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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

#71

Post by vbuwivbiu »

rdtsc wrote: post #16
wonder_er wrote: post #8

I can't quite believe the argument that Facebook is Big Brother, because the first suggestion the author suggests is "stop using Facebook". In 1984, I believe the most compelling attribute of "Big Brother" was that he/it could not be willfully turned off. So, for this to be an appropriate analogy, Facebook would need to be able to legally compel you to have the app on your phone, and if you illegally removed the app/…

You can't opt out completely because you are tracked anyway. They track your family, co-workers and so on

Exactly. Due to the network effect you're on FB whether you like it or not, because those connected to you will talk about you via FB. That means that at a certain level of adoption, everyone in the world is effectively on FB.

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

#72

Post by dasil003 »

cisanti wrote: post #51
Micoloth wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I more than agree with you. The only thing, why do you assume that only people "on the left" could be intrested in using these tools? Sure it's people "on the left" that are creating them and control them now, and yet thought control is DEFINITELY not a thing right parties have ever had problems using lol. Am I wrong?

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…

The disturbing thing is that the American left is so invested in their narrative of tolerance, that many are completely blinded by the remarkable degree to which dogma has come to dominate acceptable standards of discourse over the last couple decades.

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

#73

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

lobotryas wrote: post #32
newscracker wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have listed all the reasons that make Android very valuable for Google. At the same time, do you believe Google can be as evil as Facebook? I personally believe it isn't and won't be (so it's just the lesser evil). I wouldn't trust Facebook to not be evil, based on its poor track record on privacy and treating users badly as well as its highly ambitious and callous founder/CEO. I'm also sure that Facebook has bee…

> Google can be as evil as Facebook Personally I believe Google _IS_ much worse than FB for one simple reason: it's much easier to avoid FB than Google. With FB the story is simple. You'll miss out on some news/invites from FB-centric friends, but it's pretty easy to go without (or to even find new friends who aren't as hooked on FB as needed). "Avoiding" Google in your daily life is much, much harder. Their free mai…

If I can affect just one person here today...

Please please please stop using Gmail for important communication and account recovery (banking, mission critical services you maintain, etc etc).

Use a paid service from a reputable company who does that one thing only and does it well.

Too many Gmail horror stories.

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

#74

Post by narrator »

I post all my daily thoughts and pictures and lots of personal details of my day to day activities TO MY OWN PRIVATE MASTODON SERVER. This is hosted on a VPS. I give accounts to my close friends and it gives me no impulse to use traditional social media for other than professional purposes. If friends want to know what is the latest on my life, they can just log in and read my activity feed.

My default search is duckduckgo and I'll use Google if I'm not getting good results.

I haven't really found a good alternative to Gmail though.

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

#75

Post by doingmyting »

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

Not yet at least

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

#76

Post by jsemrau »

jessewmc wrote: post #11
wonder_er wrote: post #8

I can't quite believe the argument that Facebook is Big Brother, because the first suggestion the author suggests is "stop using Facebook". In 1984, I believe the most compelling attribute of "Big Brother" was that he/it could not be willfully turned off. So, for this to be an appropriate analogy, Facebook would need to be able to legally compel you to have the app on your phone, and if you illegally removed the app/…

Would you not consider shadow profiles a form of imprisonment? Perhaps not quite as strong as voluntarily giving heaps of information, but still a rich source of data on people who do not use Facebook.

About a month ago I started to receive Facebook notifications from people that I know. I am not on Facebook.

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

#77

Post by MrMid »

swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #52
codyb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I use 5% cashback card from my amazon card (chase bank) and one of its disclaimers when you sign up is that it sells your product purchases to advertisers

At least they tell you so.

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

#78

Post by Casseres »

narrator wrote: post #74

I post all my daily thoughts and pictures and lots of personal details of my day to day activities TO MY OWN PRIVATE MASTODON SERVER. This is hosted on a VPS. I give accounts to my close friends and it gives me no impulse to use traditional social media for other than professional purposes. If friends want to know what is the latest on my life, they can just log in and read my activity feed. My default search is duck…

> I haven't really found a good alternative to Gmail though.

Have you looked into FastMail?

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

#79

Post by jfktrey »

Deimorz wrote: post #38
codyb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It gets even more frightening if you realize that you're probably not even considering all of the "deeper" levels. Almost everything I listed in my comment was pretty surface-level stuff, where it's at least somewhat obvious that you're giving the data to them (some things like the analytics not so much, but still not really "hidden"). But now start thinking about some other things: - Are any of the sites you're usin…

It almost seems impossible to use the internet for even a day without having some usage information leaked to Google.

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

#80

Post by ams6110 »

cisanti wrote: post #19
wonder_er wrote: post #8

I can't quite believe the argument that Facebook is Big Brother, because the first suggestion the author suggests is "stop using Facebook". In 1984, I believe the most compelling attribute of "Big Brother" was that he/it could not be willfully turned off. So, for this to be an appropriate analogy, Facebook would need to be able to legally compel you to have the app on your phone, and if you illegally removed the app/…

Sure, it's possible for a few people and the digital nomads, but try telling your teenage daughter don't use Facebook products. Heck, it's even difficult for me because of events and stuff, but for the majority of people, it has become a utility. Especially young people are sucked into it. And if not, you still get tracked everywhere on the web. It's like telling you to dig your own internet cables. Negotiate peering…

I have two teenage sons and neither they nor their friends use Facebook. It's Snapchat mostly from what I gather.
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