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FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

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Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#31

Post by jedberg »

OneTwoPetitFour wrote: post #23
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

Thanks for the perspective. I was an early Instagram user, but deleted my account not so long after they introduced stories. Recently, I registered a new account, and after a grace period without ads, I was surprised by just how drenched it has become in advertising. I used it to follow professional athletes. First of, many of the organic posts are themselves sponsored advertising, then the athletes share brand posts…

Most of the people I follow are friends with kids. It's how we swap pictures of our kids. The rest of my follows are web comics. I follow a couple of "famous" people, but they are mostly people with compelling content and not vapid influencer content.

My experience seems to be that I see a whole bunch of fresh updates from friends, and then ads. If I'm looking when there are few updates, it's mostly ads. If I see mostly ads I know that I should put the phone down and come back in a few hours. :)

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#32

Post by na85 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #28
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

Are you ok? I’ve never heard any anyone this thrilled about an ad experience in my life.

Jedberg was (is?) an administrator at reddit which is an ad-supported business. He has a financial incentive to like advertising.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#33

Post by akarma »

ldrndll wrote: post #11
dessant wrote: post #4

Facebook's concept of informed consent is a cynical joke, and we can only laud companies and governments that rein in on their bordeline-illegal practices. I've recently signed up for Facebook to use Wit.ai, and have gone through account settings to lock down the account as much as possible. It took me about an hour to set everything to private in this new account, and I'm still not sure what would happen if I start…

Careful. I opened a Facebook account to help my wife with administering FB ads for her business. Everything was fine, until I went through and locked down my privacy settings, and within 24 hours my account got suspended.I had to provide a phone number to unlock my account. Within a day or two it got suspended again. This time I had to upload a photo to unlock it. The cynic in me believes that this was just so that t…

The most ridiculous part of Facebook’s anti-privacy crusade is that FB allows its employees to “lock their account,” making absolutely all information private / only visible to friends, even cover photos.

FB’s website claims the feature is “only available in some countries and on some devices,” but it’s BS, it’s actually an easy opt-in for employees.

It shows that FB understands the need for privacy, but only if you’ll help them spy on others.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#34

Post by mastazi »

an_opabinia wrote: post #27
OneTwoPetitFour wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the perspective. I was an early Instagram user, but deleted my account not so long after they introduced stories. Recently, I registered a new account, and after a grace period without ads, I was surprised by just how drenched it has become in advertising. I used it to follow professional athletes. First of, many of the organic posts are themselves sponsored advertising, then the athletes share brand posts…

> but for my use case described above Instagram seemed unsustainable. Which part? Another interpretation is, professional athletes don't really enrich your life at all. You have as big a problem with celebrity as you do with a piece of software.

I'm not parent but I follow many professional athletes as well and in my case Instagram is very useful! In fact it's the one social media account I didn't get rid of. For two reasons mainly:

* Announcements - Some of the sports I follow don't have a "regular season" like e.g. Basketball or American Football, they are organised more like boxing where an athlete may compete for one federation or another, and the events don't follow a pre-determined schedule: so you need to keep up with the news if you want to be able to watch them at all.

* Instructionals - athletes often will publish instructional videos and when that happens they advertise them on their channels. Those are usually an order of magnitude more in-depth than anything you can find for free (e.g. Youtube) - I was never very athletic but I'm finally trying to get better so those are very helpful for me. (Edit: Of course this is a form of advertising but I'm very disciplined and avoid overspending at all costs, I buy instructionals once in a blue moon).

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#35

Post by jedberg »

na85 wrote: post #32
Spooky23 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you ok? I’ve never heard any anyone this thrilled about an ad experience in my life.

Jedberg was (is?) an administrator at reddit which is an ad-supported business. He has a financial incentive to like advertising.

Heh, it's funny you mention that. For the longest time I refused to run Adblock because it felt hypocritical. But eventually the experience got so bad I relented.

I wouldn't say I have an incentive for internet ads to be successful. From the very beginning I advocated for revenue streams other than ads. And reddit is fairly diversified. I don't work there anymore anyway.

I guess I just don't mind advertising if done well and is relevant.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#36

Post by ponker »

aspyct wrote: post #29
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

"made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting" Interestingly, that's precisely the reason I hate targeted ads. They just make me buy more things I didn't otherwise need. I see your main point though, it's nice to give the choice.

jedberg likely has a lot of cash to spend on random shit, he ran Site Reliability at Netflix which pays its entry level engineers $400K.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#37

Post by jedberg »

Spooky23 wrote: post #28
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

Are you ok? I’ve never heard any anyone this thrilled about an ad experience in my life.

I'm fine, thanks. :)

The purpose of ads is to inform people of things they wouldn't otherwise know about. In that regard, I appreciate good ads that tell me about things I would want to know about and didn't already.

For example, some of the ads I get are for live shows (back in the before times). These are live shows that I enjoy going to, but would never have known about, because I don't know where to look for them. Having it pushed at me helps me.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#38

Post by obmelvin »

ponker wrote: post #36
aspyct wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting" Interestingly, that's precisely the reason I hate targeted ads. They just make me buy more things I didn't otherwise need. I see your main point though, it's nice to give the choice.

jedberg likely has a lot of cash to spend on random shit, he ran Site Reliability at Netflix which pays its entry level engineers $400K.

just for other people's context: "entry level" in netflix is not the same as entry level even at other big companies (i.e. FB or Google), they only take experienced engineers

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#39

Post by GeekyBear »

jedberg wrote: post #37
Spooky23 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you ok? I’ve never heard any anyone this thrilled about an ad experience in my life.

I'm fine, thanks. :) The purpose of ads is to inform people of things they wouldn't otherwise know about. In that regard, I appreciate good ads that tell me about things I would want to know about and didn't already. For example, some of the ads I get are for live shows (back in the before times). These are live shows that I enjoy going to, but would never have known about, because I don't know where to look for them…

The reality of ads is that you can target them via the content of the page without all that reprehensible spying on people.

It's just less profitable.

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