Sure. If you always gave Facebook and the like the side-eye while using it, then sure, you might be okay and unsurprised by the latest privacy violation. My point is that for many people, even those using Facebook cautiously - ie checking all the right boxes and opting out of various defaults - could still be repeatedly boned by Facebook because they apparently have very loose ideas of what’s not okay.
That’s how I look at it. I use Google services, they get the info I put into those. I use Facebook, they get the info I put in there. Hell, QT3 probably knows a lot about me. Quitting one thing isn’t gonna make a significant dent.
True but I think I had to go in there and redo my settings maybe a half-dozen times over the years, and every time I did that it always defaulted to something I didn’t want despite Facebook clearly knowing what I wanted prior to the change. No matter how many times their execs sang praise about privacy, their actions and everything they implemented told the real story.
The more damaging piece of this info isn’t Facebook, well for those paying attention, it’s the other companies that trying to get ahead of their PR problems by claiming they didn’t really read the messages they had access to.
Yes. This too. The whole thing is pretty terrible.
I love seeing the various companies falling all over themselves to assure customers that they totally did not take advantage of this treasure-trove of data that they routinely pay big bucks to have.
It’s pretty funny right, and it’s coming from companies like Amazon that scrape your info to sell you stuff and Microsoft that forces data collection in Windows 10. I don’t believe either of them, And a couple of them say 2015 like it was ages ago, contracts that ended 2015 and 2016… that’s just a few years ago. Who are they kidding?
Yep. Privacy and the Internet aren’t ever going to be compatible. That’s not to say a website can’t keep your specific info private, but expecting social media to do that is almost as laughable as the claims of the organizations in question.
So yeah, I use Facebook and expect everything I post to be public. It’s quite useful in that respect. But the day I go there for news is the day I find a nice spot on a brick wall to bash my head against.
I’m not surprised that Facebook still sells my data because, with Facebook, I am the product they sell. On the other hand, I’m very surprised that they continue to lie about it to their user base and to Congress with apparent impunity. Having had a close encounter with FTC colonoscopic equipment at least once in my career, I’m sure hoping they get their turn; and Mueller is showing that lying to Congress can have consequences too.
The majority of the population doesn’t really understand what Facebook actually does, as a profitable business, so I don’t see how they can really make informed decisions even when Facebook does spell it out for them.
Facebook doesn’t really have to lie, nor does it fully, I think, to Congress. Congress is so busy trying to play to the camera that they don’t spend enough time to formulate the right questions to ask. It was embarrassing to watch them question Zuckerberg in ways he could just dance around them.
I subscribed to WaPo then. But I’ve since had it with their giving a platform to the likes of Megan McArdle, Hugh Hewitt, and Marc Theissen. Lazy writing of terrible takes based on premises that can often be disproved in under a minute with your search engine of choice.
The “both sides” and allowing those shills to write there bothers me, but I still subscribe. The need to “balance” their opinion section notwithstanding, they are one of the only outfits out there doing real journalism anymore.
I never used to watch anything on YouTube until we got a new TV. Found out there’s a ton of decent history/physics/astronomy documentaries on there that I enjoy watching. Before I found the setting for turning off auto play, I’d occasionally fall asleep and wake up to the craziest shit (aliens! giants! the history they’re hiding from us! etc ad nauseam.) Even now I really hate watching any kind of gaming videos because invariably the crazy right wing crap starts showing up in the ‘recommended’ list. It’s awful.
I’m super worried about this with my son. Right now he’s only using YouTube kids, cuz he’s 6, but he exclusively watches gaming videos. Guys like DanTdm, StampyCat, etc. As soon as I watch a gaming video on YouTube now, like for example I want to see how something works in Battlefield V which I started playing recently, I get inundated with neo-nazi bullshit by the algorithm.
Turns out almost every gaming personality on YouTube is an alt-right piece of shit. It’s really upsetting. Hearthstone videos are generally safe from this garbage, but literally any other game gets you into the nazi algorithm.
Youtube needs to aggressively ban these guys who practice hate speech, or any sort of dog whistling.
I mean it does really depend on the game, doesn’t it. Kerbal Space Program doesn’t really have this issue, and one of the biggest personalities there does all kinds of real rocketry/ science videos.
Honestly I’m a bit out of the loop on this as I don’t have this issue (generally) with the gaming vids I watch. But then again I don’t AAA game at all. Far less of that nasty side in KSP, Mario/ Metroid/ classic speed run & sequence breaking, and even major Paradox streams.
Though, with the last, they are there if you wanted. It’s just that major streamers like TJ Hafer aren’t.
Though I have been getting a lot of political propaganda ads from Prager U lately. So… that’s a thing.
Edit @wisefool I wish PDP was banned from life. What a shitheel.
It’s a lot harder than that, unfortunately. Just look at the gamergate bullshit as an example. They rope you in with a single grievance then you’re in the algorithm and can’t get out.
Here’s an example. I went to college with someone who went on to marry a former Blizzard exec. A video popped up on my youtube sidebar, something like “Former blizzard exec trashes new pay structure.” and it was the guy my friend had married. He was in her Twitch stream ranting about Blizzard cutting bonuses while she sat next to him trying to get him to stop talking.
I watched that video because my old friend was in it. Now, the algorithm thinks I should watch more videos from this Youtuber. His next video is some discussion about the Captain Marvel trailer. Surprise surprise, he doesn’t like it because “femenissssmm!!!” but he phrases it in such a way like “Captain Marvel is clearly OP and that’s not an interesting character, I feel like Marvel is trying to cater to the crowd that was attracted to Wonder Woman or Black Panther…” coded anti-SJW bullshit. I realized this Youtuber was a piece of shit at that point, but I’m a 40 year old man with some worldly experience.
I’m a 10 or 12 year old kid watching this and I don’t get the dog whistling. Now the algorithm is showing me more extreme youtubers, guys that speak more plainly about their racist or misogynist agenda. In the scope of games of course. Wow it sure is funny Battlefield V is selling poorly, clearly it’s because they put women in it! I watch that video, now I’m getting videos from Jordan Peterson. If I click into those, now I’m seeing Infowars in the sidebar. And on and on it goes.
It’s horrible and I hate it, but Youtube is such an excellent platform with real quality content. But, they need to ban these alt right scumbags. Just 1 or 2 bans will do it, the rest of them will fall in line real quick because Youtube is their livelihood. That Google can remove their income in an instant will scare the fuck out of them and they’ll stick to straight commentary.
There’s a political battle in the speedrunning scene too. You can’t escape it. A lot of speedrunners are transgender, non-white, etc. Look at the GDQ events, they’re very diverse. You watch speedruns on youtube and the fucking algorithm will start showing you videos about anti-transgender shit.
I felt like the community almost unilaterally said “nah, fuck those guys” regarding the recent drama, made it clear they weren’t welcome and went on with their business.
Apparently, this is the fourth year in a row she had put up the display, and the first where anyone at all had complained.
I did like the article-author’s take on the kerfluffle:
Perhaps it is the perfect holiday fable for 2018, a year wracked by bitter infighting and an increasingly intractable political divide. Social media companies are selling our data; the robots are coming for our jobs; and our elected representatives have begun to treat each other like family members wrestling over a will.
So in the absence of large victories, perhaps America is learning to enjoy the little ones. And amid this gloomy tableau, [Dragon-owner] Rowland is a hero for our times. Happiness in 2018 is being left alone and not accused of being an occult worshiper.