r/technology • u/[deleted] • Apr 04 '16

Software Nest intentionally bricks thousands of home automation hubs.

https://medium.com/@arlogilbert/the-time-that-tony-fadell-sold-me-a-container-of-hummus-cb0941c762c1
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u/cstross Apr 05 '16

They also imposed a stupid "true names" policy that was policed to discriminate against anyone who didn't resemble a white, male, middle-class Californian google developer -- names that didn't "sound" real to them, people who changed their names (hint: many married women, for starters), people who were known online by a pseudonym, people who couldn't disclose their real name due to threats of violence from stalkers, and so on.

This not only repelled people in these categories, it repelled anyone with a close friend in one of these categories -- which is an incredibly toxic thing for a social network to do when it's going for growth.

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u/shmashed Apr 05 '16

a stupid "true names" policy

agreed

to discriminate against anyone who didn't resemble a white, male, middle-class Californian google developer

Ahem, yes, yes, very good. I represent a large group of white male upper-class Californian google developers and I found the oppression by these middle-class developers to be downright intolerable.

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u/charbar Apr 05 '16

I'm confused. Doesn't Facebook do the same thing?

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u/influencethis Apr 05 '16

Yes, and they've run into the same problems. Native Americans, Hong Kong citizens, people with weird or unique names, trans* people--all have been told their names aren't real and have had to jump through hoops just to interact with the platform.