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Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

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Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#61
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think with WhatsApp and Instagram under its control, Meta still has quite a reach. Facebook might be (rapidly) declining, but I didn't hear young people switch to Signal/Telegram in masses, because their parents are also using WhatsApp. Also: Yeah, there's TikTok, but I think Instagram is not dead yet for young(er) people.

> Facebook might be (rapidly) declining From Meta's Q3 earnings release[0]: > Facebook daily active users [...] were 1.98 billion on average for September 2022, an increase of 3% year-over-year. [0] https://investor.fb.com/financials/default.aspx

Yes, those numbers look fine, but have a closer look.

Check page 14, Monthly Active Users: They have slightly risen in the US, slightly decreased in Europe, strong growth in Asia and RoW.

Compare that to page 15, Average Revenue per User: US around $49, EU $14, Asia $4.4, RoW is $3.2. Those numbers are also decreasing for the US and EU.

So for each user you lose in the US or the EU, you'll need 3 to 10 new users in Asia, even more in the rest of the world, or you'll need to squeeze the existing users harder.

They're at best stalling.

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#62
post #19

Is anyone outside of Meta really disturbed by this?

I suspect some car companies may be. I'm not completely sure but I think we had to allow Skoda to track us when we paid them to turn on the Apple connection stuff in the car. I'm sorry I can't be more specific or technical than that, but I've never had a drivers license and drive a cargo bike, so the car is sort of my wife's domain that I know very little about. If it was an option, I don't see why anyone would allow…

GM did that to us and sold the telemetry stream to Facebook (without an opt in/out opportunity).

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#63
post #48

Why is there a random picture of a dude in the article

That seems to be Max Schrems, the guy who successfully sued Facebook in the past [1], but it's odd the image has no caption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schrems

> but it's odd the image has no caption.

Not at all. That's for improved privacy.

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#64
post #9

If they can't show good ads in Europe, I assume that they will lose money and eventually have to close down here. I think that users have a right to know what happens to their data. But this is not a consent or information screen, this is the end of it. Europe tells us they do this for our own good, so we can own our data, but then they make it illegal for us to exchange our data for someone's service. Basically they…

If Facebook were to suddenly go away we, all of us, would suddenly find ourselves plunged back into that time before Facebook even existed. Does anyone else remember what it was like then? Oh, that's right — those were good times. ;-)

It was indeed.

But still I have to admire how it ramped up tech adoption in general population.

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#65
post #19

Is anyone outside of Meta really disturbed by this?

I suspect some car companies may be. I'm not completely sure but I think we had to allow Skoda to track us when we paid them to turn on the Apple connection stuff in the car. I'm sorry I can't be more specific or technical than that, but I've never had a drivers license and drive a cargo bike, so the car is sort of my wife's domain that I know very little about. If it was an option, I don't see why anyone would allow…

The car location thing is an actual issue that needs to be legislated away. Companies like bmw do this with irremovable sim cards and location data

Why the fuck does my car need an internet connection when nav isn't being used? Why are the sim cards irremovable? Why is an internet connection necessary for heated seats?

Principle of least privilege. These automakers can fuck off out of the data brokering industry with their ""automobile as a service"" business model

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#66
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just show unpersonalized ads then. That's all.

That's precisely what I'm saying. I am an adult, and if I want to pay for a service with MY data, I should be able to consent to that. I can't, so this regulation doesn't respect me and my rights.

So, to take the grocery store example to the extreme, now you get to choose between generic and premium oatmeal.

World ending in 3, 2, 1,...

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#67
post #12
post #4

Pure nostalgia seeing that Instagram app icon. Alas, as always with such news: "The EU decision will not have direct consequences for users, unfortunately, as it can be appealed to. Such an appeal would lead to a lengthy judicial process."

> Pure nostalgia seeing that Instagram app icon I really miss the skeumophic design of the iOS ecosystem from the early-to-mid 2010's. It felt so premium, especially with the retina display which was miles ahead of basically everything else (especially desktops and laptops of the era).

I thought the world decided that skeuomorphism was bad in and of itself and was merely a stepping stone to more usable designs? I seem to remember there was something on the front page of Hacker News years ago talking about just how much of a relic it has become because modern design paradigms were just so much better.

I tried to find the link but this was the closest I could come up with:

https://blog.prototypr.io/i-know-you-like-skeuomorphism-but-...

...and then there's this which really brought back (horrible) memories haha:

http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.htm

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#68
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope Facebook doesn't survive another 5. But I won't hold my breath. Still amusing just a few years ago Facebook was described as a world government due to the influence they had. Maybe they still have that, but I've just detached myself from it to see it.

Facebook will still be around in 5 years. The question is whether it will be relevant. People make the comparison to MySpace, because it's the most comparable service - Facebook de-throned it as the king of social media. And incidentally, MySpace is still around. They survived the de-throning by pivoting, which is inevitably what Facebook will do. I think we've seen the groundwork for it already.

Facebook's survival (and MySpace's before them) is predicated on continued advertising revenue.

Continued advertising revenue is predicated on user count and eyeball time.

Consequently, the only thing that really kills Facebook is if users abandon the platform.

And there isn't really a Mastodon-equivalent alternative for FB's feature set. Or even assurance that there could be (i.e. features that require centralization or expensive compute).

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#69
post #60
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pure nostalgia seeing that Instagram app icon I really miss the skeumophic design of the iOS ecosystem from the early-to-mid 2010's. It felt so premium, especially with the retina display which was miles ahead of basically everything else (especially desktops and laptops of the era).

I had to check the retina remark as my Sony Z5 premium came in mind with the 800+ppi but even before that in 2013 I had z Sony Z1 with 440ppi and I'm pretty sure other manufacturers had high dpi screens since 2010 eg. sharp's ISO3 . So "miles ahead" is not true plus I believe iphones had other manufacturing tricks that helped in the "retina" marketing hype, I believe touch/display elements been closer together etc. N…

The hype was what actually brought the feature to users, not only the entire apple product line was quickly featuring it, but it also forced marched the entire ecosystem.

Sony might had the hardware feature, they did not had their entire product line, neither 1rst citizen support from everyone.

I really wish people understood that, because it's what it takes to become a giant like apple, and what will be required to take it down.

Re: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe

#70

I don’t understand why Meta is always in the center on this problem, at least on most media. It is not relevant anymore. TikTok, or even Google should be the most concern now no?

Facebook / Meta is the one big bad wolf that has been painted up by the media. Most common people don't even know what TikTok is. Also, good luck getting TikTok to even reply to some weird European Data Protection official - from a country the size of a mid-sized Chinese city...

TikTok Technology Limited, Ireland, will absolutely care if the Irish DPA sends a strongly worded letter.
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