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EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

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Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#471
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many websites don't have ads, and I'd be happy if all others disappeared.

Can you please share the list of websites you use which don't serve ads? Would love to see an internet experience without ads and without stealing the content via adblockers.

It's not possible to provide an exhaustive list, but for example:

* Hacker News (has promoted content, but without tracking) * Lobste.rs * Wikipedia * Mastodon * Project Euler * Notabug.org * Lingva Translate * Documentation for numerous FOSS projects * Various personal blogs

Honestly, it's hard for me to find websites that I regularly voluntarily use and do contain ads.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The telemetry, ads and forced online accounts are the only major changes since Windows 7 that I can think of. What useful features has Microsoft added since then to make you consider it at its peak currently? I haven't been using it as heavily and I'm genuinely interested if there's something great I've missed.

For developers, the great addition has been WSL2. But that's about it. For regular users, Windows 7 has been the best, and after noticing how my parents struggled with the updates, nothing can convince me to think otherwise.

So the greatest thing about Windows 10 is Linux?

(Sorry for the snark but I couldn't resist)

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of those things y'all never upvote is papers about psychodiagnostic software that uses your social media posts, cell phone location data, etc. to diagnose both chronic and acute psychiatric conditions. I'm fairly certain that if a person is highly active on social media such a system could produce a better diagnosis than most people get when they see a professional, if only because the quality of psychodiagnosis…

> I'm fairly certain that if a person is highly active on social media such a system could produce a better diagnosis than most people get when they see a professional What makes you so sure? (This is a serious question, not rhetorical.)

Mostly because the quality of professional diagnosis is poor.

Myself I have a condition which 5-10% of people have. As a child, I had two very high quality psych evaluations for the time where people observed all the signs and symptoms (particularly the first one) but failed to draw a line between them.

Since then I saw therapists maybe 6 times in 30 years (sometimes the same one) and it was always “adjustment disorder with …” and there was some truth in that in that in each case I had some very ordinary kind of stress which was exacerbating my condition but in reality there was always a chronic aspect to that.

I’ve known numerous people who have severe mental illness (way worse than the quirk that got me kicked out of elementary school) and contact with the psychiatric system and never got a conclusive diagnosis. The first line for a lot of people is to see a primary care practitioner and get diagnosed with either “anxiety” or “depression” and prescribe the same medication in either case. A referral to an actual psychiatric nurse practitioner who is taking patients is almost impossible in 2023 in the US never mind an actual psychiatrist.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#474

Comments here so far focus on personalised ads as the issue -- but that's a symptom of what's being banned, which is the mass collection of personal data. Personalised ads are beside the point. The issue is how they are personalised, namely by building a rich profile of user behaviour based on non-consensual tracking. It isnt even clear that there's a meaningful sense of 'consent' to what modern ad companies (ie., go…

It's like human organs (like kidney). In my country, I can donate my kidneys under strict conditions but not sell them. For good reasons. Yet, they're mine and mine only.

We should do the same with personal data. You can share it however you want but not sell them.

There are good reason why selling data can be worse socially: your data could also be about me (if it's about relationship), whereas organs cannot.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#475
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upon logging into okcupid today I received a pop up inviting me to join The League (another dating app), with my phone number already pre-propagated. After accepting, they sent me this email. > We use the combination of your Facebook and LinkedIn data plus your About Me and Photos to ensure we are building a balanced, high-achieving and diverse community. Our screening algorithm looks at indicators like social influe…

As someone that refuses to use Linked In or Facebook it is wild to me that someone would not only use them, but willingly link a dating app to them. It makes me wonder how many more things I'll never get to participate in because I've deleted/avoid social media.

Sadly, data collection has been completely normalized.

I've been thinking about buying a new car, but I'm very aware of how much tracking/telematics they include nowadays... so I decided to search "$manufacturer disable telematics". Every single thread I found was full of people saying variants of "Why do you even want to do that lol" and "Looks like somebody is doing something illegal".

Every time I see stuff like that, I'm tempted to jump in and share a plethora of examples about how tech companies misuse your data, don't protect it properly, sell it to all sorts of dubious actors, and, most importantly, use it for advertising - which I consider to be nothing more than gaslighting to get you to buy stuff and absolutely despicable.

I have to stop myself because I know I wouldn't get through to them, and I would probably sound crazy.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica Personal data used to create highly personalised and targeted political ads. It's not just about whether you get a nice notebook.

Total horseshit: https://truthonthemarket.com/2019/08/27/7-things-netflixs-th...

What did they say about the Netflix coverage of that scandal? What's wrong with the Wikipedia page?

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#477

Comments here so far focus on personalised ads as the issue -- but that's a symptom of what's being banned, which is the mass collection of personal data. Personalised ads are beside the point. The issue is how they are personalised, namely by building a rich profile of user behaviour based on non-consensual tracking. It isnt even clear that there's a meaningful sense of 'consent' to what modern ad companies (ie., go…

This is why Facebook charging for an "ad free" experience doesn't matter. I care less about whether I get served ads or not and more about if my behavior is being tracked and thrown into some data lake along with personal info just waiting to be mined and combined with who knows what other info, etc., until crackers are withdrawing my social security, defeating the security questions on my banking website, scamming my family, etc.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how much better it would actually be! We'll have ads no matter what. And honestly, I prefer the relevant and targeted ads compared to what we had before.

> And honestly, I prefer the relevant and targeted ads compared to what we had before. I don't mind ads that are relevant, according to the context . I mind ads that are generated based on a profile one or more companies have built about me. Yeah, let's see ads about RC models in a forum about RC models, or ads about Bluetooth modules in a website about microelectronics. That's fine. They will still make money, and t…

I agree with you that it would be favorable experience. But sites are going to offer you the ads that make them the most money if their goal is to make money. This may mean if it's between an RC car or viagra ads, you're gonna get the viagra ads (or insert non-context ad in place of viagra).

With kindness, I guess pay for the news then? In a more general sense, if one doesn't want to see so many ads then one should spend less time online, or try to visit sources that don't depend on ads. But for some reason people don't want to pay for the things they value.

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum, if these behavioural profiles and assessments spill over to financial institutions, employment, housing, (private) education, etc., these harmless "companies & entrepreneurs" may have more impact on your personal life and your chances in life than government in a democratic country.

But they don't. These behavioral profiles are literally the core product of Facebook. If you think that Facebook is willing to part with the sole thing that makes them competitive... is crazy.

On the other hand, the business of data brokers is effectively selling such profiles. It would be crazy, if the wouldn't…

(Mind that this isn't about Meta in particular, it's just that Meta has been found in violation of general regulations, which are now enforced.)

Re: EU data regulator bans personalised advertising on Facebook and Instagram

#480

At the same time EU wants to break SSL and facilitate man of the middle attacks. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/fr/policies/discover-e... https://nce.mpi-sp.org/index.php/s/cG88cptFdaDNyRr

I think that's the work of a campaign within the EU (and from lobbyists). I don't think it represents a majority opinion neither by elected people or bureaucrats. If a proposal like this ever passes it will be because them and us didn't care enough to stop it.

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