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Facebook is terrifying

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Re: Facebook is terrifying

#291
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you okay with the whole world, every person you meet on the street, your boss, your parents, your ex, the guy who serves you coffee, that thug you bumped into in the subway, the guys who work at your company's competitors, the guys who live in that country at war with yours, knowing every detail of your personality and your life? Or do you maybe think putting up your information on that open and permanent graveya…

Much like life before the internet, I don't see why you're required to share all that info in the first place. It's up to you to decide what others see, even when you don't have a secret online alter ego.

Up to you? Heh, good one.

No, it's up to the person who likes give up as much information as possible that you hang around. "Hey, I ate lunch with ikeyany today", now held in Facebook and Instagram forever. "Tagged: ikeyany" in the wedding photos of your friend.

Even if you're a digital hermit, you'll still be found and categorized, since everyone else seems to love giving up all their personal information.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#292
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you okay with the whole world, every person you meet on the street, your boss, your parents, your ex, the guy who serves you coffee, that thug you bumped into in the subway, the guys who work at your company's competitors, the guys who live in that country at war with yours, knowing every detail of your personality and your life? Or do you maybe think putting up your information on that open and permanent graveya…

Much like life before the internet, I don't see why you're required to share all that info in the first place. It's up to you to decide what others see, even when you don't have a secret online alter ego.

Well, the comment I was responding to is about technology eroding the "self". We agree that sharing and expressing one's ideas make them stronger, allow them to blossom and mature, yes? Maybe you have this crazy idea that's too out of the Overton Window to discuss IRL and attach to your public image right now, but there are other people thinking about it somewhere, and if these people manage to find each other online and discuss it they'll be able to reflect about that idea rationally, without fear of judgment and repercussion.

That's how novel artistic and political movements are born, from people not being afraid to share "offensive" ideas. "Secret online alter egos" allow you to discuss ideas that you couldn't have considered otherwise, and because we humans tend to restrict our thoughts to our field of possibilities, these alternate identities will actually make you have more of these creative ideas.

Of course you can keep all that to yourself and either continue living the life that society has prepared for you, or try alone to change it, but that's pretty limiting.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#293

I deleted my Facebook account in 2010 after appearing in the Times regarding technology addiction. It was my most time consuming social media application at the time. For the article, they had me install an application tracker to see how much time I spent in focus on a particular app. I was alarmed at how often I checked Facebook chat. Today, after much investigation, I've come to a hypothesis that technology's purpo…

It's more that the social network platforms themselves are naturally atomizing forces of capitalism itself. And you might wonder how this applies to the elimination of self? Simply put, in capitalism all things need to be a commodity to be traded/sold for a price. Be it physical goods like food and houses or non-physical goods like music or personal data. Ultimately, to ensure you're good at consuming these goods, ca…

Could you cite some books explaining that train of thoughts ? It's interesting to me.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#294
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more that the social network platforms themselves are naturally atomizing forces of capitalism itself. And you might wonder how this applies to the elimination of self? Simply put, in capitalism all things need to be a commodity to be traded/sold for a price. Be it physical goods like food and houses or non-physical goods like music or personal data. Ultimately, to ensure you're good at consuming these goods, ca…

Could you cite some books explaining that train of thoughts ? It's interesting to me.

I think other than reading Marx's Capital there's not much on the subject. I suspect there's some sociologists who've covered this. But most of my comment is purely personal observation based on a loosely Marxist POV (I'm not a Marxist personally, but I've taken the idea of commodification as something that can be applied to just about anything which has some economic value).

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't change. Facebook sprang from a bad seed. In a just world filled with righteous people, that chat log would have doomed Facebook to oblivion long ago.

> People don't change This is laughably, shockingly, categorically wrong. People can and do change, all the time. Your opinions, values, etc didn't change from when you were in college?

Sure, my opinions, values, etc have evolved along a continuum since my college days, yes. I've learned a ton, and make fewer unforced, stupid errors. I've had some damaging tragedies since that time that made me more wary and empathetic to others facing similar difficulties. I am more complex and nuanced.

But, my character, my moods, my tells, and the fundamental flow of my thought processes have never changed. I'm the same lumpish animal I was when I was a tot. When someone says "People don't change", I think the core of that sentiment is that the brain wiring that makes random person X who they are never changes (save the brain becoming damaged or fading, of course.) I'm talking about the essence of a mind.

So I contend that a creep like Zuck doesn't uncreep himself. A sociopath is wired that way, even if they're proficient at hiding that fact. You might say, "Zuck's been exposed to and riding atop a business operating at a mind-blowing scale and pace - that HAS to change a person!" I think that's just projecting what one thinks would happen to themselves in such a situation. What change can you actually point to in Zuck?

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#296

What is the proposed recourse? Ban Facebook from analyzing data that users give it? I use Facebook's automatic tagging because I find it useful. Should it be illegal for me to use this feature because someone might unintentionally be identified in a photo that I took? Is the argument that Facebook--or any other company--should never be allowed to develop software that could process data that could identify folks, eve…

I don't think the article was advocating any specific course of action, but it's good to be aware of the scope of the information they have available in any case.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#297
Contact ecodatasolutions@dr.com for any type of hacking /database services they offer different services on different range of hacking issues and also helps to retrieve accounts that have been taken by hackers The way he did it I have no idea but he did.call me a genius later

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#300
post #39
post #35

Its not just faces .. me and a friend had a little jam session recently and posted a picture of our cool little setup, consisting of a few pocket-sized machines (synthesizers and controllers) on our table in front of us. Just an innocent little picture of our jam setup. Within seconds of posting this picture of the machines, my friend was getting targeted ads from the manufacturers of those devices - within seconds!…

For the sake of discussion, why is that scary rather than kind of nice? Unless you take the AdBlock route, aren't well targeted ads better than irrelevant ones?

This is probably the most important question to be able to answer effectively, though I (and it appears many others) have trouble coming up with a compelling reason why people should be worried. Most of the people I try to convince remain unworried, thinking along the same lines -- why is it bad if they know more about me? I inevitably try to explain that 1) it's not beneficial to you, and 2) more importantly, bad actors could use the information unscrupulously. However, they believe that if this information is helpful in any way in protecting them, and otherwise doesn't really bother them, then it's a positive trend.

I would like to come up with some powerful (frightening) examples of why the data collection going on is so dangerous, and why people should be worried and careful.

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