For those of us not so tech savvy it doesn’t seem to be enough to just not log into FB as I have family on there who I don’t get to see often. The whole idea of them tracking my every keystroke is unnerving at best, terrifying at worst.
Ya-but… Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce is a crowd favorite. The subtle turn to just make the sauce brand a bit ambiguous? That act sums up the truthfulness not found behind the Meta curtain.
Can anyone tell me how to get all my photos downloaded in bulk? There are many on FB that I don’t have anywhere else. I think a lot of people are in the same boat, and that’s why we stay
I hope we're not in a closed-loop cycle of getting each other riled up, LOL, because it does re-rile me to see just how extensively and blatantly fb entrenched its whole existence on capitalistic growth through such covert, cynical methods. I learned after I deleted my account that they used pixel tracking to mine user data outside of their own platform. Felt disgusted by it. When I explained to my spouse the extent of their "openly secret" privacy breaches, they also deleted their account but still have IG. Personally, I refuse to knowingly use meta products. Your highlighting of Ed's deep dive into this subject still feels relevant even though Facebook first instituted these privacy breach practices nearly a decade ago. Thanks for sharing it.
People are free to feel however they want about their personal internet habits being tracked, saved, and sold. They can believe it doesn't matter, and even appreciate the "usefulness" of the targeted ads presented to them. My personal problem with being data mined and monetized was that my "free" use of the platform was not a good trade for the billion dollar revenue that the corporation of Facebook claimed, in addition to my loss of privacy, and the enablement, through the selling of my data, by third-party advertisers to try to glean money from me in some way.
These social media sites have it backwards—they should be PAYING people to join and stay on their platforms—because they would still make money, but it would also be fair to the users who don't necessarily understand the caveats of "free" data collection from themselves. If people were smart and understood the risks and the collateral that they put up for free, they would demand to be courted to join a platform. They social media platforms have tricked users.
Add to all that, the increasingly unscrupulous front-facing hogwash that fb spouted in defense of itself, even after having it definitively demonstrated that their algorithms led to the widespread amplification of mis- and disinformation. I deleted my account with no regret. The only regret I do have is that I wasn't more informed earlier and that I didn't do more to make people better understand all the legal, economic, and social implications of staying embedded in the data-mining metaverse before I ducked out.
Well put. Most people have no idea how invasive the tracking is, and how difficult it is to extract yourself from their tentacles. I wasn't joking when I said that I had almost 1,400 lines in my hosts file to block all the servers that Facebook uses to track you wherever you go.
Twitter was much lighter touch, the owner through most of it, Jack Dorsey, was very much against the invasive tracking, and thus to block them it was just a few lines in that file.
Most people have no idea how to use their hosts file to do this, and thus are oblivious to the harms it can and does cause. The fact that Facebook was staring at a $10B loss of revenue when Apple dared to force Facebook to require users to "opt in" to the tracking is telling about how big this is.
That said, Google has gone about this the other way. Since much of the internet embeds Google tracking codes in their websites, there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop them. Man, now I am really pissed.
Another way to look at is to use the algorithm to one’s benefit. I ruthlessly delete everything in my feed that is not art, music, dance, or culinary related. The algorithm has bent to my tastes and my feed is much more interesting with so much stress reduction.
I have Ed's podcast on auto download, even though he occasionally drags a couple of people I like. He's wide open with his opinions and seems to know where the bodies are buried in the tech world.
I gave up FacePlant before I started with Twitter (which I also dumped) so maybe 2011? I started getting friend requests from people I hadn’t seen in years who had become religious nuts or shared TMI. It was easier to just dump it than unfriend someone. Alas, I’m on Instagram, but for family reasons and you’d have to know it was me. Private account and I don’t accept requests from people I don’t know. Requests have dropped off significantly from strangers, freaks and other assorted weirdos, so I’m happy to stay on for a bit longer.
"Yet Zuckerberg could not perpetuate these disgusting acts without the help of people like Chief Marketing Officer Alex Schultz, who saw to it that Meta shut down CrowdTangle, a public insights tool from Meta that allowed researchers to easily analyze what was happening on Facebook. Horwitz reports in Broken Code that Facebook — led by Alex Schultz — killed CrowdTangle because reporter Kevin Roose kept posting a list of Facebook’s most-engaged-with content, and that Facebook was dominated with right wing lunacy and misinformation like “Plandemic,” a COVID conspiracy film that Joel Kaplan, head of Meta’s public policy team, initially blocked the health team from removing until Roose reported that it was Facebook’s number one post."
Yeah, when the public facing analytics tool (CrowdTangle was independent until FB bought it) was used to prove that instead of right wing content being submersed, it was instead the top performing content, they Just. Shut. It. Down.
Ostriches whose heads in the sand to avoid the truth. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Jim Jordan!
I think “messy“ is the understatement of the year. I’m curious to know what this writer thought of the failed attempt at buying TikTok after Mark lost $1.2 billion in 2022 because of the “kids dancing app.”
And also the curiosity about how even with all of this evidence… TikTok is the only one under the microscope. And how so many congress members have Facebook stock?
For those of us not so tech savvy it doesn’t seem to be enough to just not log into FB as I have family on there who I don’t get to see often. The whole idea of them tracking my every keystroke is unnerving at best, terrifying at worst.
Ya-but… Sweet Baby Rays bbq sauce is a crowd favorite. The subtle turn to just make the sauce brand a bit ambiguous? That act sums up the truthfulness not found behind the Meta curtain.
