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Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

theatlanticcities.com

1–10 of 19 posts

Re: Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

#5
post #4

I'm sure the discussion will soon slip to "OMG, Facebook has data and its gonna do evil things". That's a valid point, but I hope people here see the amount of information we now know about _us_, that equips for more informed decisions of tomorrow.

Not so sure. According to Facebook I'm 6 years younger than I am, I live in Monaco and studied rocket science at Harvard. Most of my friends have similar distortions, and when the subject comes up we're surprised when someone tells us their profile uses real data.

I know that my experience is hardly indicative of anything, but I'd like to believe that it's happening more and more.

Re: Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

#6
post #4

I'm sure the discussion will soon slip to "OMG, Facebook has data and its gonna do evil things". That's a valid point, but I hope people here see the amount of information we now know about _us_, that equips for more informed decisions of tomorrow.

Not so sure. According to Facebook I'm 6 years younger than I am, I live in Monaco and studied rocket science at Harvard. Most of my friends have similar distortions, and when the subject comes up we're surprised when someone tells us their profile uses real data. I know that my experience is hardly indicative of anything, but I'd like to believe that it's happening more and more.

Really? Apart from the odd few who use "Full time mummy" as their job description, everyone I know uses real information.

Re: Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

#7
post #4

I'm sure the discussion will soon slip to "OMG, Facebook has data and its gonna do evil things". That's a valid point, but I hope people here see the amount of information we now know about _us_, that equips for more informed decisions of tomorrow.

Not so sure. According to Facebook I'm 6 years younger than I am, I live in Monaco and studied rocket science at Harvard. Most of my friends have similar distortions, and when the subject comes up we're surprised when someone tells us their profile uses real data. I know that my experience is hardly indicative of anything, but I'd like to believe that it's happening more and more.

My quick-login-purpose Facebook account says I live on the dark side of the moon. I wonder if they will notify SpaceX.

Re: Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

#8
Google's Moto G seems a lot more interesting now -- their marketing effort has been summarized as "getting the next 1 billion people online."

This alludes to anticipating urban migration and knowing 1) who moves where 2) when they move. This can be very interesting and (in most cases) frighteningly accurate advertisement information.

Re: Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

#9
post #4

I'm sure the discussion will soon slip to "OMG, Facebook has data and its gonna do evil things". That's a valid point, but I hope people here see the amount of information we now know about _us_, that equips for more informed decisions of tomorrow.

Not so sure. According to Facebook I'm 6 years younger than I am, I live in Monaco and studied rocket science at Harvard. Most of my friends have similar distortions, and when the subject comes up we're surprised when someone tells us their profile uses real data. I know that my experience is hardly indicative of anything, but I'd like to believe that it's happening more and more.

These are things your Facebook profile says about you, but based on your IP address, interactions with other people, presence in photos, how you describe events, applications you visit with Facebook credentials, language you use, etc. Facebook probably knows (or could know) a lot of real things about you.

Re: Facebook Is Using Your Profile to Track Global Urban Migration Trends

#10
Tracking urban migration trends?

The temptation that none of the big data hoover companies (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, etc.) will be able to resist is something else:

When you have so much data on everybody, you have created yourself a situation that allows you to "hack the system" to your advantage and the disadvantage of those who don't have all that data. You can analyze the trends that the data shows and link them to the movements of the stock exchange, and you're all set for infinite passive income and domination - now you know before everybody else what to buy and what to sell and when (you can call it "insider trading based on data").

Now, if you, as the user want to supply all that data, that's up to you. If so, you'll not only be appreciated by those companies but by certain government agencies as well.

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