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Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

economist.com

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Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#241
post #149

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If this isn't a lie and Apple flipping that switch cost Facebook $10bn, then that tells me my personal information is worth a lot. What I was getting from Facebook in exchange for my data was too little. I use Google a lot more than Facebook and frankly what I get from them in exchange for my data is probably also way too little. I wish there was some type of consumer union where we could negotiate with these compani…

It's not perfect but you can look at average revenue per user on Facebook. There are huge differences based on the country (note this is quarterly): Q4 '20 Worldwide: 10.14 US: 53.56 Europe: 16.87 Asia Pacific: 4.05 Rest of world: 2.77 So you're worth just over $200 a year. This has gone up a lot over time and is considerably higher than other social networks. Just a year ago, it was 41.41 (23% less) and a year befor…

It’s funny as that’s more than what people pay for Netflix. Showing yes your data is valuable and we are getting the short end of the deal.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a lie at all. Apple is as dirty as they come. Apple is a cartel and Google pays the protection money that Facebook failed to. If Apple really cared about privacy and not money, they'd block Google from the platform too. A single policy changed wiped 25% of a trillion dollar company's market cap. That's a gravitational wave that shows what kind of overwhelming monopoly power Apple wields. To be clear, I hate Faceb…

So, you’re complaining that Apple gave users a choice not to be tracked?

You keep making this kind of reply to all of my comments.

I've already enumerated my problems with Apple here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30196852

I would be fine if Apple removed tracking if the DOJ removed their app store.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a lie at all. Apple is as dirty as they come. Apple is a cartel and Google pays the protection money that Facebook failed to. If Apple really cared about privacy and not money, they'd block Google from the platform too. A single policy changed wiped 25% of a trillion dollar company's market cap. That's a gravitational wave that shows what kind of overwhelming monopoly power Apple wields. To be clear, I hate Faceb…

> they'd block Google from the platform too. To be fair, they didn't block Facebook from their platform. Users now just need to agree that they want to be tracked (spoiler: practically no one wants to be tracked). I don't disagree with your general take and save for an iPod classic I don't own any Apple gear. But in my book that was one of the better moves that Apple ever pulled.

Yeah. More privacy by getting rid of third-party cookies and having the prompt for apps is a great thing. That it also reduces the revenue of the two monopolists who didn’t even bother to differentiate that revenue (Facebook is 98% ads, Google is at something like 81%) is the cherry on top.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a lie at all. Apple is as dirty as they come. Apple is a cartel and Google pays the protection money that Facebook failed to. If Apple really cared about privacy and not money, they'd block Google from the platform too. A single policy changed wiped 25% of a trillion dollar company's market cap. That's a gravitational wave that shows what kind of overwhelming monopoly power Apple wields. To be clear, I hate Faceb…

> Apple owns "America's computer" (50+% of average American's internet usage), and they control it like a dictatorship If Apple didn't give their users tools to control tracking, wouldn't that be more dictatorial?

It would be fair business if the DOJ removed the app store, but Apple removed APIs that allow tracking.

I would be fully on board with that. 100% pro-consumer, pro-small business.

Apple needs to protect its consumers, but the US government needs to protect businesses against the Apple monopoly.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with you up to here: > And Zuck is very smart. The moment I saw the rebrand to Meta I knew that he saw this day coming perhaps years ago. He knows the next frontier is the meta verse Zuckerberg has been a surprisingly good steward of the one successful idea he came across, the social network graph. His acquisitions (Instagram, etc) worked very well to supplement the social network graph and keep it going longer…

Zuck did not get to where he is by being short sighted or stupid. The Metaverse is the obvious next evolution of online. Accelerated by the happenings of the last 2 years.

It's very unclear to me why Second Life v2 would be of interest to more than a tiny sliver of the population. The last thing I'd want from Facebook is to turn into a more immersive experience.

>Accelerated by the happenings of the last 2 years.

How? A fair number of people prefer to shut off their video on calls. And my observation is that coming out of COVID people want more in-person interactions, not less.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#246

I remember when Facebook Platform came out. The super early version where you could embed your app on Facebook and engage with the social graph. I thought dang, this is smart. They’ll basically own the next level up the stack from the browser: they’ll own the “social chrome” of every application on the web. Although it devolved into spam, Facebook was a hot spot of weird social games for a while there. And every web…

"Social Chrome" is a base of moving sand, just like Google AMP, it works for a brief while via platform's power but will phase out; web game died out naturally with devices becomes cheaper, and consumers going mobile (and consoles).

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an element of having shot themselves in the foot. FB moviled from content driven purely by your friends and what they post to content that FB have decided to feed you. That worked great in a lot of senses. You never run out of content. FB have a lot more options for their optimisation efforts. It also made them more of a general media company. But... it also devalued the social network/friends aspect. Now it'…

Yeah, whenever I see others scrolling through content at Facebook, I can't help but wonder who would voluntarily subject themselves to so much garbage information. It is similar with Twitter, which I use for "science communication". But the amount of miscellaneous memes and low quality click bait ads that one has to endure is almost physically painful.

Isn't the short answer to "why are people subjecting themselves to this" just dark patterns?

I know it sounds overly reductionist or boogeyman-esque, but they captured a market and refuse to let go, doing every single thing they can to keep and monetize human attention.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#248
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this isn't a lie and Apple flipping that switch cost Facebook $10bn, then that tells me my personal information is worth a lot. What I was getting from Facebook in exchange for my data was too little. I use Google a lot more than Facebook and frankly what I get from them in exchange for my data is probably also way too little. I wish there was some type of consumer union where we could negotiate with these compani…

The concept you are describing is a government.

No post body was provided.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#249
post #65

Apple knows where the future of technology is going, and Meta is getting in the way. Meta, appropriately renamed to reflect the trend toward augmented and virtual reality, would eventually become a threat to Apple’s walled garden business model. Apple gives lip service to privacy so long as it attracts users to their platform. However the moment we’re in is when the their invasion of privacy is meant to benefit their…

Do you think the past 2 years of digital-only communications has really enticed kids into the arms of Facebook/the like and their live-your-life-in-a-headset plan?

I get a sense of the opposite.

Bloody cassette tapes and boomboxes are back in style. It's not just a gimmick. Kids are nostalgic for a past they didn't even know—one without such intense and obligatory interconnection—one where they can run around and get dirty and mess up and not have it broadcast to everyone and monetized by international corporations.

I don't blame them.

Re: Apple's privacy push cost Meta $10B

#250
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how direct democracy works. If we assume that Switzerland is probably closest to the ideal of a direct democracy please take note that voters can not directly vote for the executive government (The Bundesrat, or federal council). They elect members of the two houses, which in turn elects the 7 executives. Usually this is based on the recommendation by the parties and with a specific formula considering par…

I looked up the Swiss system, and it certainly is not direct democracy.

So many towns where I live put issues on the agenda for town meetings. How this works in practice is that, if there's some issue that someone (like a developer) feels strongly about, they pack the town meeting with allies and push it through because most people probably don't care much and don't even attend the meeting.
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