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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

#261

Post by jff »

a_imho wrote: post #233
mattlondon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can go a long way to blocking a lot of these by using some alternatives: * Using DuckDuckGo ( https://duckduckgo.com/ ). It is really decent and has good desktop and mobile integration. * Using a browser like Brave ( https://www.brave.com/ ) that blocks trackers etc. Android app is superb. * Using a Maps replacement like OSM ( https://www.openstreetmap.org ) on desktop and OsmAnd on mobile ( https://play.google.c…

Pay in cash Lately I've been wondering whether I should withdraw most of my money from the bank. Any serious drawback to that approach? For one, I don't like my transactions being tracked and two, find it outrageous I have to pay various fees to use/access my money while it is used to enrich others.

> find it outrageous I have to pay various fees to use/access my money while it is used to enrich others.

Where are you banking? My bank pays me interest, even on my checking account, and I don't need to worry about a burglar taking all my savings. There's no reason you can't keep your money at the bank, stop using credit cards, and pay everything in cash; all the bank will know is that you withdraw $200 every week.

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

#262

Post by StavrosK »

jhasse wrote: post #220
aabaker99 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's given that Google will give better search results. They track you. I have the opposite experience regarding programming questions though. I thought that part of the initial appeal of DDG was that it handled queries that involved syntax or symbols better. I suppose these types of queries may not be that "complex" though. I admit I often query just to verify the API or to check how to do a common task in a languag…

> It's given that Google will give better search results. They track you. IIRC they won't if you search via !g on ddg.

I find that hard to believe. DDG just redirects you to Google, it doesn't do anything fancier.

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

#263

Post by ibn_ibid »

hyperdunc wrote: post #184
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?

At the moment the left is more of a threat, but this shouldn't really be a left-right comparison. A better way of framing it is authoritarian-libertarian. Some authority is useful, but too much is highly corrupting. Currently a section of the left is rather authoritarian and dogmatic. In the past the same has been true of the right.

>At the moment the left is more of a threat

Nazis are literally holding rallies in downtown Charlottesville with torches and yelling kill jews. One just ran over people counter-demonstrating in the streets. But yea it's the left who are a threat.

We have a president who refuses to condemn white nationalism. He has repeatedly issued calls to violence and wants to rough up journalists. But yes, it is the left who are endangering our free speech.

A close advisor to the president, Gorka, wore a Hungarian nationalist pin to Trump's inauguration - this group were nazi collaborators. He says that the bombing of a Minnesota mosque could've been a "false flag" and he has refused to condemn white nationalists. But yea it's the left who are a threat to our wellbeing.

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

#264

Post by ibn_ibid »

cisanti wrote: post #4

The authoritarian regimes' secret police would be delighted at something like this. People actually (well, not all of us) give them information themselves, and those who don't, sure do get tracked across the web. "Thoughts control" is very much a real problem, as the Google Memo scandal showed us. People dug out the irrelevant donation of Brendan Eich. Think about the power FB has, they know exactly who is the enemy…

>I would say we live in dangerous times.

Considering we have a Republican president who has two confirmed white nationalists in his cabinet, repeatedly issues calls to violence and wants to clamp down on journalists, defunds efforts to investigate Nazis infiltrating law enforcement, yea I'd say we live in pretty dangerous times.

but sure it's the left who are so dangerous because they doxxx people who wave swatiskas

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

#265

Post by slester »

0xbear wrote: post #221
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.…

You can't avoid FB either. It tracks you even if you're not logged in, and even if you don't have an account. And by tracking you across sites it can infer your age group, gender, sexual orientation, political leanings, income bracket, and other personal preferences through simple co-visitation mining. And they know your rough location via geolocation, too, as well as how many people live in your household, whether y…

Sure you can -- install an adblocker or one of the other extensions that allows you to block FB tracking. I agree that that only protects those tech-savvy enough to know how FB is tracking you and what to do about it, but there are steps we can take while fighting against corporate mass surveillance.

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

#267

Post by StavrosK »

Gracana wrote: post #260
StavrosK wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 everyt…

Yeah, I don't understand why they feel the need to ignore whole terms.

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

#268

Post by tu6 »

stinos wrote: post #225
saywatnow wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find it hard to believe if you're a programmer Some people work better with reference documentation, books and their brain than SO "answers". Google for "complex programming questions" is laughable and honestly a bit insulting to the profession.

SO "answers" That is also laughable and more than a bit insulting: - most of the answers (I encountered) are in fact proper and correct answers because bascially it's a peer-reviewed environment, so no need for those snarky quatation marks. I, and many others, have spent hours and hours writing down good answers, and learning quite a bit while doing so. - DDG/Google/... know about SO so it is often possible to get th…

I have been using zealdocs for a couple months now. Which is basically offline official docs/tutorials/examples my Google and SO usage has dropped quite a bit. If you read the Stackoverflow post on why they discontinued their documentation feature - one of the reasons was official docs aren't as broken as ppl think.

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

#269

Post by tu6 »

viral_krieger wrote: post #208
saywatnow wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find it hard to believe if you're a programmer Some people work better with reference documentation, books and their brain than SO "answers". Google for "complex programming questions" is laughable and honestly a bit insulting to the profession.

Why is Googling a programming question insulting to the profession? I find it laughable that you think there is something wrong with looking for resources relating to complex programming questions. I can't tell you how many times Googling a niche and complex problem instantly solved my issue. Sometimes SO is the only site that has fixes for bugs in the program you're using or mistakes in the documentation.

Well Google is pretty shit if the same keyword combos occur in multiple complex answers. It can even be a waste of time/send you off on a wild goose chase VS just reading a book. Google benefits from the fact that most people's attention spans and patience has dropped.

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

#270

Post by kuschku »

xiaoma wrote: post #224
kuschku wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone hijacked an older google account of mine, the phone number used had since run out and been sold to another user. Google asked me to either have access to the phone number, and the old password, or to know the security question, have access to the backup email, and know the exact day the account was created on. Google was not willing to provide any help, not even via the Nexus phone support, and even after a f…

Asking for a phone number as a verification method is particularly toxic for users such as myself who do a lot of international travel and essentially just use phones for data plans. Due to a close call with one of my own accounts, I absolutely refuse to link a phone number to any online account, for fear of it being required months later when I'm in another country. I still nearly gotten bitten by this problem when…

Or if you use prepaid SIMs which get deactivated after not upping their charge for 6 months, even if there's still money left on them.

Using phone numbers - which are, btw, free with prepaid SIMs - as identifier is dumb in general.

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