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>People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. But neither do you really, right ? Sure, you m

by renaudg 10y ago

>People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. But neither do you really, right ? Sure, you may have a better idea than them of what's technically feasible, but the general HN consensus on the motives, values and internal decision-making process at these companies ("always assume the worst from them, they're optimizing for money!") is in my experience (of working at FB a few years ago) a simplistic view that's way, way off the mark. >"hey, you know Facebook use a lot of state-of-the-art technology to algorithmically understand the meaning of everything you post and write, feeding this massive data set into their huge artificial intelligence program?" I don't think it's likely that many people will say "cool, that sounds like a great deal, because I love it when I get very specifically targetted ads." I think this is again where nerd-bias is misleading you : 1) Many people would answer your question with "yeah ? is this the thing that enables translations, picture captions for the blind and suggests me events I might like ? Please, bring it on!" 2) people actually do prefer very specifically targeted ads, rather than annoying+irrelevant pop-up banners of the past. This is why FB is making a killing.

mbrock 10y ago
True, neither do I... because what they do with content is secret. I don't think it's nerd-bias... it's more that many of my friends and acquaintances who aren't nerds are still instinctively skeptical of large corporations and the power structures they create with respect to privacy. As for what people in general think, we really should ask around. I heard about a consumer trust survey where Facebook's trust was very low, and based on how I see people relate to Facebook, I'm not surprised at all. I think we ought to be suspicious and critical of corporations that collect large amounts of private and personal data, just as we ought to be so of government surveillance (of course they're inseparable).

by renaudg 10y ago

mbrock 10y ago

True, neither do I... because what they do with content is secret. I don't think it's nerd-bias... it's more that many of my friends and acquaintances who aren't nerds are still instinctively skeptical of large corporations and the power structures they create with respect to privacy. As for what people in general think, we really should ask around. I heard about a consumer trust survey where Facebook's trust was very low, and based on how I see people relate to Facebook, I'm not surprised at all. I think we ought to be suspicious and critical of corporations that collect large amounts of private and personal data, just as we ought to be so of government surveillance (of course they're inseparable).