av501 · HackerTrans

4 years agodiscuss

It is a function of incentives and punishments. The nature of the company you are in and the risk the org is willing to bear plays out. I work for one that puts in a lot of effort to get rid of all the user data if they request a deletion based on the laws of the country they are from which we can expand to any user as needed. Whenever we have found gaps in our existing data storage, we go back and really try to clean it up. However there is a lot of legacy that surfaces out time to time.

   The reality is doing this is messy and is going to remain so for some time.  One cannot suddenly start after years of no incentives in the online economy to do this and get to cover all areas without huge cost. This requires giving up competitive advantage today. Mid to small organisations that were beyond startup state but not yet having 1000's of engineers, which have to balance growth and operational aspects are left in the most difficult situation. As the laws started taking hold, their incentive structure is still not fully aligned with this as the digital economy does not yet reward them for this enough nor does enforcement create a large enough risk yet.  Same thing plays out with some of the larger orgs, just that they have more lawyers to help them stall this as humans are always biased to keep the status quo if it is beneficial to them.

   Personally I think we've had a start but its going to take some time to get to where we need to be. I really applaud the idea of the privacy laws and the intent behind them. Its just that one has to recognise we won't be getting to a state of good behaviour within a few years after a couple of decades of not having those requirements baked in from the get go.  Old habits have to be replaced as well. The enforcement is hard and that will be something that has to be bubbled upwards from the ground up by users themselves to create a digital economy where consumers/users reward those that respect their privacy. It is just not yet that way today, so why would the organisations change? The risk is low as enforcement is hard and the user demand is not enough.

   Most successful would be attempts by large organisations such as Apple and laws like GDPR which forces developers and companies to change their thinking. By asking for change and continuing to iterate on that you can start seeing a slow move towards development practices that will have privacy by default. You need the whole chain of actors to move towards this: The product managers, the engineering leads and architects, the decision makers, the risk assessors. Once enforcement is more steady alongside more demand from users the balance will come. All of this moves slowly whether we like it or not.

(edit - grammar and made some long sentences shorted)

av501

5 years agodiscuss

Yes, In India incoming calls are free (been like that for a very long time).

av501

6 years agodiscuss

Nothing says GDPR is something that can't be improved upon. Better enforcement, refinement of laws, everything is possible. It has to begin somewhere and that beginning is rarely perfect. Every failure is also an opportunity to learn what to do better. As some other people have commented, the intent is right, the execution has to be improved. Edit: Fixed grammar and some words

av501

6 years agodiscuss

  Ever since i have had a kid, I have started asking the reverse question; Is my career dragging my parenting down?

I always wanted be a good dad, whatever that means to each one of us, my career choices started showing up in conflict. I had to make choices. Overall, over the past few years having a kid really made me think about my priorities. It made me focus and plan more and improved my ability to do more in less time. The first few years are hard and you will not be able to give as much time to your career if you want to spend that time with your child and spouse in constructive ways. Which is fine because the career is 40 yrs long. My conclusion is that I chose to have kids and now I will work on maintaining that relationship because at end of the day you can change jobs, go to a place that recognises people have lives, do something else in your life apart from your current career (you never know), but your kid is your kid and not someone else's and the early years will not come back again. As for my experience with my manager - As long as i get the work done, my place of work doesn't care about being seated in office. With Work From Home now taking off there are plans of making this semi permanent even if things go back to normal. Edit: formatting

av501

6 years agodiscuss

The principle of non-violent communication (NVC)[1] completely changed my approach in life to stressful situations. Practicing the same with my family, friends, work colleagues changed my life. Changed the way I approach situations. Allowed me to also apply it in reverse where I am now able to lead those stressed with me towards a NVC path. I am trying to understand their fundamental base need rather than just focus on what they are saying. This allows those around me also to become in tune with themselves and I can see it on their faces when they get the aha moment. I've received simple thanks sometimes for this so I know it is not just me that finds it useful. Works wonderfully well with toddlers as well! The whole premise that kids are stupid or don't understand stuff also gets upturned when you apply NVC to communicate with them or help understand their point of view.

It wasn't easy, took months before it became habit, just had to keep it going. Even now sometimes I forget and my lizard brain pops up from years of conditioning that will take some time to undo. But am I so happy I found out about it.

[1] https://baynvc.org/key-assumptions-and-intentions-of-nvc/

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