Class actions like this are opt in; by accepting the settlement you accepted the terms and lost your right to sue for a different (more appropriate to you) value.
Planet money did a a great segment on how these work and why America is set up this way. I learned a lot about it. You should definitely take a listen[1]. If you aren’t on Apple then search “What to do when you’re in a class action?” And find the podcast (not the summary article).
> They will not take responsibility for their actions, and they will not compensate you for the damage they caused. They will just offer you a small amount of money and hope that you will forget about it.
Paying for a wrongful action is taking reponsibility and compensating. But also "for the damage they caused" - what's the damage if the info is already out there?
> The basic problem is that they do not care about us.
True, of course, but the basic problem is different - "apology" costs more due to the way the legal system is set up, "nothing more". Otherwise you'd get your empty apologies left and right, though strang that you value that more than compensation. Empty words cost even less than $30 (unless, of course, there is a system to make them legally potentially cost more)
"What are you going to do about it." is the new mantra of the oligopolies. These institutions, both private and public sector, are now so big, they get away with things like this all the time. It's only when the big dogs fight that they change. Mussolini(a piece of sh*t, I know) said something similar about the League of Nations(precursor to UN). It works when robins and swallows quarrel, it fails when Eagles are involved.
After Google phased out the unlimited storage plans they offered for education, Microsoft followed through [1] so it would the most plausible explanation.
What I thought was most interesting was the statement at the very end: "The poetic nature of writing in grievance in Arabic is much more effective than in English." Differences between languages are so interesting to me. Anyone here know Arabic and feel the same way as the author? What makes Arabic different in that sense?
I think almost all multilingual people would agree that writing cordially is easier in their native language - whatever that language may be. Expressing heartfelt messages in the language you spoke when developing your identity and emotional maturity is more about just that, rather than what the language happens to be.
I just watched the film about Spotify "The Playlist". It took a few minutes before I picked up that it was dubbed. I switched back to Norwegian with English subtitles and the film became instantly enjoyable. All languages hold a beauty.
It would be interesting to see what calculations went into arriving at the number. They must have started with a large number that should be distributed to all students. Where did that large number come from? Some fund allocated for this kind of purpose? Some ransom that was demanded by the attackers, putting a value on the data? Some psychological tests that determined $30 is enough to keep the young folks from rebellion while not affecting future prospects for the university?
The issue is, that your personal info is valuable to only you. It also doesn't reflect character worth or personal worth.
That's how people gave their privacy away to apps - they've realized this is the best deal they can get for it. Conversely, when the court tries to estimate what is the financial impact of such a leak, there's not much to base it off.
I've just finished The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and it's ridiculous how Google et Al were able to profit from these scraps we gave them. So maybe the value could be higher?
Rembered that time when Ford estimated human life to not be worth enough in case of lawsuit to add a $5 piece to prevent their cars from exploding on rear impact. I love faceless capitalism.
Well, there's got to be some estimate put on it. It's obviously not worth adding a $5 trillion piece to a vehicle to make it safer, and it's obviously worth spending an extra 0.05¢ to make it safer.
Reading investor reports is interesting as well, to see what companies think you're worth to them. Check out Roku's ARPU - it's something like $40 a year now per user in marketing.
Class actions like this are opt in; by accepting the settlement you accepted the terms and lost your right to sue for a different (more appropriate to you) value.
Planet money did a a great segment on how these work and why America is set up this way. I learned a lot about it. You should definitely take a listen[1]. If you aren’t on Apple then search “What to do when you’re in a class action?” And find the podcast (not the summary article).
1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id2907834...
I wonder how much more organizations would value PII if we could legally demand all of the PII of the executive officers for that same price.
I think if you look at what it costs to purchase your personal information you will find it is worth far less.
> They will not take responsibility for their actions, and they will not compensate you for the damage they caused. They will just offer you a small amount of money and hope that you will forget about it.
Paying for a wrongful action is taking reponsibility and compensating. But also "for the damage they caused" - what's the damage if the info is already out there?
> The basic problem is that they do not care about us.
True, of course, but the basic problem is different - "apology" costs more due to the way the legal system is set up, "nothing more". Otherwise you'd get your empty apologies left and right, though strang that you value that more than compensation. Empty words cost even less than $30 (unless, of course, there is a system to make them legally potentially cost more)
> This same university which promised a life access to email address which they did not honor, ...
A tangent, but I had the same thing with my university. I wonder how common this is, and if google is the common thread...
"What are you going to do about it." is the new mantra of the oligopolies. These institutions, both private and public sector, are now so big, they get away with things like this all the time. It's only when the big dogs fight that they change. Mussolini(a piece of sh*t, I know) said something similar about the League of Nations(precursor to UN). It works when robins and swallows quarrel, it fails when Eagles are involved.
> if google is the common thread
After Google phased out the unlimited storage plans they offered for education, Microsoft followed through [1] so it would the most plausible explanation.
[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/microsoft...
The author thinks that $30 is an inappropriate amount, but does not suggest what he thinks the correct sum should be.
It is my opinion that, as with anything that can be copied infinitely for free, his (and my) personal information is worth $0.
What I thought was most interesting was the statement at the very end: "The poetic nature of writing in grievance in Arabic is much more effective than in English." Differences between languages are so interesting to me. Anyone here know Arabic and feel the same way as the author? What makes Arabic different in that sense?
I think almost all multilingual people would agree that writing cordially is easier in their native language - whatever that language may be. Expressing heartfelt messages in the language you spoke when developing your identity and emotional maturity is more about just that, rather than what the language happens to be.
I just watched the film about Spotify "The Playlist". It took a few minutes before I picked up that it was dubbed. I switched back to Norwegian with English subtitles and the film became instantly enjoyable. All languages hold a beauty.
"Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam"
It would be interesting to see what calculations went into arriving at the number. They must have started with a large number that should be distributed to all students. Where did that large number come from? Some fund allocated for this kind of purpose? Some ransom that was demanded by the attackers, putting a value on the data? Some psychological tests that determined $30 is enough to keep the young folks from rebellion while not affecting future prospects for the university?
The issue is, that your personal info is valuable to only you. It also doesn't reflect character worth or personal worth.
That's how people gave their privacy away to apps - they've realized this is the best deal they can get for it. Conversely, when the court tries to estimate what is the financial impact of such a leak, there's not much to base it off.
I've just finished The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and it's ridiculous how Google et Al were able to profit from these scraps we gave them. So maybe the value could be higher?
I think $30 at a high enough volume accounts for the high revenue.
Rembered that time when Ford estimated human life to not be worth enough in case of lawsuit to add a $5 piece to prevent their cars from exploding on rear impact. I love faceless capitalism.
Well, there's got to be some estimate put on it. It's obviously not worth adding a $5 trillion piece to a vehicle to make it safer, and it's obviously worth spending an extra 0.05¢ to make it safer.
Reading investor reports is interesting as well, to see what companies think you're worth to them. Check out Roku's ARPU - it's something like $40 a year now per user in marketing.
So basically I have a $40/yr marketing tax on everything I buy, and that's just to pay for Roku.
I wonder how much things would cost if we cut out the entire multibillion dollar advertising industry and just paid for things directly.