Can anyone tell me how to get all my photos downloaded in bulk? There are many on FB that I don’t have anywhere else. I think a lot of people are in the same boat, and that’s why we stay
I quit fb a couple years ago because Zuckerberg has no morals…only money apparently.
I hope we're not in a closed-loop cycle of getting each other riled up, LOL, because it does re-rile me to see just how extensively and blatantly fb entrenched its whole existence on capitalistic growth through such covert, cynical methods. I learned after I deleted my account that they used pixel tracking to mine user data outside of their own platform. Felt disgusted by it. When I explained to my spouse the extent of their "openly secret" privacy breaches, they also deleted their account but still have IG. Personally, I refuse to knowingly use meta products. Your highlighting of Ed's deep dive into this subject still feels relevant even though Facebook first instituted these privacy breach practices nearly a decade ago. Thanks for sharing it.
Just another oligarch
People are free to feel however they want about their personal internet habits being tracked, saved, and sold. They can believe it doesn't matter, and even appreciate the "usefulness" of the targeted ads presented to them. My personal problem with being data mined and monetized was that my "free" use of the platform was not a good trade for the billion dollar revenue that the corporation of Facebook claimed, in addition to my loss of privacy, and the enablement, through the selling of my data, by third-party advertisers to try to glean money from me in some way.
These social media sites have it backwards—they should be PAYING people to join and stay on their platforms—because they would still make money, but it would also be fair to the users who don't necessarily understand the caveats of "free" data collection from themselves. If people were smart and understood the risks and the collateral that they put up for free, they would demand to be courted to join a platform. They social media platforms have tricked users.
Add to all that, the increasingly unscrupulous front-facing hogwash that fb spouted in defense of itself, even after having it definitively demonstrated that their algorithms led to the widespread amplification of mis- and disinformation. I deleted my account with no regret. The only regret I do have is that I wasn't more informed earlier and that I didn't do more to make people better understand all the legal, economic, and social implications of staying embedded in the data-mining metaverse before I ducked out.
Well put. Most people have no idea how invasive the tracking is, and how difficult it is to extract yourself from their tentacles. I wasn't joking when I said that I had almost 1,400 lines in my hosts file to block all the servers that Facebook uses to track you wherever you go.
Twitter was much lighter touch, the owner through most of it, Jack Dorsey, was very much against the invasive tracking, and thus to block them it was just a few lines in that file.
Most people have no idea how to use their hosts file to do this, and thus are oblivious to the harms it can and does cause. The fact that Facebook was staring at a $10B loss of revenue when Apple dared to force Facebook to require users to "opt in" to the tracking is telling about how big this is.
That said, Google has gone about this the other way. Since much of the internet embeds Google tracking codes in their websites, there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop them. Man, now I am really pissed.
Thanks for the comment!
Another way to look at is to use the algorithm to one’s benefit. I ruthlessly delete everything in my feed that is not art, music, dance, or culinary related. The algorithm has bent to my tastes and my feed is much more interesting with so much stress reduction.
I quit FB because there were FOUR phony accounts in my name. Meta refused to act on my complaint, so fuck them!!😡😡
I have Ed's podcast on auto download, even though he occasionally drags a couple of people I like. He's wide open with his opinions and seems to know where the bodies are buried in the tech world.
I gave up FacePlant before I started with Twitter (which I also dumped) so maybe 2011? I started getting friend requests from people I hadn’t seen in years who had become religious nuts or shared TMI. It was easier to just dump it than unfriend someone. Alas, I’m on Instagram, but for family reasons and you’d have to know it was me. Private account and I don’t accept requests from people I don’t know. Requests have dropped off significantly from strangers, freaks and other assorted weirdos, so I’m happy to stay on for a bit longer.
Solution: kill Zuckerberg and the rest of the billionaires. Hopefully this will work better for us than it did for the French c. Napoleon
Let’s us commence with fake billionaire, the evil ex-‘president’ donald trump! Fakes actually can cause serious harm and fascism.
Zitron’s material is always good. His post today was great.
One more pull quote:
"Yet Zuckerberg could not perpetuate these disgusting acts without the help of people like Chief Marketing Officer Alex Schultz, who saw to it that Meta shut down CrowdTangle, a public insights tool from Meta that allowed researchers to easily analyze what was happening on Facebook. Horwitz reports in Broken Code that Facebook — led by Alex Schultz — killed CrowdTangle because reporter Kevin Roose kept posting a list of Facebook’s most-engaged-with content, and that Facebook was dominated with right wing lunacy and misinformation like “Plandemic,” a COVID conspiracy film that Joel Kaplan, head of Meta’s public policy team, initially blocked the health team from removing until Roose reported that it was Facebook’s number one post."
Yeah, when the public facing analytics tool (CrowdTangle was independent until FB bought it) was used to prove that instead of right wing content being submersed, it was instead the top performing content, they Just. Shut. It. Down.
Ostriches whose heads in the sand to avoid the truth. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Jim Jordan!
I meant read half of Ed’s piece - will certainly read yours .
Ed's is better than mine. He has the receipts. It is messy at Meta.
I think “messy“ is the understatement of the year. I’m curious to know what this writer thought of the failed attempt at buying TikTok after Mark lost $1.2 billion in 2022 because of the “kids dancing app.”
And also the curiosity about how even with all of this evidence… TikTok is the only one under the microscope. And how so many congress members have Facebook stock?
I just read half of piece. Have to read the rest tonight. Pretty fucked up. 🙄
Very!!