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Apple > Amazon > Google > Facebook ? Microsoft ? Apple is a hardware and cloud company. Their incentive is to get you to buy phones and computers and lock you

by ysavir 9y ago

Apple > Amazon > Google > Facebook ? Microsoft ? Apple is a hardware and cloud company. Their incentive is to get you to buy phones and computers and lock you into their ecosystem. Some shameful behavior, but nothing that's not to be expected. Trustworthy, but in need of the occasional reprimanding. Amazon is a middle man company. They connect sellers to buyers and interact with you to get you to use their platform. Over the past ten years they've dipped into a bunch of other markets as well, but I don't think it's affected why they collect information so far. Untrustworthy, minorly invasive, but not malicious. Yet. Google wants to know everything about you so they can profit from your data when selling advertisements, and do so by inserting themselves into everything you do. Your calendar, your email, your browser; any place where they can squeeze in a call to their servers. Untrustworthy and highly invasive, but not malicious. Facebook, like Google, wants to know everything about you so they can sell that data to advertisers. But whereas Google attempts to integrate itself into your natural flow of life, Facebook tries to change your behavior so that you interact with it more often. Facebook actually wants to control you. Untrustworthy, highly invasive, and malicious. Microsoft is in the process of reinventing itself and it's too early to tell what sort of trust it will deserve, if any. But I don't think anyone is preaching optimism.

JoshMnem 9y ago
> Amazon is a middle man company. ...I don't think it's affected why they collect information so far. See this: https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/01/09/amazon-ad-tech-launch/ https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/01/09/amazon-ad-tech-laun... and: https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-alexa-development-kit/ https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-alexa-development-kit/ > they've created a new division called Alexa Voice Services, which builds hardware and software with the aim of making it stupendously easy to add Alexa into whatever ceiling fan, lightbulb, refrigerator, or car someone might be working on. "You should be able to talk to Alexa no matter where you're located or what device you're talking to," says Priya Abani, Amazon's director of AVS enablement. "We basically envision a world where Alexa is everywhere."
- ysavir 9y ago
  Oh, I agree. They're practicing the data gathering, but so far, it seems aimed at just getting users to buy off amazon more. They want you to restock/replace via their marketplace instead of using their competitors. And even then, it's only reaching into the IoT crowd and leaving the rest untouched; compare to Google with Gmail and Calendar, that are trying to get the entirety of internet users. That might change; that probably will change, but at least for now their given ends seem to be in harmony with their business model. That's why I still don't trust them, and personally I avoid using them almost entirely (I aim to keep only to Amazon Video, since its provides competition to Netflix).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
drdaeman 9y ago
I don't feel Facebook is anywhere close to the levels of omnipresence Google has. It's rare if some random webpage doesn't talk to Google servers, be it analytics, fonts, CAPTCHAs, "sign in with Google" buttons or whatever. And they're in every other smartphone. And they handle lots of payments. And so on. Facebook, on the contrary, rarely shows up. Sometimes there are like buttons, but I'd say they're rare. Or maybe I'm visiting the kind of sites where they're rare. They may try to spam me (usually with some "you have new friend suggestion" with another person I've never ever met) but not like my mail filters care about that. And I occasionally log in there to check if someone had posted something (usually nope). I fed it some public information, never ever fed it anything non-public (not just private but non-public - even though I tag some public stuff as "private" there is no harm if that becomes public), and don't post anything there myself. I'm going to say a heresy but... that's feels basically harmless (and absolutely useless) to me.
- fortythirteen 9y ago
  Any time there's a Facebook widget in a page, they're siphoning off your info, whether you use it or not. That's why they were freaking out over Safari's third party cookie expiration change.
  - bogomipz 9y ago
    Can you elaborate how they are siphoning off someone's info if someone has uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger and someone doesn't use FB?
    - QAPereo 9y ago
      You might want to add uMatrix or NoScript, but having said that I don’t know if uBlock might not be enough.
- jgalt212 9y ago
  > Facebook, on the contrary, rarely shows up. How is this even remotely possible given the advertising duopoly?
fortythirteen 9y ago
Amazon has long standing, massive server contracts with alphabet agencies. It's owner also owns a newspaper that is very biased towards the "uniparty" Washington establishment. I wouldn't put my money on them not already being malicious. They may just be the best at hiding it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
propogandist 9y ago
they got a patent on the active listening technology, to build your profile... to sell you stuff, directly or via 3rd party sellers. Sound like a familiar business model? This is better, people are paying to buy the device that'll profile them in their home. http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140337131 http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140337131

by ysavir 9y ago

JoshMnem 9y ago

> Amazon is a middle man company. ...I don't think it's affected why they collect information so far. See this: https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/01/09/amazon-ad-tech-launch/ https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/01/09/amazon-ad-tech-laun... and: https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-alexa-development-kit/ https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-alexa-development-kit/ > they've created a new division called Alexa Voice Services, which builds hardware and software with the aim of making it stupendously easy to add Alexa into whatever ceiling fan, lightbulb, refrigerator, or car someone might be working on. "You should be able to talk to Alexa no matter where you're located or what device you're talking to," says Priya Abani, Amazon's director of AVS enablement. "We basically envision a world where Alexa is everywhere."

ysavir 9y ago
Oh, I agree. They're practicing the data gathering, but so far, it seems aimed at just getting users to buy off amazon more. They want you to restock/replace via their marketplace instead of using their competitors. And even then, it's only reaching into the IoT crowd and leaving the rest untouched; compare to Google with Gmail and Calendar, that are trying to get the entirety of internet users. That might change; that probably will change, but at least for now their given ends seem to be in harmony with their business model. That's why I still don't trust them, and personally I avoid using them almost entirely (I aim to keep only to Amazon Video, since its provides competition to Netflix).
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

drdaeman 9y ago

I don't feel Facebook is anywhere close to the levels of omnipresence Google has. It's rare if some random webpage doesn't talk to Google servers, be it analytics, fonts, CAPTCHAs, "sign in with Google" buttons or whatever. And they're in every other smartphone. And they handle lots of payments. And so on. Facebook, on the contrary, rarely shows up. Sometimes there are like buttons, but I'd say they're rare. Or maybe I'm visiting the kind of sites where they're rare. They may try to spam me (usually with some "you have new friend suggestion" with another person I've never ever met) but not like my mail filters care about that. And I occasionally log in there to check if someone had posted something (usually nope). I fed it some public information, never ever fed it anything non-public (not just private but non-public - even though I tag some public stuff as "private" there is no harm if that becomes public), and don't post anything there myself. I'm going to say a heresy but... that's feels basically harmless (and absolutely useless) to me.

fortythirteen 9y ago
Any time there's a Facebook widget in a page, they're siphoning off your info, whether you use it or not. That's why they were freaking out over Safari's third party cookie expiration change.
- bogomipz 9y ago
  Can you elaborate how they are siphoning off someone's info if someone has uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger and someone doesn't use FB?
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    You might want to add uMatrix or NoScript, but having said that I don’t know if uBlock might not be enough.
jgalt212 9y ago
> Facebook, on the contrary, rarely shows up. How is this even remotely possible given the advertising duopoly?

fortythirteen 9y ago

Amazon has long standing, massive server contracts with alphabet agencies. It's owner also owns a newspaper that is very biased towards the "uniparty" Washington establishment. I wouldn't put my money on them not already being malicious. They may just be the best at hiding it.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

propogandist 9y ago

they got a patent on the active listening technology, to build your profile... to sell you stuff, directly or via 3rd party sellers. Sound like a familiar business model? This is better, people are paying to buy the device that'll profile them in their home. http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140337131 http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20140337131