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WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#501
post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree, but it's also annoying that people keep using this to try and downplay stories like the Russia investigation and the fact that shady practices are going on at places like Facebook and in our political campaigns. People did vote for Trump. Without someone twisting their arm. But there is still merit to these other stories (even if the perspective that they got Trump elected is false).

Are you saying that hundreds of years of ad business has never worked and the billions upon billions of dollars spent on ads were wasted? Because if you're not, "People did vote for Trump. Without someone twisting their arm." is disingenuous, at best.

All of our arms are being twisted by that standard. And all candidates were using ads.

I'm saying that the people voted how they voted without the use of anything that seems outside of the norm.

We should investigate these data-driven ad campaigns if they do have that much influence over our democracy.

And we should investigate Russian meddling because it looks like there was a divisive propaganda campaign and a bunch of shady business deals.

And we should investigate the Trump campaign because it looks like there were a bunch of shady business deals with questionable ties.

My real point was that the fact that these things involve Trump shouldn't impact their seriousness. We know there are people trying to find dirt on Trump but that doesn't mean all of the angles they're looking at are purely about Trump.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#502
post #58
post #26

I don't get what changed? We've knows Facebook tracks everything, we've known Google does the same thing. If you've ever developed anything in messenger even today, it's amazing how much information is given. We know all these sites track everything you do outside of Facebook too. Everyone has been trying to get them to stop, we know it's illegal to build a profile on someone but Facebook gets around that by building…

What's more, I suspect that if this exact same thing had been done by a company working for Obama's or Hillary's campaigns, nobody would have batted an eyelash. PS - the reason that the regs wont happen during the trump years has nothing to do with the collusion investigation. He's put a mandate in place that for every reg to go into the federal register, two have to come out. His administration is in general very an…

While I agree that I think the Obama campaign has largely gotten a pass for similar data collection and voter profiling activities, I think that part of the reason its getting such attention now is some of the accompanying scandalous tactics of CA being revealed along with their data efforts. Some of the undercover videos being released, particularly the one regarding the Sri Lankan election, look pretty bad.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People didn't give one iota of a fuck when the Snowden revelations came out because they just assumed that it was the case already. It's more complex than that. The tracking and surveillance are not visible to the average person. Point your camera at someone in a coffee shop or bar and take their picture. They'll be coming over to ask you why you took their photo. The fact that the coffee shop or bar is brimming wi…

My local bar has over a half dozen cameras pointed to customers and workers areas. I installed them plus the DVR at owner request, they're perfectly visible and nobody gives a damn (except a couple customers once asking if the devices were also listening and recording audio). Everyone knows the owner doesn't use the data for anything illegal, and one time thanks to cameras we caught a worker who stole food bags to us…

You mean everyone assumes he doesn't abuse the data. That's different than knowing. It's just the lazy and thoughtless stance to take. "Why would they be allowed to have the cameras if they were up to no good"? Businesses are assumed to do no wrong and meet some high moral standard because it's easy to.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be okay for you individually. But Facebook will treat someone with bipolar or serious impulse control issues just the same way... Assuming some level of accuracy, an algorithm could predict when someone is having a manic episode, susceptible. Its predatory and dangerous. The vast majority of people are not aware of how to protect themselves from out-of-hand tech giants and their customers. Getting ahead is b…

>But Facebook will treat someone with bipolar or serious impulse control issues just the same way... Assuming some level of accuracy, an algorithm could predict when someone is having a manic episode, susceptible. Its predatory and dangerous. And what would they do out of that ? People with poor mental health don't need facebook to be triggered, it seems even less harmful because it's through an interface and not a d…

Anecdotal but definitely illustrative: a close friend of my mother had serious trouble managing her bipolar states, she would start manic and it got out of control within hours or sometimes minutes. Bye bye meds, and on more than one occasion, she would spend thousands of dollars in days, vacation scams, grocery shopping for things unneeded that sat and spoiled, you name it. She made comprehensive arrangements with friends and the companies she dealt with repeatedly so she couldn't get more than a few dollars pocket money when off cycle. In this regard, my mom was an angel, saved this friend multiple bankruptcies.

Anyone not so fortunate could be so easily scammed its scary. And heart wrenching.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that now people see a real consequence of that data harvesting, like voting manipulation.

Do people realise they're being manipulated though?

I think people have become acutely aware that there are lots of people being manipulated through online disinformation and propaganda campaigns. But I also think just about everyone assumes that its others who are being manipulated and not themselves. By definition, you can't be manipulated if you know you are being manipulated.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#506

If we use Twitter to announce that people should #deletefacebook, what social network do we use in the event that it becomes necessary to #deletetwitter?

As a ham radio nerd, packet bulletin board systems should really make a comeback. They fell apart as the internet came about, but in an effort to re-invigorate the now-unused spectrum and hardware TNCs[1] all over the place, APRS[2] was created, which has this nifty feature[3]. We also have a type of email system called Winlink[4] (which runs using the ARDOP protocol[5] or VARA[6] replacing Winmor[7] and Pactor[8]).

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_node_controller

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_Sys...

[3]https://aprs.fi/

[4]https://www.winlink.org/

[5]https://www.winlink.org/content/ardop_overview

[6]https://rosmodem.wordpress.com/

[7]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winmor

[8]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PACTOR

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#507

I've fallen in a deep, deep hole. One I can't get out of (meaning, deleting my Facebook account), because I've used "Login with Facebook" on quite a few sites and platforms. What do others recommend in a situation like this?

If you go to https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications you can see a list of everything you've signed up for using Facebook OAuth, then determine from there what sites you still use and adjust logins as necessary

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#508
post #26

I don't get what changed? We've knows Facebook tracks everything, we've known Google does the same thing. If you've ever developed anything in messenger even today, it's amazing how much information is given. We know all these sites track everything you do outside of Facebook too. Everyone has been trying to get them to stop, we know it's illegal to build a profile on someone but Facebook gets around that by building…

Its purely Trump hatred driving this. Because Obama doing this in 2012 = Genius. Trump doing this in 2016 = Scandal. I'm a libertarian and yes I threw my vote away on Gary Johnson, but looking at the media landscape, there truly is a backlash against conservatives going on in social media, and this is just part of that. Donald Trump won because fake news... no wait, it was Russia and their abysmal social media spendi…

I suppose Trump hatred plays a role. But superpowers interfering with elections is a big deal, it's the kind of thing that could lead to another extinction level event.

Any of the mechanisms leveraged in this propaganda campaign should receive extra scrutiny.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, it's common knowledge. There are a pile of dead Russians ex-IC people all over Europe, the existing Mueller indictments, the Crowdstrike DNC Russian APT attributions, all of our own lying eyes...

Funny, I must have missed the Mueller indictments relating to collusion or coordination of any kind (it's coming any day now, though, right?). I've seen a number of process charges. I've seen a handful of Russians charged with, essentially, social media ads and trolling and setting up a Michael Moore rally in NYC. And, of course, Manafort, who is dirty AF (right up there with the Podestas, the Clintons and the rest),…

>"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past."

-Jean Paul-Sartre

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