Philosophical question about intrusive Silicon Valley data collection and utilitarian calculus

TheLastEmperorReurns

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Suppose that internet tech giants like facebook and google develop the technology to identify pedophiles and serial killers based on their online behavior with 90% accuracy.

Would it be unethical for facebook/google to not only collect but also share this data with government intelligence agencies for the sake of the public good [preventing as many murders and sexual crimes as possible] or would it be unethical for them not do this?

It violates several values of Western society; individual liberty/sovereignty, the idea that one should only be punished by society for crimes committed instead of crimes likely to be committed, the idea that the 10% likely to be misidentified will suffer as the casualty of utilitarian calculus, etc.

Yet overall, it's likely to help/save more people than it hurts.

I think questions like this have been explored in one way or another in philosophical discussions and art [like the movie 'Minority Report'].

Thoughts?
 
Stop using google. Startpage.com is a great search engine. And get rid of facebook, people that are important to you have your email and phone number anyway.

And yes no, it is not, since you agree to the terms.
 
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Stop using google. Startpage.com is a great search engine. And get rid of facebook, people that are important to you have your email and phone number anyway.

And yes no, it is not, since you agree to the terms.

And your phone, its on either apple or android OS. Dont forget to never use google owned pages like youtube either . Paypal is probably doing the same thing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-get-cozy-with-new-digital-wallet-partnership

Ebay
https://investors.ebayinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=209064

Amazon
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-17/new-patent-amazon-will-collect-much-customer-data-google

Walmart
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernar...om-their-40-petabyte-data-cloud/#eb694476c105

I can keep going. Everyone collects data on you. The notion that you should not be tracked is fucking dead.
 
Isn't this the premise of the movie Minority Report?
 
Massive issue, we are heading to Minority Report and Gattica territory inch by inch and it has its pro's and con's. Another question along with automation that society will have to face and not slip under the rug forever.



Going a bit OT sorry.
 
My initial reaction is to hate it. Logically though, I don't really have a problem with private businesses reporting suspicious activity. I would have a problem with it being the only evidence for a warrant.
 
Stop using google. Startpage.com is a great search engine. And get rid of facebook, people that are important to you have your email and phone number anyway.

And yes no, it is not, since you agree to the terms.

I agree with this. Time for mass degridding.

Also, duckduckgo is good from all I've heard.
 
Isn't this the premise of the movie Minority Report?

Good movie. It is flawed I think though. It shows the future right? The future is them getting killed. Would't it show them saving the person who was gonna get killed? lol. That is the future. What Facebook will see in the future is not serial killers but themselves preventing serial killers. Which they are doing in the present. lol. It's a strange loop.
 
1. Where does that end? You're trusting those megalomaniacs to draw the line and only report pedos and serial killers? People on here were bitching and moaning about companies reporting purchasing trends of unnamed strangers for advertising purposes, which is a fuck of a lot more benign than using your online activity to lock you up for something you haven't done.

2. In what world does that save more people than it harms? I'd say 0 privacy and innocent people getting locked up is pretty damn harmful.

3. Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." We could just keep everybody in straight jackets all day, then nobody could commit any crime.
 
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When its pedophiles I think its open season but I'm sure they would not stop there.
 
Nothing wrong with that. Not sure how that would be unethical or anything.
I mean if you sneak around the little girl's room at a Chucky cheese Roy Moores style, would it be unethical for the stuff to bring that to the attention of the authorities?
I hope they report it.
 
Good movie. It is flawed I think though. It shows the future right? The future is them getting killed. Would't it show them saving the person who was gonna get killed? lol. That is the future. What Facebook will see in the future is not serial killers but themselves preventing serial killers. Which they are doing in the present. lol. It's a strange loop.

The concept of pre-crime yes. The mass collection of data going on now is making such things based on large scale data-analytics and pattern matching attractive. But what do you do then once a candidate in the population reaches a certain 'threat threshold' do you put him in mandatory reconditioning centers or something? It gets pretty weird.

Double edged sword, for sure. As many legitimate uses as there are, there are probably just as many dystopian usages.
 
When its pedophiles I think its open season but I'm sure they would not stop there.
They won't. The problem with the Pedo argument, is that no one wants to be seen as supporting it, but then if you allow such things to occur to prevent pedophiles exploiting children, you're opening up the door for more intrusive spying.

You can draw a parallel with the argument that you need a surveillance camera in every home to prevent wife beating. You don't want to do it of course, but then all the people that has surrendered to the fear mongering will accuse of you beating your wife, cause why else would you say no if you have nothing to hide?

Freedom and privacy comes at a cost. I rather embrace chaos than live under the thumb of the internet police.

As I said, there are OTHER SEARCH ENGINES OUT THERE! And yes, I wrote it all in shift (cause caps is easy mode) to make it clear. I've even worked on no longer saying "google it" and instead saying "search for it" or "use your search engine". And you really don't need facebook any more. Facebook is now awful any way. I barely see things that matters to me, and instead see a lot of pointless trivial crap. A friend of mine passed exam? I won't notice it cause someone I am friends with liked a post that 500k also liked. I understand that they're doing an overhaul thankfully, but still, fuck facebook.
 
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