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Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

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Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#121
Facebook friend suggestions are such garbage. Half of them are legitimate acquaintances. Half of them are random women from south america.

I've never interacted with anything that should bring those up and I've never clicked on that sort of suggestion. The only reason I can think they'd show me them is my demographic, 30 something male. I haven't clicked on anything on FB or elsewhere on the web that should be getting me random foreign women as friend suggestions.

Facebook is terrible quality and has no idea what it's doing.

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#123
post #4

> Some apps, like Facebook, allow for some data tracking to be manually disabled. But by default, it is turned on. That gives the company reams of personal data on who we are and what we are doing, which it then vacuums up, packages and sells. My understanding is that Facebook does not sell this data, but rather lets advertisers create hyper-targeted ads, which are only possible because of this data. Edit: Certainly…

No, no, we're not selling murdered puppies! How could you think that!

We only sell the finest artisanal sausages rendered from gently-euthanised young canines.

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#124
post #3

The fact that Facebook appears to consider user consent an existential threat to their business model tells me everything I need to know about them right now.

Apple taking on this issue is worthy of respect, but let's not pretend that Apple respects all user consent. They're constantly forcing things on their users with thinly veiled justifications like "security".

I wonder if Apple is in a sort of competition with Facebook.

Probably they are competing for engineers, Messenger / WhatsApp vs iMessage, time spent on Facebook content vs on Apple content and other things I'm missing.

On the other side they benefitted from the popularity of Facebook (and many other internet properties companies) because they gave an extra reason to people to buy smartphones and using them a lot.

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#125
post #3

The fact that Facebook appears to consider user consent an existential threat to their business model tells me everything I need to know about them right now.

Normally, I'd ignore any marketing touting new privacy features in iOS, but Facebook's response has convinced me this isn't just an empty gesture from Apple.

I wholly internalized that there was a real problem when I started taking my phone to other parts of the house, placing it in a drawer before returning and shutting the door to have an in person conversation with someone.

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#126
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just them. Anyone who still has the wrong assumption that targeted advertising even works is in for a massive revelation.

Some level of targeting is necessary, for example it clearly makes no sense for a typical restaurant to advertise globally. The interesting question is much tracking adds on top of simpler targeting based on location and context.

Be careful not to conflate necessary with convenient. Static ads can still be local, e.g. in the local newspaper, on the radio station, on a sign post, or websites for local businesses/communities.

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#127

Apple should be applauded for this. Their revenue does not depend on software to clandestinely steal and sell users data. One day, we will look back at history and see facebook similar as to how people view myspace now (junkyard of software). Good on Apple not selling devices with a facebook backdoor in them. I know apple probably has deals with malicious governments regarding data access, but at least they are stand…

It's already like myspace. Facebook is giving me super trashy friend suggestions of random foreign women with slightly suggestive pictures, and aside from my demographic I can't think of anything I've personally done on or off the internet which would make them good friend suggestions.

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple taking on this issue is worthy of respect, but let's not pretend that Apple respects all user consent. They're constantly forcing things on their users with thinly veiled justifications like "security".

could you provide some examples beyond the “walled garden” of the iOS platform?

https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/15/apple-explains-addresses-mac-...

Re: Facebook is pushing back on Apple’s new iPhone privacy rules

#130
post #4

> Some apps, like Facebook, allow for some data tracking to be manually disabled. But by default, it is turned on. That gives the company reams of personal data on who we are and what we are doing, which it then vacuums up, packages and sells. My understanding is that Facebook does not sell this data, but rather lets advertisers create hyper-targeted ads, which are only possible because of this data. Edit: Certainly…

It's a nice bit of semantic ju-jitsu to say "they take this data and sell a service that wouldn't be possible without it" isn't the same as "selling this data," isn't it? Especially given that the targeting mechanisms don't have any k-anonymity guarantees, and I'm aware of at least one paper showing information leaks through the ad portal [1] https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_events/122...

The thing is, localised advertising is the sweet spot that i've identified in advertising value. If you forget all other data, this is one piece of information that can provide value to both consumer and small businesses.

Facebook, if you know any small business that have a specific region of operation (e.g. one city) derive significant benefit and growth from Facebook's targeted advertising that they just were not seeing before.

Of course, if anyone logs in and fetches their data from facebook as a download and go through it, it is really rather unbelievable how much data there is beyond geographical data. Some of it pretty scary.

What intrigues me further, after i tried to do the same with google, i don't believe google are nearly as open to how much data they hold on a person. There doesn't seem to be any takeaway service that indicates the same depth of information. But of course we know for a fact they do hold some of it.

Anyway, the long and short of it is advertising is all we have to support enormous social networks and I feel some level of personalised data provides mutual benefit. It should of course all be opt in with no exceptions.

I'm actually conceptualising a service/product around this concept right now.

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