653
X wants permission to start collecting your biometric data and employment history
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
653 points (96.1% liked)
Technology
59270 readers
3476 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
but….why? of all the things to care about with that dying husk of a platform, what could suddenly make biometric information such an interest to them?
If he's going to make an 'American WeChat' then having this data is necessary. If you aren't familiar with WeChat it's a social media app from China that's basically the default application for banking, videos, posts, 2FA, etc. It's hugely popular in China. Of course, whether or not he should even be allowed to get this info or how viable making an American WeChat is, is a completely different story.
Why the fuck would anyone want their social media tied to their banking? Data leaks are already harmful enough without that link.
Well simply put, he saw how successful WeChat was in China and believes that this success can be replicated in the States. Imagine. Having one app for banking, job applications, messaging your friends and following your favourite content creators? And then for those pesky other accounts you could have a password manager on X? Why even have another app? And although it isn't in the cards right now ideally he'll want integration with the government, as that's how WeChat can get all it's records for people (and I further guess he's banking on a Trump government to help him with that).
(yes I realize how horrible this sounds haha, just trying to illustrate how Musk sees this)
Yes, that sounds like a dystopian nightmare, especially in the hands of the world's 2nd biggest emotionally imbalanced man-child.
There was this app about 12 years ago which was like 'foursqaure for payments!' It would advertise 'blahblah just paid $55 at some lame restaurant'. It seemed like an awful idea and it died, but... currently, Venmo does that.
Groupon?
It was some minor company that had a bit of hype but never got big, with a name like Bloingo or something.
Edit: I found it, it was called Blippy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blippy
The same reasons he cares about anything, more money and more power. I'm sure there's a lot of unscrupulous buyers for such data.
It is the most reliable way (currently) to identify people.
That's just a smoke screen. The website benefits from bots, and there are considerably less intrusive ways to verify people. We're not talking about a high security clearance government website here. Twitter is where people go to post inane ramblings.