81–90 of 327 posts
I regret deleting my original Facebook account. I made it around the time they opened to every college in the US and there was a lot of history there, photos and videos and text. Sure most of it was worthless and maybe even embarrassing but that data is gone now.
This might be an unpopular opinion in the tech-savvy crowd of HN, but while I agree with pretty much 100% of the points brought up in this article, I still disagree that leaving facebook is a net positive. I simply believe that as privacy violating as facebook is, as scary and orwellian their statistical analysis of my life and habits are, they have solved a very real problem for real people: social networking online…
Thanks for your unpopular input! Well, the kicker is obvious: normal people who don't read HN can not. Facebook changed lives for people who "can not". Agreed! Too many techies are out of touch with "normal" people. "We need to have our own infrastructure!", "Why are you not setting up your own mail server?!" Duh, it's not doable for people outside of the adminsphere! The payoff is always "a worse solution but you ge…
I think the unfortunate truth is that people in general don't care about their data. There are people who do, but they normally have very special reasons to and they will never be a majority, unless we have massive social upheaval worldwide. Hopefully that will not happen, but if it does the technology is already there to solve that problem when it comes along.
There are many free and admirable initiatives such as "riseup" who provide communication services free of charge to organizations working for social change. There are frameworks for you if you care about your data and want to disconnect: but most people don't care. And if you care, you will move away from normal people. That's the unfortunate truth, and it's not changing anytime soon. I'm all for educating the masses, but people will not switch facebook for encrypted e-mail. Not because a lack of encryption workshops, but because it's not the same thing, and facebook is as far as functionality goes, objectively better at solving the problem people perceive.
That worked very well for me. I used to have it on my phone and would check it all the time. Then I decided I didn't want to do that so I uninstalled it from my phone. Doing so helped me reduce and eventually stop using the website.
In between those times I also had a browser plugin to hide the news feed. So if I do login, I see nothing.
Now I'm basically rarely on Facebook. I have an account, but I don't feel I need to delete it because the account doesn't control or affect me. I can still get messages, and Facebook keeps trying to get me back into it with their notification emails, but I'm in control and I feel great about that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem could be that implementations for ad networks are notorious for tracking. You would need privacy sensitive, distributed ad networks as well.
The money in such a network is severely lacking when more targeted products are available.
This might be an unpopular opinion in the tech-savvy crowd of HN, but while I agree with pretty much 100% of the points brought up in this article, I still disagree that leaving facebook is a net positive. I simply believe that as privacy violating as facebook is, as scary and orwellian their statistical analysis of my life and habits are, they have solved a very real problem for real people: social networking online…
Ideally could have an "ad financed network" that is open-source and distributed p2p, allowing anyone to install the server in their home on a raspberry pi and still be somewhat in control.
Another one - I created a dev account some time back with dummy email Id, but gave my mobile number of deleted account. Voila ! Facebook was suggesting my old contacts. Though this was suggested as expected by scanning the contacts of suggested members, I find this creepy enough.
I'm a happy and relaxed person for six years now, and as with all other things you will get used to life without Facebook. Deleting fb account is not like jumping a ring of fire as your social circle might suggest.
I quit Facebook right around the time my son was born. It wasn't for privacy reasons (and frankly, it never bothered me), but rather for the enormous energy and time sink it had become. Truly, it was as if I was a dopamine junkie and Facebook was the pusher of those sweet, sweet red circles with a number in them that meant someone, somewhere vaguely agreed with something you posted. I noticed I was not present in the…
I felt the same - I was alarmed when I realised how much time I spent scrolling through a feed of inane posts, and how Cmd-T, f, down, enter had become almost a reflex. Most of my "real" friends seemed to have stopped posting on there, yet I was still addicted to scrolling through the feed while waiting for code to compile or whatever (clever design on their part, I guess!). However, also like you, the privacy side d…
All of the games, copy-paste "share this!" bullshit and random shitposting pages of "humor" I either ignore or outright block. I also refuse to read news and engage in related discussions.
With some discipline, Facebook can be a useful tool.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does that even mean? Do you even know what you're talking about? I don't pay for a lot of things of which I'm certainly not the product. FYI resorting to such banalities is rather pathetic
Not the original poster, but I think he is quite right. IF you are getting a product or service for free, continuously, the company providing it usually has a different motive, a different way to make money. Usually that means selling your data, thus you are the product being sold in the statement the original poster made. Can you explain why you consider the statement a banality instead of a rule of thumb? What kind…