I don't really blame an author for publishing in an environment they don't control.
But the reason this comes up so often is because online news sites are not being included in the conversation. We're seeing a lot of articles being written about Facebook and Google, and very few articles written about general tracking techniques that exist outside of those companies that are universal to most news organizations.
And that is something a reporter can choose to talk about or inform themselves about if they want to.
To draw attention to an organization that's at least trying to do better, the NYT's recent privacy project has released at least one article (out of many, but baby steps) talking about its own data collection policies[0]. Also highly to the NYT's credit, they have an article up recommending UBlock Origin as a way to reclaim some privacy control[1]. That's a bold move that takes some character, because adblocking actually affects the NYT -- whether or not you leave Facebook doesn't. The NYT hasn't gotten rid of its trackers, but it's not ignoring the fact that they exist.
What people are noticing and complaining about is that this type of self-awareness is abnormal, even though most tech writers could be pursing some of these topics or writing about them if they chose to. If you're a reporter and you want to talk about privacy, I think it's a question of basic due diligence to try and get a handle on the entire scope of the problem and to write articles that reflect that entire scope. Of course you can't control what your employer does -- but you shouldn't ignore it.
To me it's not a question of hypocrisy, it's a question of accurately informing people that the problem is a lot bigger than what we're currently talking about, and that addressing privacy problems is going to take more work than just splitting up Facebook -- it's going to require restructuring the entire ad industry, and possibly rethinking how we pay for web content in general. That's a really important conversation we should be having right now, and for the most part, we're not having it.
But the reason this comes up so often is because online news sites are not being included in the conversation. We're seeing a lot of articles being written about Facebook and Google, and very few articles written about general tracking techniques that exist outside of those companies that are universal to most news organizations.
And that is something a reporter can choose to talk about or inform themselves about if they want to.
To draw attention to an organization that's at least trying to do better, the NYT's recent privacy project has released at least one article (out of many, but baby steps) talking about its own data collection policies[0]. Also highly to the NYT's credit, they have an article up recommending UBlock Origin as a way to reclaim some privacy control[1]. That's a bold move that takes some character, because adblocking actually affects the NYT -- whether or not you leave Facebook doesn't. The NYT hasn't gotten rid of its trackers, but it's not ignoring the fact that they exist.
What people are noticing and complaining about is that this type of self-awareness is abnormal, even though most tech writers could be pursing some of these topics or writing about them if they chose to. If you're a reporter and you want to talk about privacy, I think it's a question of basic due diligence to try and get a handle on the entire scope of the problem and to write articles that reflect that entire scope. Of course you can't control what your employer does -- but you shouldn't ignore it.
To me it's not a question of hypocrisy, it's a question of accurately informing people that the problem is a lot bigger than what we're currently talking about, and that addressing privacy problems is going to take more work than just splitting up Facebook -- it's going to require restructuring the entire ad industry, and possibly rethinking how we pay for web content in general. That's a really important conversation we should be having right now, and for the most part, we're not having it.
[0]: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/opinion/sulzberger-new-yo...
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/opinion/7-simple-ways-to-...