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Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

arstechnica.com

31–40 of 335 posts

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#31

I don't know why my opinion is so out of the mainstream but I really think it's good that people's information is used vs not used... I think it's a great boon for ads to become more relevant instead of less relevant. Wasting time looking at ads that aren't for me sucks, it's much better if they could actually improve my life. Literally think making children have less relevant ads is doing them harm.

You could make ads relevant the old fashioned way: asking people what they are interested in or actually doing consumer research, instead of simply using their data they "give up" with a freemium service to make ads more "relevant". I used quotes on 'relevant' because I have never, ever, felt that advertising has suddenly become wildly more relevant or successfully targeted with the advent of social media or google. Most ads are still garbage and completely irrelevant to my interests; the targeting is usually pretty pathetic. I find more relevant advertising in a magazine or when it's self managed by a blog (the owner straight up just selling adspace old-school style) than online these days.

It's not like it needs to work the way it does online right now or it can't work at all. Facebook just likes the way it works because that's their business model.

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#32

Mark Zuckerberg himself seems to understand the importance of privacy very well, taping over the microphone and camera on his MacBook Pro, keeping his trash can from being scavenged by others, and FB spending heavily to protect his security, so why does he have the exact opposite attitude towards others?

In practical terms, Mark is a target. You're not.

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#33

Since there is bound to be a lot of Facebook bashing I’ll point out that they occasionally do some good. In the case of software they can be good stewards of FOSS. I listened to this CoRecursive episode about the history of Zstandard compression algorithm and how FB allowed the author, Yann Collet, to fully open source it while other companies wanted to keep it proprietary. https://corecursive.com/data-compression-ya…

I wonder if it kind of sucks to recognize that your job in FOSS is just a token gesture.

Does FB really care about React’s contribution to the community? Or is it just happy to pay a few salaries to look good?

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot Snap.

Snap is more of a messaging app afaict. I'm pretty sure the biggest harms from social media come from algorithmic targeting of content, echo chamber creation, and the ability to hugely amplify fringe opinions and destabilise debate. If your only concern is data handling, though, then fair enough.

I do not use Snap but I'm pretty sure it has algo delivered content as well, just like Tiktok and insta.

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#35
post #29

I would caution against believing “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” when that would make the government your friend. Yes, Facebook has been awful and done great harm in some ways, but crucially it is not the case that Facebook was only able to do such harm because the FTC lacked the ability to unilaterally and without oversight deploy extreme powers like “you may not monetize this data” or “you may not release fea…

In what ways are you worried about the FTC using it's powers for things you thinks are harmful? What things specifically?

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#36
post #29

I would caution against believing “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” when that would make the government your friend. Yes, Facebook has been awful and done great harm in some ways, but crucially it is not the case that Facebook was only able to do such harm because the FTC lacked the ability to unilaterally and without oversight deploy extreme powers like “you may not monetize this data” or “you may not release fea…

If the criteria for FTC thumbscrews is "Become a 2023.USD$630 B market cap company" then I'm comfortable with that.

Fuck combinations (to use the original 1900s phrasing); restore competition.

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#37
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have we gotten to the point where "bad for Facebook" ~= "good for society"? It's both a good indicator for progress and a sad place to be as a community.

We'd be better off without Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Anything that hurts these businesses probably helps society. There is just no big benefit to justify the amount of damage done to mental health and privacy.

And GitHub. That site is 50% social media trying to get you to engage and algorithms to suggest new Node.js projects for you.

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#38
post #29

I would caution against believing “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” when that would make the government your friend. Yes, Facebook has been awful and done great harm in some ways, but crucially it is not the case that Facebook was only able to do such harm because the FTC lacked the ability to unilaterally and without oversight deploy extreme powers like “you may not monetize this data” or “you may not release fea…

If it's not the government's job to ensure privacy protection, whose is it? I'm also cautious about ham-fisted internet regulation, but privacy doesn't give any of the entrenched social media players an advantage and I can't imagine the market correcting this problem.

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#39
post #29

I would caution against believing “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” when that would make the government your friend. Yes, Facebook has been awful and done great harm in some ways, but crucially it is not the case that Facebook was only able to do such harm because the FTC lacked the ability to unilaterally and without oversight deploy extreme powers like “you may not monetize this data” or “you may not release fea…

> without oversight

Can you explain this? What about courts, and the President, and Congress?

Re: Facebook has not been doing enough to comply with a 2020 privacy order: FTC

#40

> “Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press release. If you're pissing off Facebook, you're probably doing something right.

Have we gotten to the point where "bad for Facebook" ~= "good for society"? It's both a good indicator for progress and a sad place to be as a community.

Yes we did, just around 2014 or so. Probably before that.
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