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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

#251

Post by gaius »

im3w1l wrote: post #189
adventured wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 Your critique is correct, the right is every bit as brutal about censorship when it comes to a context of authoritarianism. The left in the US is progressive (to varying degrees) in mentality, adopts technology much faster, and gets to u…

> They're also fast adopters of technology. In my opinion people in the more left half of the political spectrum (call them Democrats or whatever makes sense), on average, move substantially faster as adopters of technology (Clinton & Obama were far more technologically progressive than the Bushes or Trump). The big platforms are all extremely left in their political bias, deriving from the people who work there, the…

Disagree. The internet used to be more libertarian, even just a few years ago.

In the '90's we believed that Freedom on the Internet was unassailable because all the talented engineers wouldn't work for or participate in all the sleazy stuff, in fact would actively fight it. The best cryptographers, security researchers, etc, were on "our side". How naive we were.

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

#252

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #24
msoad wrote: post #7

I heard form someone at Facebook that they use location data to figure out who you are with. If a group of friends go to a restaurant and nobody checks in Facebook will know you are together because all of you opened one of their apps in the same time frame and location.

Which is why phone meta data is a big deal. Once you can cross reference numbers, locations, etc. patterns will emerge. For example, you meet with someone every Saturday. At some point your colocation isn't a coinsidence, it's a relationship of some sort. Gather enough data and they'll know more about you than you do.

Match.com has this feature now called "missed opportunities." Shows who you crossed paths with.

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

#253

Post by thestepafter »

dorfsmay wrote: post #216
mattmanser wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to use DDG for the last 6 months. Ultimately I'd say 40% of my queries I now just force google with '!g' instead. I was quite bullish on it 6 months ago, but must admit that after 6 months, anything complex I !g straightaway.

What about using google in an incognito tab?

When you open the incognito tab it is clearly stated that incognito only stops information from being saved locally.

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

#254

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

Casseres wrote: post #78
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?

Seconded. I use the POP service on one laptop only.

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

#255

Post by dTal »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #99
aphextron wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no evil overlord at the top of either company (I hope) We'll have to disagree here. I think Zuckerberg is an evil, amoral person to his core. This hardly needs reposting, but I can't recall Brin or Page ever going on the record calling their users "dumb fucks".[0] [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zuc...

This is such a stupid argument. He was what, 20 years old? And FB was a tiny nothing at that point. And let's face it, he probably wasn't wrong to think that users were dumb to upload private data to some random POS website. I'm sure you never said anything at 20 on IM with a friend that could be used in isolation more than a decade later to show that you're an evil person, right?

The context is actually much worse than the "dumb fucks". He was actively offering to share the information of his users with his friend - "selling" it as it were for mere social kudos. It shows that even at that early stage, he perceived Facebook as a vehicle for collecting and exploiting the personal info of his users, exploiting even before he had a clear idea of how.

20 is old enough to know better than that.

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

#257

Post by chiefalchemist »

qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #252
chiefalchemist wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why phone meta data is a big deal. Once you can cross reference numbers, locations, etc. patterns will emerge. For example, you meet with someone every Saturday. At some point your colocation isn't a coinsidence, it's a relationship of some sort. Gather enough data and they'll know more about you than you do.

Match.com has this feature now called "missed opportunities." Shows who you crossed paths with.

Right. And people are happy to be tracked. SMH

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

#258

Post by chiefalchemist »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #96
chiefalchemist wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic isn't it. Google is a threat, but the media focuses on a random memo. Not dismissing the memo, but it pales in comparison to Google's larger scope.

Unfortunately, the outrage of people about some issue is usually inversely proportional to its importance. This seems to be a general fact about humans.

The "outrage" is a function of the MSM's ability to make money off the issue. I'm not sure about God, but journalism is certainly dead.

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

#259

Post by vayun »

The article is pure FUD spreading.

"potentially being able to eavesdrop on our conversations", so now any app which has access to microphone "may be listening"?

So it uses data which you are willingly share with it to "serve better ads". Where is a problem with that? Does the author prefer worse ads?

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

#260

Post by Gracana »

StavrosK wrote: post #166
mattmanser wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to use DDG for the last 6 months. Ultimately I'd say 40% of my queries I now just force google with '!g' instead. I was quite bullish on it 6 months ago, but must admit that after 6 months, anything complex I !g straightaway.

I've had the opposite experience. I've been using it for many months and I only !g code searches or searches where DDG's results were disappointing, most of which end up disappointing on Google as well.

What really killed google for me was their gradual transition to showing results that are the most popular thing that's merely related to your search terms. Whereas DDG wouldn't show me many good results for some searches, google shows me endless links to high-profile stuff that is explicitly not what I asked for. Contrived example: search for "vegan meals", and google goes "vegan, hmm.. oh, MEALS! Yes! Here's everything I know about MEALS! Here's some steaks you should buy!" The only way I can get good results out of google these days is to perform the search, then switch it to verbatim mode.
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