[gibba999]

It is pretty nefarious. In traditional research and product development protocols, you would have people opt into something like this, and optionally pay them for it.

If Google gave out a hundred thousand Google Home units for free to test subjects, with informed consent, there would be no big deal. It would cost Google $2.5 million, and it'd probably be enough data.

If my web site policy discloses "I may randomly send a thug to your house to shoot your children," and you come, visit, click through the license which warned you, and then I shoot your family, that doesn't mean I'm not doing something super-evil.

Google seems to be doing something super-evil here. Their response -- plugging the leak -- seems equally evil. People have a right to know what's being done with their data, and at least under European law, Google has a legal and ethical obligation to disclose things like this in language people can understand.

GDPR is rather well-written here. It looks like Google is breaking it, and currently trying to shoot the whistle-blower.

Thank you whistle-blower!

[mehrdadn]

> If my web site policy discloses "I may randomly send a thug to your house to shoot your children," and you come, visit, click through the license which warned you, and then I shoot your family, that doesn't mean I'm not doing something super-evil.

You kinda had me until you lost me here. Analogies need to make sense. If you have to go this far with your analogy then that says more about your own argument than the other side's.

[vharuck]

>If you have to go this far with your analogy then that says more about your own argument than the other side's.

I never got this argument. In mathematical proofs, reducto ad absurdum is an acceptable method of showing an assumption false. It shows that a statement ("Users agreed to TOS, so it's not malign") has an exception. The example is extreme to make sure nobody can argue the statement's still valid.

He's not saying the punishment should be on par with murder. He's just saying there is a line of moral acceptability, but where it lies is up for debate.

[saagarjha]

You're missing the point, which is that you can slip anything into a privacy policy or other long agreement, no matter how outrageous it may be, and nobody will read it. Putting anything there does not make it ethical or legally binding.

[UncleMeat]

It also doesn't make it unethical. Putting privacy related issues in a privacy policy makes sense to me.

[gibba999]

A privacy policy is definitely the right place for privacy issues. My point is exactly as vharuc made above: Putting something there neither makes it ethical nor unethical. A contract or license is not an excuse for bad behavior.

* If my privacy policy is a copy of HIPAA, that's an ethical privacy policy.

* If my privacy policy is as Google's here, it seems unethical without clear informed consent (which a disclaimer in a novel-long privacy policy doesn't provide).

* If your privacy policy says you'll collect incriminating information about me, and sell it to the highest bidder for use in blackmail, it's unethical even with attempts at informed consent.

[saagarjha]

Putting it in a privacy policy that you expect nobody to read, and using language that they are not accustomed to, is unethical.

[gibba999]

You're confusing an analogy with a counterexample.

Analogies need to be analogous. Counterexamples can be extreme (and it is often helpful if they are; then they're obvious counterexamples).

Please take a minute to reread the discussion.

Coincidentally, I've noticed a pretty consistent pattern of downvotes on anything criticizing Google on Hacker News. Either a lot of readers from Google who drank the cool aid, or astroturf -- I'm not quite sure which.

[azinman2]

What’s specifically super evil about humans transcribing random and anonymous commands to the google assistant? They’re hired and expected to be professional with their own contractual agreements around their own behavior and ethical standing.

Literally all the major companies in speech rec (aka assistants) do exactly this. The accuracy of the speech models would be extremely poor otherwise.