Is appealing to those fears to deliver misinformation ethical? Does it help this issue or worsen it? Cause I'd say poisioning the well is not a good thing. The road to hell being paved with good intentions and all. See the effect lies like this had on the person in this very thread above us: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44552625 I share in their disbelief at decent amounts by this point, too.
It's like making up a bunch of rubbish when there's a hate train going on against something or somebody just to participate. Then having all of that backfire disproportionately when the tides turn. Why make things up when reality has plenty bad enough stuff going on already that one can report on? Rhetorical question of course.
> The road to hell being paved with good intentions and all.
Why are we assuming good intentions from a company who for years has increased places and amounts of data it collects and tracks, and removed more and more ways to opt-out of this?
The intention of "search web first before searching local computer even if the user never asked for it" didn't appear from the intent of "let's create a keylogger", but it never came from a good innocent intention either.
It's like making up a bunch of rubbish when there's a hate train going on against something or somebody just to participate. Then having all of that backfire disproportionately when the tides turn. Why make things up when reality has plenty bad enough stuff going on already that one can report on? Rhetorical question of course.