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applfanboysbgonyesterday at 11:00 PM0 repliesview on HN

If we want to make the metaphor a little more faithful: the neighbor tracking what time everyone is home is selling it to door-to-door salesmen who use that information to harass you. Meanwhile, both the guy tracking it and the door-to-door salesmen are leaving copies of the information in the open. They aren't directly selling it to burglars[1], but they are making it extremely accessible to burglars, who then use that information to rob you. There is a data breach every other day, with companies and people routinely getting extorted and in some cases victims have killed themselves. This is a direct result of the unethical behaviour of hoovering up a permanent record of everyone's every last little action, far beyond what is necessary to provide any service.

[1] Although some data brokers do sell it directly to burglars too. All the burglar has to do is say "I'm a door-to-door salesman, will you sell me the information?". Your neighbor can't be bothered to do any kind of real verification of whether they're a salesman or a burglar.