Once it was easy to be obscure, but technology has ended that
&quot;And until lawmakers, corporate leaders and citizens embrace obscurity and move to protect it, your freedom and opportunities to flourish will be in jeopardy.&quot;<p>True! Look no further than NYT&#x27;s initiatives to collect and sell their readerbase&#x27;s emotional engagement to their content.[0] From their very own publisher:<p>&quot;People have little transparency into what is being gathered, where it’s being shared and how it’s being used — to follow their movements, to charge them more for health insurance or to manipulate them with political messages — and even less agency to do anything about it.&quot; Mr. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times [1]<p>I don&#x27;t mean to detract from the essay, but I&#x27;m pretty skeptical of NYT&#x27;s &quot;Privacy Project&quot;. NYT is the only publication that I read frequently that aggressively tries to prevent me from browsing in private mode with Firefox Focus and I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised if they collect and sell the most reader information out of all major US publishers. I can only posit that though because they don&#x27;t disclose any of that information. NYT&#x27;s attempts at &quot;data transparency&quot;[1] are just excuses justifying the sale of reader information instead of answers regarding what information they collect, what information they sell, and who they sell this information to.<p>How long until NYT writers start facing pressure to produce stories that will maximize &quot;emotional engagement&quot;, even if they&#x27;re divisive and inflammatory? How long until emotional engagement is inadvertently used to discriminate against certain groups based on their reactions to controversial topics? These outcomes are an inevitability when profit motives are involved because humans are incapable of exercising restraint and saying &quot;That&#x27;s enough information, we don&#x27;t need to collect any more or expand our current profit levels.&quot; NYT is repeating the same mistakes they&#x27;re currently criticizing tech companies for and, as usual, the individual will suffer.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;investors.nytco.com&#x2F;press&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;press-release-details&#x2F;2018&#x2F;The-New-York-Times-Advertising--Marketing-Solutions-Group-Introduces-nytDEMO-A-Cross-Functional-Team-Focused-on-Bringing-Insights-and-Data-Solutions-to-Brands&#x2F;default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;investors.nytco.com&#x2F;press&#x2F;press-releases&#x2F;press-relea...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;sulzberger-new-york-times-privacy.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;sulzberger-new-yo...</a>