alt Hacker NewsThe hotline is isn't "selling" the data.
The hotline installed analytics software to help them do their job.
Do "non-Western culture have a better solution to suicidality?
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A quick sweep of the lowest 20 countries in suicide and the most obvious thing that can be teased out is they're by vast majority extremely conservative societies where family and religion (mostly Islam) would likely dominate the goals of any person living there (with a couple exceptions). Only about half of the lowest 10 have any sort of functional welfare or state support programs.
I wonder if having a pretty rigid, straightforward, and achievable set of life goals lowers suicide. This isn't to say that's the best way to live, but I could understand how it may make people more satisfied with their life.
They're exchanging the data for a service.
That's a sale, a very old form of sale, called bartering.