Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dclusin 2450 days ago
I feel like they were needlessly dishonest and misleading and that being truthful would have gotten more people on board. Saying something along the lines of "hey, we noticed our facial recognition algorithms don't work so well for African Americans. Could you help us fix that by letting us take a picture of your face? We'll give you a $5 gift card for your troubles."
1 comments

That seems pretty clear. Verge title is kind of clickbait by using `Google Contractors` rather than `Randstad` though.

The "and/or" in "it sounds like Google and/or its contractor may have been taking some extreme and unsavory shortcuts to cash in." is clearly use of weasel words, the journalist was unable to substantiate the allegation that Google was aware of this unethical practice. Sloppy reporting demonstrating a lack of journalistic integrity.

That's still much better than the original source (NY Daily Times) which literally just says "Google".
Outsourcing work is not a justification for outsource responsibility. Google has a choice.
That's why it would have been great if the Verge did some journalism so we actually had some clarity on the situation.