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ajross | on: Root shell on Samsung TV
Not by selling downstream clients access to my browsing data. Like, seriously: who do I call at Google and how much do I have to pay to get your browsing data? They don't sell that.

It's fair to allege all kinds of externalities and privacy impacts and such around the advertiser-driven content economy. And HN is 100% here for that.

But this is stepping across the line into a simple lie. They don't sell data.

ForHackernews | parent
This is a distinction without a difference to me and many others. I'm sure the adtech industry like to believe it because it lets them cope that they're the good guys, unlike those sneaky data brokers.

As a deliberately hyperbolic example: "We're not selling child slaves, we only offer a marketplace where clients can bid for the use of the labor of our child slaves."

The problem is the intrusive violation of privacy involved in building giant databases of personal information on every person on earth, not that someone-other-than-Google is doing it.

ajross | root | parent
> As a deliberately hyperbolic example: "We're not selling child slaves, we only offer a marketplace where clients can bid for the use of the labor of the child slaves."

Then have that argument, please. If your argument is that "privacy impacts of advertising are bad and here's why Google's business model doesn't improve that" then that is one thing. Telling people that Google is selling your data is a lie.

ForHackernews | root | parent
The OP you're mad at did make that distinction. They stipulated that Google is not literally a data broker, but they sell access to your data in the form of targeted adverts and content.

Yet here you are with the "WELL AKSHUALLY..." brigade.

Do you work in bigtech?

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