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Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

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Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#141

Post by shiroiuma »

shever73 wrote: post #116
shiroiuma wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the Facebook site has felt like something "slapped together by an intern" for a long time for me. But yeah, FBM really went above and beyond in that regard the last time I tried using it. It's too bad, because it does have a lot of potential as you said; Craigslist has been mostly ruined by scammers and FB has the advantage that everyone is basically a verified user and not some random person in Nigeria who w…

> FB has the advantage that everyone is basically a verified user When my wife sold a standing desk recently on FBM, approximately 60% of the respondents were scammers. They offered above the asking price, but wanted us to pay for a courier, for which they would repay us with cash in an envelope. The whole thing ended up so annoying and stressful, we said we'd never sell anything on Facebook again.

Wow, apparently FBM has gone the way of Craigslist since I last tried it (back in early 2022).

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#142

Post by hedora »

re wrote: post #43
hedora wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is “they sent facebook a list with my name on it, and facebook showed me their records showing I was on their list” compatible with the statement “this is NOT data being sent to FB”?!?

https://www.facebook.com/help/794535777607370#custom > Advertisers may get information from you (like your email address) when you interact with them outside of Facebook, like if you make a purchase in their store or create an account for a rewards program. They can create a hashed list with that information and upload it to Facebook. We can match users using the list to help the advertiser reach people who may be in…

This argument is absurd. Facebook has a settings page with a list of all the companies that have told Facebook they do business with you. That's the monetizable signal that Facebook is paying for.

It doesn't matter if they took your name, hashed it and then facebook reversed the hash via a lookup table. Presumably, the fact that they're doing the hash stuff is to give themselves plausible deniability when you tell them to delete all your personal information, and they decide not to.

Here's a sketch of the argument:

- We got a request to delete your info, so we deleted your name and email address and everything with the hash, including the fact that the hash doesn't want to be tracked.

- 10 ms later, data brokers started pumping information about the hashes back into our system, but there was nothing we could do to block it (we forgot the hash)

- We rebuilt your profile to high fidelity within a few minutes, and linked it to all your devices within a day

- The next week a shady app developer sold us info to link your real-world identity to the hashes, but we had to assume this was a new user that hadn't opted out, since we deleted your info.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#143

Post by gitaarik »

andruby wrote: post #99
enraged_camel wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surveillance isn't the reason. It's a means to a goal, which is to sell people stuff.

It's not always selling. It's also manipulating in order to increase power and/or control. Elections, politics, public opinion, ...

Indeed, the commercial thing is just a cover-up for the more dangerous and manipulative & controlling powers they have.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#144

Post by gitaarik »

andirk wrote: post #37

I downloaded my FB data and as I predicted, nothing I'm bothered with. It is my common behavior that is ad targeted. Can someone please tell me what data people are so bothered with that Facebook uses to target basic ads? That "Facebook whistleblower" said the company is "profits over people". That people were appalled by that that will always be so funny to me.

Facebook probably has lots of more interesting data about you that you don't see in your report. Aside from that, having this data from millions of people, and being able to control what content they see on their platforms, these kind of companies gain a lot of power over a large group of people that they can employ in several ways. Influence political opinion, distract you from news they don't want you to know about. Influence public opinion. You can do a lot with it. That is why it's worth so much money and is it such a big business. On a personal level it might not directly have an influence on you, but you are contributing to humans being sheep for the herders to guide them as they want you to.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#145

Post by gitaarik »

Cheer2171 wrote: post #18
TacticalCoder wrote: post #9

Never had Instagram. Never had WhatsApp. Had an old Facebook account opened under a fake name, using a throwaway email (haven't opened it in six months, maybe more). That company is cancer.

Let me guess: you don't have a kid that goes to a school that only posts crucial news and updates to their Facebook page and you don't have a friend group that uses a WhatsApp group to plan events. Try explaining to the average human that you have a moral objection which means you can't install the same app everyone else has, and that everyone else needs to do a lot of work to accommodate you. One of my friend groups…

Well if they are your friends, you would expect that they will have respect for your choices. But maybe you are trying to convert them also, in a way they don't like it. So then they call you a tech vegan. I guess because vegans can be intense sometimes too.

It's not easy to convince ignorant friends. The best way I found is to not try to change them, but do keep your own principles. They'll respect that, and might even become interested in why you have your principles. Then if they ask you can explain them.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#146

Post by wealthyking »

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Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#147

Post by hn1986 »

kyboren wrote: post #115
adrr wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Story is about Meta who doesn't sell your data.

Actually, they do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_bidding Modern programmatic advertising enables each user to be pimped out to whichever manipulator is willing to pay the most. In just a few dozen milliseconds, Facebook will send out your personal data to participants in the advertising system ('bidstream data'), select a winner, and serve their ad to you. Note: Your data goes out to bidders, and someone pa…

Indeed! Were you aware of this developing story?

https://www.404media.co/inside-global-phone-spy-tool-pattern...

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#148

Post by kyboren »

hn1986 wrote: post #147
kyboren wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, they do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_bidding Modern programmatic advertising enables each user to be pimped out to whichever manipulator is willing to pay the most. In just a few dozen milliseconds, Facebook will send out your personal data to participants in the advertising system ('bidstream data'), select a winner, and serve their ad to you. Note: Your data goes out to bidders, and someone pa…

Indeed! Were you aware of this developing story? https://www.404media.co/inside-global-phone-spy-tool-pattern...

Only to the extent that I have read earlier reporting about Patternz, and that I have long been aware of the harm and national security risk that RTB poses and shouting about it whenever I can.

Usually I get downvoted or ignored, like this most recent attempt: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38558149

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