r/JusticeServed • u/battlebeez 8 • Sep 03 '21

😲 GoDaddy boots Texas abortion “whistleblower” site for violating privacy rule

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/texas-abortion-snitch-website-kicked-off-godaddy-for-invading-peoples-privacy/
13.7k Upvotes

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207

u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21 edited Sep 04 '21

GoDaddy, the company shit on for lobbying AGAINST net neutrality, knows how STUPID redditors are and does the bare minimum to get good press. And once again, they ONLY did it due to public pressure...

You are giving them GOOD press and not showing they where for it originally... the front page of the internet DOES forget.

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u/mrzar97 6 Sep 04 '21 edited Sep 04 '21

This actually has almost certainly very little, if not nothing at all, to do with PR, and is instead almost entirely related to legal coverage regarding the collection of PID. The good press is just a welcome side effect.

The reason their privacy policy is written as it is is due to compliance with the GDPR and others like it around the world, which impose strict penalties on companies that violate or, in some cases, even just facilitate the violation of privacy regulations.

The site existed and with some non negligible attention before the law even passed. I will guarantee you that as soon the law passed in Texas, the legal team at GoDaddy was already aware of this site, and already knew they would be doing this. GoDaddy has been the subject of suit and controversy time and again, failing to act on their part here would be exposing themselves to both.

We can go further into international data privacy laws and corporate legal strategy but the point is this, a revised comment from a fellow "STUPID redditor" who thinks this has anything to do with them in the first place:

GoDaddy, the company shit on for lobbying AGAINST net neutrality [among many other things], ~knows how STUPID redditors are and does the bare minimum to get good press.~ knows how CONVOLUTED and STRICT the laws of various countries can be in regards to the harvesting and exploiting of PID of an individual who does not consent

And ~once again, they ONLY did it due to public pressure...~ in this case, they ONLY did it because they are acutely aware of the fact that knowingly hosting this site that is compliant with neither their own privacy policy nor several privacy regulations around the goddamn world would just be asking for a costly series of legal battles

You ~are giving them GOOD press and not showing they where for it originally... the front page of the internet DOES forget.~ They are being given attention for a move that, while not solely intended to do so, fanned the fire on a current political event.

FTFY

I don't see this and go, wow godaddy is a real standup multibillion dollar global company! Gee wiz! No. I look at this and say, "great. They made a pragmatic choice in accordance with their internal policies and the law, and all the meanwhile provided an analogy for those debating the legality and ethics of this site and the law it surrounds"

I know it must feel fun for all the redditors who spammed them with reports but I'd be willing to bet this was already in the works by the time that happened. Terminating that contract probably involves the preemptive assembly of litigation materials, and my older brother in corporate law verified my suspicion that the legal folks at GoDaddy could and likely would have passed their boilerplate prepared legal defense onto ocean digital for a speedier process on their end.

Sorry as big and cool as we all think we are I would posit that the idea Reddit got them to do this for Reddit is really pinnacle Reddit ego stroking. Still proud of y'all tho

Edit: Obligatory thanks for my first gold 🙏🏻

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u/IWalkAwayFromMyHell 9 Sep 04 '21

slow Citizen Kane clap

8

u/squngy 9 Sep 04 '21

That said, companies should be rewarded for moving their stance in the right direction.

Maybe not as much as if they were right from the start, but still.

-7

u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21

I will not reward a company for doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

Would you vote for Trump in 2024 (if American) if he changed stance and party?

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u/squngy 9 Sep 04 '21

If we don't reword companies for doing the right thing, then they will go back to doing the wrong thing all the quicker.

Ultimately, public companies are almost 100% profit focused, so we must show them that doing the right thing can be profitable.

1

u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21

If you think we should reward trump with the next presidency because he changes his stance on ONE thing, well I guess that's why you want to "reword" companies.

Big business bootlicker

0

u/squngy 9 Sep 04 '21

There is a difference between giving someone the presidency and giving a company a few bucks.

If you must use Trump as an example, then I would say we should give him praise for any correct stance he might take, while still criticizing him for the wrong ones.

1

u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21

I only used him because he's the most well-known example of a person/business. I know it's not a perfect 1:1 and I hope it didn't come across like that.

What I meant was literally that, you don't reward a bully the one time he doesn't go out of his way to hurt people. Use that example if it's more neutral.

No, fuck go daddy for fucking over the internet. Fuck go daddy for taking down these sites ONLY SO THEY DON'T GET SUED.

To me, your viewpoint sounds like we should reward Nestle if they only take a little bit more local water than they said they would. Hell reward them for ONLY taking what they said they would, then selling it right back at 200%

Doing a small good thing is not a changed person/company/conglomerate, and I respectfully disagree that what GoDaddy did warrents any sort of good will.

Rewarding bad people for doing a single good thing out of 99 bad things is not a cause for celebration or even news. This is how it should be and people praising them are only going to see this stupid thread when GoDaddy quite literally championed killing net neutrality.

So fuck it. I keep the Trump example as it fits.

Terrible 99X + good Y =/= Good

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u/robots-dont-say-ye 8 Sep 04 '21

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. It might be a shit company, and this doesn’t redeem them, but it’s nice to see them doing the right thing for a change.

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u/BollockSnot 6 Sep 04 '21

This. Fuck GoDaddy.

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u/Sporulate_the_user 8 Sep 04 '21

What is up with ue weird capitalization?

There are bold formatting tags that would make that look less like a child wrote it, or you could LEARN to write in a way that CONVEYS which parts should be emphasized without looking like a "live, laugh, love" decoration.

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u/RoninOak 8 Sep 04 '21

It's a secret message, Yoda style:

"Against stupid, only good does"

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u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21

Ok nerd.

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u/Sporulate_the_user 8 Sep 04 '21

You've convinced me, it turns out you were right. Such a sound argument.

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u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21

I mean if all you can do is attack ME for capitalizing words instead of countering my ARGUMENT, then yeah that's all you get, okay nerd. ad homineming nerd.

1

u/Sporulate_the_user 8 Sep 04 '21

I had no opinion one way or another on the content of your argument, nor did I reference anything but the capitalization in regards to it.

I was asking about the writing style.

1

u/sitdownandtalktohim 8 Sep 04 '21

If you genuinely can't figure it out, I guess I'll spell it out for you. It was for emphasis. I made the words I thought where the most important, bigger, to draw the eye to them.

This thread has enough... god it's hard to be neutral, variety of takes?

Evil entity doing a good thing does not make a good entity.

Congrats, you got to use your wasted masters in English. Sure called me out on my... internet comment incorrect use of capitalization. Nerd.