerable members of our society who can't fight or fend for themselves and are willing to tolerate being treated poorly.
It would protect all of us. No one can "fend for themselves" and everyone is being treated poorly. You have been being treated poorly already. You will continue to be treated poorly until it hurts a companies profits to treat you badly. Right now, they're not just getting away with it, they are looking for ways to screw you over even more than they are already and in new and innovative ways using resources unlike anything you'll ever have. It's highly asymmetric warfare where consumers are divided into buckets and ultimately conquered.