ForumsWEPRCorporate Greed.

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SSTG
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SSTG
13,055 posts
Treasurer

Here's the latest info I gathered about evil corporations.
Do Not Track

Be afraid!

  • 29 Replies
SirLegendary
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SirLegendary
16,583 posts
Duke

Oh, I kind of knew this already. Though, I'm not sure about tracking myself. Honestly, I don't really mind-ish. Except the only thing that would bug me is if they track my personal doings on the interwebs. It's no surprise to me that this is being done, after all, it's getting easier and easier for hackers to even know what's on your screen at this very moment. Also, corporate greed extends far beyond tracking users. They're becoming more and more manipulative with micro-transactions and expensive monthly fees. Not to mention how bad EA is treating their customers with Day 1 DLC's. They were voted worst company for two years in a row. What I'm trying to point out is that corporate greed is far worse than people think it is.

Try watching this about EA's evil.

partydevil
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partydevil
5,133 posts
Jester

you might wanna call it corporate greed. i think it's just human greed..

if you don't want to be tracked, use ghostery.

Gogotank
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Gogotank
3,165 posts
Lord

I only knew about Google doing this.

partydevil
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partydevil
5,133 posts
Jester

I only knew about Google doing this.

blocking around 1900 trackers atm, only allowing a few that i need for work.
(right here, at least 7 trackers see you.)
SSTG
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SSTG
13,055 posts
Treasurer

I use Ghostery, Peerblock, Better privacy and no script. I also put most of the program I use behind a firewall. Also check the about config page if you use Firefox as your browser. You can modify a lot of stuff there. Also modify your hosts file to send most advertisers to the 127.0.0.1 address, that will stop a lot of parasites from building an Online profile.

These tricks should help a lot.

HahiHa
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HahiHa
8,254 posts
Regent

evil corporations

This always makes it sound as if they want to control the world. But it's all plain old business. Money. It does not justify anything of course, but I would avoid the word 'evil' if I were you.
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As for the information gathering, this should be general knowledge by now. Internet users are transparent users. Most informations are used to address targeted advertisement, and to be honest I couldn't care less about what ads I'm shown. But I dislike the way our informations are traded as goods even though they're part of our private sphere.
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A case where this transparency can have direct negative effects for you is when you want to book flight tickets. The prices you are shown are adaptable; if you visit one site to check the prices, then leave (for example to check on another site), after you come back the prices may have risen. The website registers your IP address, checks how many times you have visited the site and adapts the prices. Possibly to motivate you to buy tickets directly instead of comparing prices?
SSTG
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SSTG
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Treasurer

This always makes it sound as if they want to control the world. But it's all plain old business. Money. It does not justify anything of course, but I would avoid the word 'evil' if I were you.

Rich a**holes hide behind the name corporation to screw us over so why can't I add evil to it for my own purpose?
HahiHa
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HahiHa
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The term 'evil corporations' just has a kind of illuminati-level conspirational connotation to me, that's why I think it might help your credibility not to use it. But maybe that's just me and everyone else knows it just means bad or nasty. In any case, you do what you want.

Doombreed
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Doombreed
7,022 posts
Templar

Rich a**holes hide behind the name corporation to screw us over so why can't I add evil to it for my own purpose?

I believe HahiHa is right actually. It doesn't make them evil. First of all they are not hiding behind anything. That's just how the system works. The system they built. It is similar with banks. Those people care only about money when it comes to tracking your internet history. They don't care at all about some websites you are visiting if that info doesn't pay off directly or otherwise.

So yeah, they do not mean us actual harm. They do not have malicious intensions. They just use the system they built to maximize their earnings. That's why I believe the word "evil" is not the correct term.

I knew about tracking, as most people did. I expected the results I got. But still, I liked the documentary a lot! Thanks for posting the link.

