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Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

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Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#81
post #55
post #26

It doesn't work. There isn't enough money in the data for anyone to care. Your entire data load might be worth $100 a year . The only reason it funds massive industries is cost-effective aggregation by dirt-cheap computer power. I ran the numbers on Facebook a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19462402 It comes out that they're making roughly $17/yr in annual revenue per user. Revenue , not profit . Cr…

When I see these breakdowns I think I’d pay $17 per year for Facebook without all of the ads and tracking and data mining and knowing I was just getting a good service optimized for its customers. Why not ban tracking and ad targeting and selling personal data, and force that business model to go extinct, and now they have to start charging for service and their users become actual customers.

Arguably without the ranking and recommendation, FB is quite boring.

The feed is such an integral part of FB.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#82
This brings up a concept I never really thought of. Is it better to approach this problem from the perspective of privacy vs ownership. If it is not a tangible asset, ownership seems tricky. It's like IP law. Do you really own the observation of your behavior?

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#83

I foresee tech companies creating paid and non-paid versions of their products. If you don't want your data monetized, please pay $50/month for Google Search, GMail, Maps, and YouTube. If you are okay with the value exchange of ads and free services, then you are opting into a mutually agreed upon arrangement with no compensation.

I cant imagine this type of model existing without a large number of companies continuing to monetize that data regardless of if they charge the user or not. Unless data privacy laws get much better why wouldn't they? Just say sorry when caught and keep on doing it.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#84
The fediverse is already here and more or less offered a working solution to aggregated data abuse. Fediverse instances are mostly crowd-funded, the software is typically open source, and there are no direct paths to placing ads, which disincentivises data collection or selling. The only attack vectors are web scraping, really.

It's just a matter of educating the (boomer and zoomer) public, that "official companies" with proprietary services aren't the only legitimate platforms, and that the actual internet isn't 5 websites, but millions of interoperable and bustling websites and fediverse instances.

https://fediverse.party/

https://joinmastodon.org/ (recomended) https://pleroma.social/ https://joinpeertube.org/ and many more.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#87
post #40
post #26

It doesn't work. There isn't enough money in the data for anyone to care. Your entire data load might be worth $100 a year . The only reason it funds massive industries is cost-effective aggregation by dirt-cheap computer power. I ran the numbers on Facebook a while back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19462402 It comes out that they're making roughly $17/yr in annual revenue per user. Revenue , not profit . Cr…

What if the point of it all isn't to make the consumer money, but to make companies less indiscriminate about gathering and storing data?

Can't you achieve the same effect at user level by faking some data + messing with tracking via Firefox containers + Ghostery + Cookies AutoDelete?

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#88
... Anyone else having issues verifying their phone? I've never had such a buggy experience verifying my phone.

It seems like after you complete the application, the green submit button, as well as the text fields in the following sequences, are buggy -- single click doesn't seem to pick up the action, double click seems to upset it, tab into the button to press Enter doesn't work. This is all via Chrome.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#89
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already bad enough that the surveillance economy is threatening our civil liberties in more ways than one. It's outright dystopian when you need to organize a social media campaign to get medical treatment. Considering the sheer number of people who desperately need medical help, the chances of succeeding is very very low.

>It's outright dystopian when you need to organize a social media campaign to get medical treatment. The above comment wasn't an example of that, though. His friend was getting medical treatment, the issue is that you can't just buy a kidney (at least not in the US), you need to find a donor.

> The above comment wasn't an example of that

That isn't just an outright baseless claim, it's wrong by definition. The said person had to go to social media to find a donor, which 100% matches what I descibed, and the fact that some felt this was necessary points to a broken system. It's also terrible to imagine what shady companies can do with targeted ads aimed at vulnerable people who can't find any donors.

Re: Andrew Yang's Data Dividend Project is pushing Big Tech to pay users for data

#90
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hah love the sarcasm.

If it didn't provide value, no one would be using it.

I'd like to introduce you to an entire field of endeavor called "marketing". Non-industrial diamonds don't provide value, yet people are regularly buying them for ridiculous sums[1].

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/ho...

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