[petertodd]

That was probably a sound legal strategy. Selling location data without consent is obviously unethical behavior that should be illegal. A jury is more likely to rule on the basis of that; with a judge maybe there's a chance that a technicality in the law leads to a ruling in their favor.

Anyway, this practice should be criminalized with companies and their employees receiving criminal penalties like jail time.

[kevin_thibedeau]

It won't because the US government relies on third parties to funnel data into its panopticon as a constitutional side step.

[thrwaway55]

Replace employee with exec. An employee may need a job and can be coerced for reasons they don't control.

[petertodd]

"Just following orders" is not a valid excuse.

Besides, one reason why they can be coerced is because these actions aren't clearly illegal. If they are, the employee can just report what they're being asked to do to the police. Workplace safety has been dramatically improved in western countries simply by making many unsafe practices illegal and creating entities to report illegal work to. While this did require criminal charges for some managers and employees, because safety has improved so much, they're really not that common.

I remember when I had workplace safety training as a poorly paid university lab monitor. They made clear that I had potential criminal legal liability if I allowed egregiously unsafe things to happen. So they didn't.

[soulofmischief]

That same position legitimizes basically all police brutality.

[Frieren]

If a doctor fucks up is liable for bad practice. If an architect fucks up is liable for bad practice.

CEOs, CTOs, etc. of organizations with the budged of small countries can be stupid, unknowledgeable and reckless and there are no consequences (unless it affects shareholders money). Executives should be held legally accountable of the damage that their companies do.

Accountability is required for a civilized society. When the people with the most power do not need to follow any rule we get into anarchy and chaos. Just watch the news to see that it is already happening.

[baranul]

There are also various ways that big companies have to influence judges or increase the odds of getting favorable ones, not even mentioning outright corruption, where quickly and randomly selected jurors are harder to touch.