Not sure whether this is common, but the definitions I use are:
Customization - decisions that you make for yourself
Personalization - decisions made for you based on implicit and explicit signals
Non-Consensual Personalization
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Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#12This is my main issue with so many services. The reason I don't use Instagram is because Instagram gives me no control over what I see. You want to look at pictures without seeing comments? Too bad. It doesn't matter that the top comment on one of the accounts I follow was an anti-Semitic jab at the account owner, I have to read it because Instagram knows what's best for me. Ditto YouTube comments & suggestions, Twit…
> and if I don't cede control I miss out on the primary means of social communication for people my age.
What I do: Fight it by being part of the solution rather than contributing to the problem by continuing to use these platforms. This is obvious, but the only thing that makes it the “primary” means of communication is the people using it. Don’t be one of those people, and tell your friends the preferred way to get in touch with you. If they are really your friends they will roll with it.
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#13Personalizing my MacBook OS should be like personalizing my car while personalizing Netflix/Amazon etc should be like me expecting my local Walmart and Target to let me personalize their store. Is that a fair comparison?
The article isn't demanding that services be personalized. It's just saying that if they are going to personalize things, the user should have control over it, and not some obscure algorithm. It's like if you walked into Target and everything on the main floor was orange juice and socks because you happened to buy OJ and socks on your last visit. And every time you went back to Target, the shelves would be completely rearranged based upon your previous purchases. That's great if you buy the same 3 or 4 things every time. But then one day you go in there looking for a jumper for a nephew, and there's no discrete boys' section because it doesn't fit your single childless demographic. Just rows and rows of orange juice, and also apple juice which you hate, but it 94% matches your predicted preferences.
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#14The post describes it without saying it: arrogance.
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#15I feel like the implication is that people prevent you from customizing stuff for ego reasons, but isn't it a lot of code and testing to implement the personalization UI?
But thinking about it more, I suppose the answer is to let the users write their own clients. Netflix should have a JSON API that's a list of all the programs, and each record should contain a link to video file. They don't do that because of DRM and they specifically want to prevent you from writing a program that saves the downloaded bytes to disk. So I guess there is no way to achieve their business goals (make sure you pay $20/month forever to watch stuff, and make sure the "rights holders" get to sell you the same thing multiple times) without doing more work, which they simply chose not to do because they don't have to.
Going one level deeper, I guess that video streaming is a weird market. You could have the worst software and the best content and probably win. So you can't compete with Netflix by making a video streaming service that has more UI features. I guess what this means is that copyright is deterring innovation. I think I've heard that one before. Sigh!
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#16Personalizing my MacBook OS should be like personalizing my car while personalizing Netflix/Amazon etc should be like me expecting my local Walmart and Target to let me personalize their store. Is that a fair comparison?
I don't think so. Based on this article, Netflix is also forcing pixels on their screen to be color black -- and I want them to be green.
uBlock filters can do that, e.g. something like:
netflix.com##:xpath(//div):style(background-color: green !important)
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#17I reject the framing.
The problem isn’t the lack of personalizabilty(?) or customizability. The problem is that we’ve collectively allowed providers of content to warp the www into a state where they have the ability to control our experience.
Consider what the web would look like if instead of html and JavaScript, it only consisted of a content description language devoid of any ability to control layout, fonts, colors, etc. My browser, under MY control, can present the content to me in whatever way I prefer. There might be a rich marketplace of both free and paid experiences that I could download and install into my browser.
Just because the web currently acts a certain way doesn’t mean that things HAVE to be that way.
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#18The author mentions linux... but where does this happen on linux? I love using a desktop that does exactly what I tell it. Yes it takes longer to set up. But I use a computer every day, it's worth it.
I also strongly disagree with the author. They're probably referring to things like Gnome and Unity and PopOS. The thing is, these are opinionated options in addition to everything else you can do with Linux, rather than replacements that restrict your options. You've also got things like NixOS, which is definitely going in the opposite direction, allowing you basically infinite customization.
Oh, for some reason I read that bit as "the Linux kernel non-consensually personalizes." You're right, though: it's definitely referring to userspace libraries, not the kernel itself. And yes, you can still easily avoid GNOME, Unity, and anything else you don't want to use: Openbox, i3, dmenu, and countless other window managers and GUI applications exist and work perfectly well (as they did a decade ago). That plethora of choice makes "Linux" nearly immune to the effect that the author's talking about.
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#19Funny the article mentions macOS - I actually had an issue with this recently, when I upgraded to the new OS version, my desktop background was changed to the new default macOS image, and I actually had to re-download the one I was using before. I'm a relatively new macOS user, so not sure if that's common/expected when upgrading, but I really didn't like it.
Re: Non-Consensual Personalization
#20I feel like the implication is that people prevent you from customizing stuff for ego reasons, but isn't it a lot of code and testing to implement the personalization UI? But thinking about it more, I suppose the answer is to let the users write their own clients. Netflix should have a JSON API that's a list of all the programs, and each record should contain a link to video file. They don't do that because of DRM an…
They could do that but you deeplink back into the Netflix app to actually watch to solve the DRM issue. Which I think shows that it's about more than just DRM. They want to control the experience.