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Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

nautil.us

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Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#11

Post by drawkbox »

Your ISP tracking your every move is scarier than all of them after the ISP privacy bill passed.

At least Facebook and Google give you something for it and you can route around them if you desire. No routing around ISPs unless you use a VPN but even then they are blocking those.

Broadband/cable/telcos capture everything you do and can now sell that information and do[1]. That bill was the pre-cursor to removing net neutrality by taking privacy and policy from the FCC to the FTC.

Part of Jeff Flakes argument for getting rid of the privacy protections were so that ISPs can compete with Facebook and Google and sell your data/offer ads to you. Yet Facebook and Google at least built products you wanted that you willingly gave up privacy to use and at least got something for it [2][3].

ISPs you have to pay to use and they still take your data as if you are the product. ISPs could have built products people wanted to get that data but they instead bribed 'representatives' to get it via legislation with their local monopolies. Noone wanted this bill but ISPs.

[1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/five-creepy-things-you...

[2] https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/3/op-ed-f...

[3] https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/3/flake-i...

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#12

Post by iamdave »

kbaker wrote: post #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.

I too had thoughts of Betteridge but in the opposite: it definitely applies and he article gives us a few examples.

But after a second read of the article I think the answer instead of being a flat "no", the answer would probably be more accurately answered with "depends on who you're asking"

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#13

Post by ReverseCold »

mudil wrote: post #7
greggarious wrote: post #6

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.

Note about Google-Android phones: how long you use each app and when is tracked.

To avoid this, use a custom rom without GApps. You can also "turn off" this "feature" from some menu online, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't actually stop data collection.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#14

Post by Malarkey73 »

I know Google is profiling me and harvesting my data. But it's not using me to harvest my friends information.

I know Google is targeting ads at me - and they maybe AB tested. But those ads are from real companies or organisations - they aren't fake bots or astroturf groups algorithmically designed to tell me what I want to hear.

I'm sceptically watchful of Google, I feel I have a social contract with them where they use me and I use them. I think Facebook has way overstepped that mark.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#16

Post by smt88 »

greggarious wrote: post #6

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.

Google is also tracking you via emails sent to/from Gmail, AdSense scripts, free CDNs, Android, etc. I find Facebook to be easier to avoid, though more costly in terms of my happiness

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#17

Post by rootusrootus »

jugad wrote: post #5

I don't know the nuanced answer but overall Google seems less irritating, and less fake (because G+ failed)?

And they don't have Zuckerberg.

Seriously, though, I think some of it is that Google is a little more transparent. They ingest tremendous amounts of data about you, but for the most part it's while you do things you would otherwise do. Facebook is a destination, an environment unto itself, and it's impossible to ignore that it's addictive and sucking you in over and over. So you use it, but hate it all the same because it has too much power.

I've looked at the data Google collects on me, and it's probably more frightening than what FB has managed to gather. Google has all my search queries to look at, every place I've driven, etc. All without me really noticing.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#18

Post by dijit »

greggarious wrote: post #6

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.

I feel like this is at least slightly disingenuous.

Sure, your friends keep you hooked on FB but there are other methods of communication.. Even if they're FB owned (like whatsapp).

But google owns the most dominant browser right now, they're spidered into most websites using their analytics engine.

They handle more email than the next 5 providers combined, and they have the most dominant mobile OS on the market.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#19

Post by fareesh »

jasonvorhe wrote: post #2

Isn't this rhetoric getting tiresome at some point?

This has been a long time coming.

https://twitter.com/georgesoros/status/964471195793068032

I posted about it here, but was heavily downvoted because mentioning this man automatically brands you as a conspiracy theorist.

It's really naive to think he doesn't know the news before it's news.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#20

Post by delbel »

sykh wrote: post #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 mu…

I was trying to come up with a solution. Something like retroactively classify companies that are taking money or are involved in this type of stuff register as a Political Action Committee. Because this is regulated by the FEC. Make Google, CNN, Facebook, Fox, whatever, disclose they are working for hire to politicize your experience. Then, make it so that every 5 years a company can appeal this retro-active PAC status. When they appeal they have to show, in full transparency, that they are no longer participating in these schemes by showing internal procedures, logs, their appeal process, and comments from the public. Somebody make this idea better and help promote it. It's a start
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