Facebook sucks/is a cesspool, is anyone surprised?

[soleiltropiques]

Cambridge Analytica scandal: the biggest revelations so far

Since Christopher Wylie blew the whistle in the Observer, developments have been rapid. Here’s what we know about the analytics firm, Facebook and Trump’s election team

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Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: 'We spent $1m harvesting millions of Facebook profiles' - video

Comments

[blackjedii]

On one hand - yeah. This is slimy.
On another hand - why do you think these services want you to "Like" things or display your interests? It's all about datamining and selling - effectively - you.

Srsly. I don't know if others have MVP or Kroger or store cards but... same damn thing. It's jut that Facebook now has gotten caught with its hand in the cookie jar.

Nothing will come of it though. Tech companies are huge donors to Democrats.

[blackjedii]

I'd also add that one of the things I learned about the Clinton campaign post-election is just how much of a money sink the data analytics were.
http://adage.com/article/datadriven-marketing/inside-clinton-campaign-s-tv-data-strategy/307741/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/09/clintons-data-driven-campaign-relied-heavily-on-an-algorithm-named-ada-what-didnt-she-see/?utm_term=.9eef3e5712d0

It's another case of the winner didn't matter because companies were making bank, and largely with political blessings.

[soleiltropiques]

Interesting.

It's also true that we've created the problem, I think. I think it's also true that we have to do something about it -it's really hard to completely avoid technology these days and companies like Google are likely going to track what we do no matter what (i.e. since any query on the internet will wind up going through a computer with Google or some kind of Google tracking at some point).

On the other hand, that doesn't mean we have to throw in the towel IMO: I think we need to do more to protect our data.

I will NEVER understand why people have consistently objected to governments' use of our data, while being quite comfortable with letting shadowy tech firms know everything about them.

[soleiltropiques]

All that to say that I agree with you

[blackjedii]

Yeah - it's a blessing and a curse. But at the very least we should KNOW how our data is being used up front. I genuinely don't mind Food Lion / Kroger "customer cards" because it's a direct value to me that they can micro-target things I buy (like getting coupons on dog food) and it's specific. Google and Facebook... are a whole different ballpark bc there is just so much data and so many ways to use it. I try really hard to not build a profile of myself specifically for that reason which means my interactions and "likes" are very limited.

The way it's going, I fully expect Google and Facebook to face a big reckoning sooner rather than later. Google was already slapped hard by the EU for monopolistic practices.

[soleiltropiques]

I agree. There should be strict laws about this around the world, and these have to be enforced.

The article I linked to above about the data brokers was quite interesting: there are actually companies we've never heard of whose business it is to find out everything about us.

It's scary.