Phone unlock. Is unlocking a phone unethical? Categorical no.
Facial recognition is a tool. And like with any other tool there are always ways in which it can be used for good and for bad. In fact I can’t think of a single tool, guns and nuclear bombs included, that don’t have some potential uses for good, in addition to bad. In fact, you might say that the very definition of a tool is that it has a desirable application, and a good use is merely a desirable application where the collateral damage of it’s use is contained or offset by the benefit.
Perhaps what you mean to say is corruptible? That is to say that use of the tool tends to devolve into other unethical uses and consequences? I might be in agreement with you on that one.
Wether servers talk to each other or not is a technical detail related to the nature of the service (a chat application exclusively relays data between two end users, HTTP and FTP applications relay data between you and the host). This detail matters little to end users. What matters to end users is wether the service they are using is controlled by a single entity, or is instead controlled by multiple entities, which enables competition, and user choice.
This is the definition that “Federation” has come to mean. HTTP is “federated” because users can use different browsers and can talk to different servers operated by different people and organizations, alough it’s essentially, from the user’s perspective, one service with different, interchangable service providers.
It could not be though. Websites could all be hosted on Google servers, and the only way to view those pages is by paying google a subscription to “browse channels”.
We (technical people) need to understand and accept what end users actually care about.
TL;DR: without privacy you can (and will) be discriminated against, because that’s what people do and there is financial incentive to do so on-top of that.
A basic examples being higher insurance premiums because of known factors that are out of your control.
But it’s pervasive. Other people have already posted more thorough examples.
your phone can have 10 or more instant messengers installed, so there is no reason not to also have Signal installed
But I don’t want to have to manage 10 different communication apps, and I don’t want to be in a walled garden, and I don’t want to wrestle with my contacts about which app to use. I want federation.
F*ck off Signal. I choose Matrix instead.
Reject the temptations of short term convenience and adopt sustainable consumption.
Demand ownership of goods. Demand offline-first.