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Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

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Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#61

Post by dTal »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #53

"Passively Listening" I will say this. The frequency of occasions is increasing where I've mentioned to my wife or son a product or service out of the blue only get served an ad with that product within the next 24 hours. Sure, it could be coincidence. I could be that the product was suggested subliminally to me via a campaign, etc. But some of these things are very specialized (plastic mold press), and not related t…

While I suspect that something more interesting is going on there than either coincidence or secret audio recordings - Baader-Meinhof, or very intelligent guesses from the ad placement AI, or some combination thereof - I strongly urge you to do the experiment you describe.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#62

Post by gtdawg »

codyb wrote: post #31
Deimorz wrote: post #9

Personally, I think Google is just as terrifying, possibly more. As an example, just take a fairly normal life situation like going out for dinner with some friends, and think about how much of it goes "through" Google: --- One of your friends sends an email to 6 others, to ask if everyone's free for dinner on Friday. 5 of the 7 people involved use gmail or a google apps address. You've never heard of the restaurant…

It's pretty incredible. Search history and e-mail alone almost certainly reveal staggering amounts of personal information about most people. I try to "spread" my data. Apple for maps/messaging/photos, Signal, DuckDuckGo, Gmail, and primarily private tab web surfing. I also use different browsers for different concerns. And of course ad blockers although I'm not sure I've installed them everywhere. With my lack of so…

Regarding cash vs credit card. Google already has your credit card data too.

> Google says it has access to roughly 70% of U.S. credit and debit card transactions through partnerships with companies that track that data. By matching ad clicks with this data, Google says it can automatically inform merchants when their digital ads translate into sales at a physical store.

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-a...

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#63

Post by Deimorz »

binthere wrote: post #49
Deimorz wrote: post #9

Personally, I think Google is just as terrifying, possibly more. As an example, just take a fairly normal life situation like going out for dinner with some friends, and think about how much of it goes "through" Google: --- One of your friends sends an email to 6 others, to ask if everyone's free for dinner on Friday. 5 of the 7 people involved use gmail or a google apps address. You've never heard of the restaurant…

In the end it's your/our choice to choose Google for every single decision you've described. It's not like we can't do it without Google, we used to do fine doing the same things before Google. I think it's unsettling how many people choose to do almost everything using Google, Facebook, Amazon.

That's not really true at all. Almost everyone uses Google-controlled email addresses, so even if I don't, Google still gets our entire conversations. There's no option to avoid that except just refusing to email almost everyone.

You also don't really "choose" to give your data through Google Analytics. You can block it, but that's a lot different than choosing to give it in the first place. Even if you do block it, that's still only client-side and it's possible that the site is sending data through other methods that you can't control.

And like I mentioned in another comment already, what about sites that are hosted on GCP, sites that make requests to other sites that are hosted on GCP, Google network infrastructure, etc.?

You get a choice about some of it, but certainly nowhere near all of it.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#64

Post by cisanti »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #60
cisanti wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, the reason I wrote left is that for the past decade it's the left I'm afraid of. Of course, the right can use them for evil too. But seeing how American media behaves, scandals around people who don't agree with the left narrative, is very much frightening and reminds me the Soviet past. When I call it out, people say something along the lines "freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences", after so…

I'm generally liberal, but am a strong believer that much more power needs to be vested locally. There are a number of problems in the US that stem from power concentration in the hands of 1%ers that live far away. With Trump, more liberals are also starting to think in this direction. Concentrated power scares them. Concentration of power into international corporations that know everything about everyone is dangero…

I'm fairly well aware, I guess I have personal reasons to be afraid of the left ;)

And the fact that I am also left, is what triggers me off. I'm sure I don't understand all the details but believe me seeing the whole media circus from here, you see it also from a very different angle.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#65

Post by yeukhon »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #59
intopieces wrote: post #42

Big Brother is here, but his name is not Facebook. It's WeChat. https://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000004574648/chi... WeChat has the tracking capability that Facebook could only dream of, and it does not even hide it.

https://chinachannel.co/who-really-owns-wechat-wechat-essent... The company that owns WeChat also owns QQ which is much more popular it seems.

QQ has been around for so long, it isn't going to fade away. But WeChat is the de facto messenger among the many Chinese-speaking users, especially those living in oversea. Obviously not everyone who can speak Chinese use Wechat. In HK, WhatsApp is probably the most popular messenger.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#67

Post by AndrewKemendo »

fao_ wrote: post #55
dannysu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is like a Casino. They'll try to maneuver to keep you engaged and contain you in their bubble. However, if you're able to leave or cut your usage, they extend no influence whatsoever. (Don't have mobile apps installed, block their trackers, don't use Facebook login, etc) There are lots of ways to communicate outside of Facebook, including other messaging apps that help you form social networks outside of it.…

Roads are pretty benign, and they don't steal your location data and store it in their database

I hate to break it to you but the state police and most toll road authorities have put an entire network of cameras on every major interstate and road system to be able to track cars.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#68

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

codyb wrote: post #31
Deimorz wrote: post #9

Personally, I think Google is just as terrifying, possibly more. As an example, just take a fairly normal life situation like going out for dinner with some friends, and think about how much of it goes "through" Google: --- One of your friends sends an email to 6 others, to ask if everyone's free for dinner on Friday. 5 of the 7 people involved use gmail or a google apps address. You've never heard of the restaurant…

It's pretty incredible. Search history and e-mail alone almost certainly reveal staggering amounts of personal information about most people. I try to "spread" my data. Apple for maps/messaging/photos, Signal, DuckDuckGo, Gmail, and primarily private tab web surfing. I also use different browsers for different concerns. And of course ad blockers although I'm not sure I've installed them everywhere. With my lack of so…

> Oh! And don't forget a hat and sunglasses to avoid the myriad of cameras I'd come across in my day to day as a metropolitan.

Gait analysis can be used to identify individual people.[1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gait_analysis#Biometric_identi...

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#69

Post by [deleted] »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #53

"Passively Listening" I will say this. The frequency of occasions is increasing where I've mentioned to my wife or son a product or service out of the blue only get served an ad with that product within the next 24 hours. Sure, it could be coincidence. I could be that the product was suggested subliminally to me via a campaign, etc. But some of these things are very specialized (plastic mold press), and not related t…

[deleted]

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#70

Post by megous »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #21
megous wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are delighted. People are being locked up based on content of their social accounts for years. Regime doesn't even need to get cooperation from the social networks themselves that much. They take your phone, make you unlock it and the off with you to a prison. One such example being Turkey.

And if you're arrested and don't have any social presence that's presented in the media as odd, unacceptable, if not antisocial.

I'd rather take that, than be thrown into prison. There's a recent case of two Czechs traveling to Syria to help Kurdish cause in "Rojava", that were checked on a border in Turkey and revealed by posting stuff to Facebook. They got six years for terrorism both. They had terrible opsec though, the girl went to talk on TV about her activities in Rojava before leaving for Syria and also posted publicly on FB.
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