Lots of that going around these days.

Always reminds me of part of the speech at the end of The Great Dictator.

"We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost."

Indeed.

I'm wishing for a "dumb" social networking company, where the people who run it are idiots and I don't have to worry about this kind of invasive engineering (I long ago deleted my Facebook).

There's always twitter, I suppose.

Can we not have smart ethical people? When did getting away with unethical or unlawful behavior become associated with “smart?”

Seems pretty rare. Most people want the money and prestige that comes from working for Facebook or Google. It's easy to be a rebel when you've got nothing to lose.

It's always been associated with smart?

I think the point you were trying to make is that I shouldn't directly tie intelligence with unethical behavior (i.e. all smart people are unethical), and you're right. That said, my point remains ... in this age the unethical exploits will by definition be discovered and implemented by intelligent individuals.

Mastodon seems to be the balance I've been liking.