[AlexC04]

RTFA won't do you much good. It's pretty light on detail. (IMO) It spends most of its time meandering about and trying to sound like some sort of really mind-blowing techno shaman.

So much so, that I doubt the authenticity and accuracy of the information that presented.

I felt like it read a little more like a paranoid fringe article.

I mean "Siren" in this case is named for the seductive nature of the power of the servers (greek myth reference) as opposed to a "warning siren" sounding the alarm of unrest.

It gets worse, rambling on about the danger (and inevitability) if/when this power falls into the hands of corporate america.

Cliche

[dredmorbius]

Yeah, I actually dug two layers further in, and tried to see if there was any info on the conf site itself (there isn't) on the talk / system. Overally, pretty content free.

Oh well.

Jaron Lanier coined the term. He's not entirely dismissable, but also not exactly tightly tuned to the heartbeat of the intel community AFAIU.

[eveningcoffee]

Dangers coming from usage of systems like this by a private corporation is not a cliche. It is a real danger.

If it has not clicked for you then advertising network is a behaviour control mechanism.

[witty_username]

HN is a behaviour control mechanism. _Other people_ upvote articles and downvote anything they don't like. Therefore ensuring you are forced fed with only articles _they_ like. Your behavior is controlled by all these other people.

/s

[eveningcoffee]

Sure it is and without sarcasm. Even when you do not post anything here then reading what is posted influences you toward certain target. Perhaps you get more interested in Javascript for example or most probably, startups.

The question is not in this. The question is in the scale of the operation and actual spread of the influence.

[witty_username]

HN is big and people spend a decent amount of time on it.

[eveningcoffee]

Still it is minuscule compared to some real large scale operations.