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Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

nautil.us

1–10 of 360 posts

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#4
The one time Betteridge's Law fails us.

> Chollet bristled at this. “This is the laziest kind of thinking—just because two things share some superficial similarity (they’re large tech [companies]) doesn’t mean they’re equivalent,” he said.

But... the article is just a riff off of Chollet's tweets about working for Alphabet. Mostly about Facebook anyways.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#7

It's a lot simpler to avoid Google though. I've been using DuckDuckGo for a while now and the switch was simple. There's no network effect like with Facebook, hence less ennui about it.

They still have their cookies and follow your every move, especially if you have android phone.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#8
What is scary is the unregulated way in which massive amounts of data can be used to sway public opinion so easily. What is even scarier than this is the way in which those in power can use massive amounts of data to sway public opinion without oversight. The very notion of a republican form of government may end up needing to be reanalyzed.

Forget concentrating on Google or Facebook. There is a larger concern. If multi-national company A collects massive amounts of data and sells it to company B to use to influence elections in country C then in what way are C's people in control of their government? Especially if A and B are based in another country.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#9

Isn't this rhetoric getting tiresome at some point?

The conversation at the root? Not so much. But yeah the rhetoric and seeming lack of nuance around it makes me roll my eyes from time to time.

Edit: instead of driveby downvotes, Id welcome some commentary on what was so incendiary about this remark to warrant swiftly taking the comment down into the negatives.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#10

It's a lot simpler to avoid Google though. I've been using DuckDuckGo for a while now and the switch was simple. There's no network effect like with Facebook, hence less ennui about it.

>seems

Google is just more self-aware, which can change at any time. This is separate from their potential, and the potential is what matters here. We know Facebook had the potential to do damage for years, but we don't know how much damage they have done. As for what a company "seems", that is a sum of marketing and PR.

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