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Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

nautil.us

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Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#61

Post by mudil »

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 agree. Blatant invasion of privacy by Google and FB is a national security issue, as recent events with Cambridge Analytica have shown. This snooping by mega corporations runs contrary to basic principles of the free society.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#62

Post by mudil »

sykh wrote: post #48
joe_the_user wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The framing of the situation is kind of twisted imo. If we talking about politics, it seems entirely reasonable that a politician would want know what their constituents were thinking about, would tell their constituents what the constituents wanted to here and go to Washington and do what they promised. That's democracy - obviously, this democracy isn't in very good shape. But it's hard claim to that having a very f…

I'd agree with the degradation of education system you brought up but even well educated people are prone to being nudged. In the past there was a diversity of competing news reporting. In the U.S. there has been massive consolidation in ownership of media. The sources of information are becoming fewer and the targeting of information is causing people to exist in news bubbles. As you point out we have anit-vaxers, p…

Actually, as an owner of the specialized website, I can tell you that blatant invasion of privacy actually destroys publishers. Regional newspaper literary competes with YouTube and apps for advertising dollars, and Google could care less for existence of this regional newspaper, because it can show local ads on the apps. See more what we wrote here: https://medgadget.com/google

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#63

Post by fantispug »

drawkbox wrote: post #11

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 n…

On https sites there's not a lot ISPs can track without breaking encryption. With shared IPs they may not even know the domain for certain (although as IPv6 takes off it will be easier to map IP to domain).

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#64

Post by AbacusAvenger »

fantispug wrote: post #63
drawkbox wrote: post #11

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 n…

On https sites there's not a lot ISPs can track without breaking encryption. With shared IPs they may not even know the domain for certain (although as IPv6 takes off it will be easier to map IP to domain).

They can track DNS lookups though. I use DNSCrypt to proxy all that traffic through elsewhere. But that just means I'm trusting some other third party to not log my DNS queries.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#65

Post by beagle3 »

fantispug wrote: post #63
drawkbox wrote: post #11

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 n…

On https sites there's not a lot ISPs can track without breaking encryption. With shared IPs they may not even know the domain for certain (although as IPv6 takes off it will be easier to map IP to domain).

But your DNS request went through the same ISP; It's very likely that they'd know the domain for certain because you've just looked it up.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#67

Post by ctime »

AbacusAvenger wrote: post #64
fantispug wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On https sites there's not a lot ISPs can track without breaking encryption. With shared IPs they may not even know the domain for certain (although as IPv6 takes off it will be easier to map IP to domain).

They can track DNS lookups though. I use DNSCrypt to proxy all that traffic through elsewhere. But that just means I'm trusting some other third party to not log my DNS queries.

DNSCrypt -> private cloud instance DNS Crypt -> root name servers

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#68

Post by ultimoo »

drawkbox wrote: post #11

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 n…

Sorry to sidetrack here -- but any good recommendations for paid VPNs?

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#69

Post by colordrops »

Malarkey73 wrote: post #14

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…

> But it's not using me to harvest my friends information.

That just isn't true. Google has several products that involve a social graph, including Gmail, contacts, chat, and pretty much anything that allows sharing.

Re: Is Facebook Really Scarier Than Google?

#70

Post by Ivoirians »

Disclaimer: I work for Google and these views are only my opinion, etc.

From my perspective, Google's goals are aligned with improving the world by offering information services. Search, Gmail, Maps, Translate, basically all of the Other Bets, etc.--it's easy to imagine that the people behind them are more concerned with impact on the world than on generating profit or consolidating Google's power.

To me, Facebook has no such world-improving aspirations. The extent to which I'm aware of Facebook's attempt to improve the world was the initiative to bring free internet to India, which was perceived as a play to lock more people into Facebook. Plus, I keep seeing studies of how increased Facebook usage correlates negatively with peoples' moods, so Zuckerberg's evident goal of "get everyone on Earth on Facebook" feels gross.

Things obviously aren't just this black and white, and both companies collect user data in order to generate buckets of advertising wealth (which, if you find disagreeable, probably biases you against both companies), but from a personal perspective, I'm quite happy working for Google while I don't think you could pay me enough to work for Facebook.

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