

Who’s Collecting Kids’ Personal Data? Lots of People - dsr12
https://openstandard.mozilla.org/whos-collecting-kids-personal-data-lots-of-people/

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lotu
They failed to give a example of how this harmed children, or is unique to the
internet. The biggest harm they mention is getting an unsolicited email for a
private high school. I remember in high school getting unsolicited postal mail
from collages. The other harm was a neighbor made a youtube account and posted
videos with her parents knowing. It sounds more like the parent's were harmed
instead of the child, presumably she wanted to make a YouTube account and post
videos otherwise she would not have done it.

I just don't really understand what we are trying to protect and what the big
deal is. (Seriously if someone does understand I would really like to know.)

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hackuser
> They failed to give a example of how this harmed children ... I just don't
> really understand what we are trying to protect and what the big deal is.

A few thoughts about this argument, which many people bring up:

1) Many people value their privacy; it might not be universal (though I think
everyone does to some degree) but it's widespread and has been enshrined in
law and custom across many (I suspect all) cultures.

2) Information is power. I don't have to explain why on HN (I hope). People
who control information about you have power over you, to varying degree.
Information also has value and should not be taken without consent (which is
financial harm, arguably).

3) Some argue that if loss of privacy results in no physical or financial harm
then it results in no harm. If you think through this argument, clearly there
are other universally recognized kinds of harm. For example, the following
might result in no physical or financial harm: Sexual assault, kidnapping,
home invasion, theft (if the assets are returned soon), if I caused your
spouse to divorce you or family to disown you, installation of malware on your
computer, etc.

I think the question of the harm in an invasion of privacy is an interesting
and valuable philosophical one to consider, but I feel it's a bit disingenuous
to propose seriously that privacy has no value.

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bsder
Why is it that things which are problems, in general, only seem to get focused
on when you get "Think of the chiiiildren."?

While it's nice that people are doing things for children, these same privacy
issues exist for adults.

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asgard1024
Because we are humans, and care about our children? I don't have kids, but I
suppose we will both understand this when we have one.

Children are an excellent argument. Many revolutions started because students
were beaten by the police (or sent to war), and it made their parents angry.
Children are other people in the world we care about the most, and only by
caring about other people a just society can exist. So take it as a road to
privacy regulations.

I wish engineers understood this better, and wouldn't shy from doing the same.
The argument "think about the children" is often invoked by conservatives in
support of authoritarian policies, but there is no reason why it can't be an
argument for democratic and liberal positions.

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justcommenting
including mozilla via google analytics and google cookies!

