So reducing access to free drinking water for homeless people is a feature? Maybe the real problem here is that municipal water fountains need to be improved, not that they should be discarded in favor of a private network.
(1) When things are dirty, the only people that will use them are those with no alternatives. And equally repugnant and racist phenomenon is found in inner citie schools ("the only people that will use them are those with no alternatives"). Except many of those people are black, not homeless.
(2) Dystopia is basically the theme of the piece. Its not clear if this was simply so flippant, or merely subliminal reminder of manipulation by second and third-order effects.
Water fountains are typically put up as a public amenity, and are intended at least in part for those who would otherwise not be able to water themselves. This would lock the neediest people out of an essential resource.
I mean - what possible benefit is there to me to have to sign up and have my identity logged in order to drink water? Oh, none. What benefit is there to eugenics, social exclusion, and racial cleansing? Plenty.
It's not about improving accessibility drinking water, it's about locking an entire sector of the Israeli populace (ethnic Palestinians) out of clean potable water.
This is what we call "solving the wrong problem". Yes, those observations are good ones (albeit obvious) for anyone seeking to design a privacy-respecting service. But how do we get anyone to do that?
As long as companies are profit-oriented and legally able to do so, they will data-mine everyone as far as they can. What can be done about this? The author has nothing to say on this latter question.
