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by virmundi 2779 days ago
> AFAIK, telling people this isn't effective, so it can really only serve to make yourself feel superior, not really effect change (since I'm assuming you consider yourself to already follow this advice)

I don't see how any of that follows. You can either a) leave the net of Google by switching browsers, going back to flip phones, going to Apple, etc, or b) say that the cost is worth your inertia.

As for not being effective, please look at Unions (non-government means to counter corporate power). Look at the black community before the Democrats got a hold of them. Harlem had its problems, but was the seat for art and culture that still benefits humanity to this day.

> Are you really so sure of your views that you feel that those you disagree with must be less mature than you?

Yes. The people that hold the view that papa Government will fix everything are thinking emotively like a child. Reagan, for all his flaws, was right: "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." The EU is going to crush, either through GDPR or the new copyright tracking system all startups in the tech area until the tech companies bootstrap without ads. Maybe this is ultimately good, but it would be a side effect of the regulation, not the government's wisdom.

> You may well already do this, but to actually achieve only being tracked while actively using Maps, I believe you'd have to turn location services on and off each time you use Maps, otherwise Google is tracking you all the time, not just when Maps is open. Assuming an Android device, I'm less sure about how this would play out on iOS.

If you're a good citizen of the world you should turn off location to save on greenhouse gases. Android is terrible at efficiency with those on. They should lock out when not directly used by an application.

> If everyone was similar to you in these regards, there wouldn't be an issue, but people's awareness of the issues, skills, and values are hugely variable across a population. So while it's worthless handwringing to you, people who hold different values could (and do) disagree.

So because there are dumb and or lazy people, the EU needs to attempt another centrally plan attempt at controlling the evolution of the species? Are we going to get State monitors for using the toilet correctly? Think about how many diseases are from improper flushing and wiping. How about a bathroom monitor that's armed with a stun gun to make sure people wash their hands?

1 comments

>>> Take responsibility for your choices and entitlement.

>>> - You

>> AFAIK, telling people this isn't effective, so it can really only serve to make yourself feel superior, not really effect change

>> - Me

> I don't see how any of that follows. ... look at Unions

> - You

I think you misunderstood me, or are replying to more than what you quoted here, because I'm not sure what unions have to do with the statement you did quote from me.

I am saying that the literal act of telling people to "take responsibility for your choices and entitlement" isn't an effective way to have more people take responsibility for their choices and entitlement. Your saying it is not useful in furthering your implicit goal of getting more people take responsibility. 99% of the time the only thing that that statement will do is make you feel superior because you believe you're already doing that.

> The people that hold the view that papa Government will fix everything are thinking emotively like a child.

I mean, the way you phrased that makes it practically a tautology. I'd suggest you consider that there could possibly be other reasons look towards the government for solutions beyond mere naivete.

If you understood those reasons, then you could address them and potentially convince people that they should change their mind. However, I will again point out that it is your approach here that will get in your way. Calling a person childish, if they are not being childish, will result in them dismissing what you have to say because you are insulting them. But calling a person childish, when they are being childish, will result in a metaphorical fingers-in-ears-going-la-la-la-la response because they are being childish.

> Government will fix everything

I agree the government cannot fix everything, however I also believe there are classes of problem that a government, or government-like-entity, are better capable of addressing than the alternatives, but you're so busy calling people immature and smugly telling us how you've got it all figured out that I doubt you'd be willing to take the time to try to understand that (I'd love to be wrong about that, mind you)

>If you're a good citizen of the world you should turn off location to save on greenhouse gases.

If you're a good citizen of the world, you wouldn't use a phone containing compounds taken from strip-mines that poison the surrounding ecosystem and then had to be shipped on a pollution belching freighter halfway around the world.

> Android is terrible at efficiency with those on.

How much worse? Over the lifetime of a phone, how much more energy will be used? A ballpark, order-of-magnitude, fermi estimation would be good to have for this. Heck, I'll do it so we can see:

Assumptions:

* 5,000 mAh battery (this is higher than all flagship phones this year[0])

* To get watt-hours assume a li-po battery operating at 4.2 volts (higher of two standard voltages for li-po[1])

* 3 year lifespan (Higher than the US avg replacement cycle length[2])

* The phone battery is completely drained by the end of the day

* The phone battery is fully charged by the next morning

(3 years * 365 days) * (5,000 mAh * 4.2 volts) = 23 kWh[3] which is about 7.66 kWh/yr.

To put this in perspective a kWh costs 12 cents on average in the US, and boiling 1 cup of warm-ish (65-70 degree F) water takes around 150 Wh[4], which works out to mean that a person could offset their phone's energy usage by having one less cup of coffee per week.

But I estimated high on everything, so in practice a phone will use less than 23 kWh over its lifetime, probably significantly less.

This all puts aside the immediate question of why are you bringing energy efficiency into a discussion about privacy?

> controlling the evolution of the species?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really understand what privacy laws and evolution have in common. I'd appreciate an explanation.

>> people's awareness of the issues, skills, and values are hugely variable across a population

>> - Me

> So because there are dumb and or lazy people, the EU needs to attempt another centrally planned ...

> - You

First, I'm kind of impressed that you managed to interpret what I said to mean that some people or dumb and/or lazy. Why do you believe that different from you is bad?

Second, assuming your real question is more like "On what basis is the EU passing a law imposing these restrictions about personal data on companies?". I would say the reason is because a majority of the EU constituent country leaders believe that doing so upholds the values and goals of the EU. For example "The goals of the [EU] are... promote peace, its values and the well-being of its citizens" and "Individual freedoms such as respect for private life,... and information are protected by the EU" and "Human rights are protected by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. These cover ... the right to the protection of your personal data"

tl;dr That's the point of the EU [5]

> Think about how many diseases are from improper flushing and wiping. How about a bathroom monitor that's armed with a stun gun to make sure people wash their hands?

As long as we're being sarcastic, I'll say that that sounds like a great way to create jobs.

More seriously, I believe the EU does have laws about food workers washing their hands after using the restroom. If it could be shown that enough lives would be saved by extending those laws, and their enforcement, to be worth the expense, I don't doubt the laws would eventually change to account for that.

[0] https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/which-2018-flagship-pho...

[1] https://learn.adafruit.com/li-ion-and-lipoly-batteries/volta...

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/619788/average-smartphon...

[3] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=((365+*+3)+*+(5000+mil...

[4] https://www.plotwatt.com/2011/05/21/plotwatt-labs-boiling-fo...

[5] https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_en

The species would be better off if we, in the West, did not have the centralized government. The population would be lower and better off without it. Starvation is a motivating factor. We've removed many people's will to go on by feeding them and housing them in government created slums. We'd be better off if they never existed. Sadly the central government won't require sterilization in exchange for government aid.

As to the general idea of the government figuring things out, I'd rather have a world where humanity comes to a homeostasis due to conflict and pollution than to live in the dystopian world that Merkel and her ilk are bring forward with their new Empire. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/11/12/france-calls...

However, I don't think we need to go to that extreme. People should take responsibility for their data. They should figure out what they care about and seek means to realize their ends without requiring an Empire to bring its claws to bare by fines.

As to "dumb or lazy" you implied it. I said if they cared about it, they can shut it off by doing a simple Google search. If they don't care about it, they can leave the status quo. If they care and can't be bothered figure it out, which I don't think there will be too many that can't even ask for help, then they are lazy. Your argument is that the bulk of the EU population is in the lazy/dumb camp since the primary reaction you're condoning is regulation.