SSTG
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SSTG
13,055 posts
Treasurer

BTW, the thread is not only about being tracked Online for money.
You can bring your own news about corporate greed in general.
For example what did you guys think about the Comcast / Time Warner merger? If you're interested you probably already know that the idea was finally dropped by Comcast. I think it's a great victory for us, for now.

partydevil
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partydevil
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Jester

i dont understand your grudge against corporations SSTG.
every single business has the main purpose to earn money. (except gov. funded non-profit companies. think about hospitals, dmv, nasa and such.)
as everybody should know, is information worth money. so if you can gather the information that people are interested in and sell it to them. then why not? i know i would do it. and as buyer i wouldn't even care about what a single person does on the i-net. i would be much more interested in the "bulk information" things like most/fewest clicks,and averages. those can be used for market targeting. or deciding if your idea is vital and worth the investment. i can see the value in that info.. and i think it is great for them that they can get all this info from us without bothering us with spamm questions..
but as hahiha said, i dont like them getting into the private sphere. even tho i would probably give them the info if they asked for it. (in return for something of course. =P )

personally i don't like the people that try to make money over your back in a more personal way. with people like "john edward" and hoax starters to sell books and **** as the worst of all. but also those people that lie straight to your face about the product they sell. elderly people for example are being robed of their money by false advertisement "party's" all the time. simply because they are easy to manipulate, just like children. (usa's law that allows companies to advertise to children is probably 1 of the worst laws around and has a bad effect on the whole western world.) but what really bugs me. because you can see it all the time, on facebook for example. are those sites that attract your attention by a interesting/unbelievable/stupid/over the top headline, that doesn't actually say anything but just makes you guess what it would be. (watch this man turn his carpet upside down, genius!! "link") but when you click their "message" to check it out. you 1st get redirected automatically to 5 other sites in a few seconds before ending up on their site.. and they simply make money because you clicked their link and got redirected a few times. =/ while still acting like that nice site with the best heart and interest for the people... it makes me puke, just like "john edward" makes me puke..

HahiHa
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HahiHa
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Regent

Adding to what partydevil wrote about, individuals can be just as greedy and callous to other people. There's this Australian woman, Bell Gibson, that made money with her 'wellness' app promoting it as a way to fight cancer like she did; now she admitted she never even had cancer to begin with (warning, article is partial and contains swearing).
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But this is also the same kind of strategy of many smaller and larger businesses who sell wellness and dietary products that cost a lot, but are not evidence-based and simply rely on food trends and superstitiousness. I cannot say whether all those who sell such products are actually convinced that they're doing something good; I would not be surprised though if some knew they are exploiting people.
By extension, about the same can be said about the people from Scientology. In their case there's also religious faith involved, but when you get down to what they actually do, they're criminals stripping credulous people from all their money.

SirLegendary
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SirLegendary
16,583 posts
Duke

@partydevil I think he's just talking about corporations to kind of push it too far on their consumers.

partydevil
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partydevil
5,133 posts
Jester

@HahiHa or what to think of the western halal market.. people write halal on everything, also products that are animal free anyway. if you write halal on it, you can sell it for 50% more. nobody will ask why or how.. the same go's for this whole gluten hype. write "gluten free" on a product and the price go's up, aswell as the amount sold. and 1 more example because i'm on a roll, is the whole clothing industry... seriously, the raw materials costs nearly nothing. the production of whatever clothing costs next to nothing aswell. so you would guess that the shipment would be very expensive then.. because, hell, we pay easily 65,- for some pants. and 30,- shoes are considered cheap... making 1 container be worth some million euro/dollars. but it left asian (bangladesh) worth a few 1000,-... there is no way to convince me that it costs hundreds of thousands for distribution. yet they can ask this much because it is excepted that they ask waaayyy to much for their stuff. why?

I think he's just talking about corporations to kind of push it too far on their consumers.
in the end, nobody is forcing you to buy from them. right? there are not many true monopolies left as i'm aware of. =)

09philj
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09philj
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Jester

Corporations are greedy, but that's nothing new. At least you can tax the results. The only businesses I have a big problem with are the banks, because they're irresponsible with other people's money, and the pharmaceuticals industry, because they are just straight up evil.

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