4 ms·

This actually seems more damaging and disgusting than all of the Cambridge Analytica news. Facebook employees actively working to help scammers get billions of

This actually seems more damaging and disgusting than all of the Cambridge Analytica news. Facebook employees actively working to help scammers get billions of dollars out of uneducated poor users. Despicable.

gambiting 9y ago
Hey but all those users agreed to have their information used this way, so what's your issue????? /s
- herbst 9y ago
  You call it sarcasm however it is true. Nobody forces anyone to visit that ad invested shit hole. Even less without adblock.
  - csydas 9y ago
    Except for all of the non-user user tracking they do with shadow profiles and their omnipresence on the web. Like too many things nowadays with tech and finance you don't have to have done anything to be affected by what these companies do. "TOS" doesn't even apply in most cases since many people don't even use the darn service.
  - lancesells 9y ago
    But the info you post on Facebook.com is not the only place FB is getting your data. They purchase Credit Card data, follow you around the web with pixels and Facebook login, allegedly track cell phone calls (I don't know enough about this), encourage people to install their VPN (thereby knowing everything you're doing on your device). I do agree that the easiest thing is to delete your account there is a lot more to it than what you engage with on their products.
    - herbst 9y ago
      You can opt out on all of these. So I don't see the bigger issue actually. The Internet is no cuddle place. Protection always was in the hands of the user.
  - AlexandrB 9y ago
    > Nobody forces anyone to visit that ad invested shit hole. That's a little simplistic. In the social media space there are no widely-used competitors to Facebook. Companies that could be called competitors in scale - Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, Snapchat - target different demographics and use-cases[1]. You're not likely to find too many older family members on Snapchat for example. Even so, Facebook also owns several former such competitors like WhatsApp and Instagram. I try to avoid Facebook like the plague, but it gets harder every year. Just about my entire extended family currently uses WhatsApp for messaging and phone calls to save money on overseas phone bills. I'm trying to push them towards Signal - but it's like pushing a boulder uphill because all of their friends use WhatsApp also. [1] None of these vet their ads with any rigor either, by the way. If I'm looking for a company that uses personal information and displays ads carefully and ethically such a beast doesn't exist.
    - herbst 9y ago
      For me it is the exact different. More and more people are available outside of the Facebook eco system because at this point the media conception is bad enough that you don't need to argument anymore. Due to hangouts we are all connected in a social media like but private environment anyway. This only works because nobody i know has a iPhone anymore tho. Literally the only reason I used facebook were low effort marketing actions. However they widely lost their effect the last years. Tldr: from my point of view it never was easier to not use Facebook. And I highly believe everyone can just not use it if they actually wanted to.
  - gambiting 9y ago
    I guess we're slowing reaching a point where we're about to find out how much all that legalese is actually worth - every user agrees to share their data, but when companies use it in such horrendous ways, are we going to accept it as a society? Just like EULAs are worth pretty much nothing in EU, I wonder if these "I agree to Facebook scanning my texts/calls/pictures for all intentions and purposes" declarations can actually stand up to scrutiny.
  - amelius 9y ago
    Imagine this happened to telecom companies. Would you have said: nobody forces anyone to use a phone?
    - herbst 9y ago
      This is the wrong pov IMO. A better example would be using comcast when there are better alternatives in your area. Except the social media market share Facebook does not hold any monopolies and even that is wobbly.
  - smt88 9y ago
    I'm forced to visit it for work sometimes (as a software dev) and because it's the only place my widespread family post updates and photos.
    - herbst 9y ago
      I too used facebook until a year ago or so for ads/work. However i dont see why anyone would care about baking and holiday pictures of their extended family.
      - smt88 9y ago
        My extended family is all over the world. I want to see their kids grow up, their vacation photos, etc.
  - mancerayder 9y ago
    What's so bad about WhatsApp other than being owned by Facebook? I thought it was secure and the data ephemeral?
matt_s 9y ago
It used to be easy to tell non-technical people that a Nigerian prince trying to wire money (or whatever) is a scam. How would you summarize the deception involved here to tell your non-technical Aunt? Basically, don't use facebook, or don't click on anything that isn't from someone you personally know? I'm now curious if Facebook reports what market segments their ad revenue comes from? Like what percentage is pill pushers?
zombieprocesses 9y ago
> Facebook employees actively working to help scammers get billions of dollars out of uneducated poor users. Despicable. Welcome to the wonderful world of advertising. You think bloomberg is any different. The news/tv show kids soda and candy ads all day. FB isn't doing anything revolutionary.
luckydude 9y ago
Yeah, I'm not a facebook fan, I don't use it because it always felt sort of creepy. But fleecing poor people through AI like technology seems worse than creepy. They'll get regulated at some point, assuming the politicians are awake enough to understand what is going (that's not at all clear). At least I hope they do.

gambiting 9y ago

Hey but all those users agreed to have their information used this way, so what's your issue????? /s

herbst 9y ago
You call it sarcasm however it is true. Nobody forces anyone to visit that ad invested shit hole. Even less without adblock.
- csydas 9y ago
  Except for all of the non-user user tracking they do with shadow profiles and their omnipresence on the web. Like too many things nowadays with tech and finance you don't have to have done anything to be affected by what these companies do. "TOS" doesn't even apply in most cases since many people don't even use the darn service.
- lancesells 9y ago
  But the info you post on Facebook.com is not the only place FB is getting your data. They purchase Credit Card data, follow you around the web with pixels and Facebook login, allegedly track cell phone calls (I don't know enough about this), encourage people to install their VPN (thereby knowing everything you're doing on your device). I do agree that the easiest thing is to delete your account there is a lot more to it than what you engage with on their products.
  - herbst 9y ago
    You can opt out on all of these. So I don't see the bigger issue actually. The Internet is no cuddle place. Protection always was in the hands of the user.
- AlexandrB 9y ago
  > Nobody forces anyone to visit that ad invested shit hole. That's a little simplistic. In the social media space there are no widely-used competitors to Facebook. Companies that could be called competitors in scale - Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, Snapchat - target different demographics and use-cases[1]. You're not likely to find too many older family members on Snapchat for example. Even so, Facebook also owns several former such competitors like WhatsApp and Instagram. I try to avoid Facebook like the plague, but it gets harder every year. Just about my entire extended family currently uses WhatsApp for messaging and phone calls to save money on overseas phone bills. I'm trying to push them towards Signal - but it's like pushing a boulder uphill because all of their friends use WhatsApp also. [1] None of these vet their ads with any rigor either, by the way. If I'm looking for a company that uses personal information and displays ads carefully and ethically such a beast doesn't exist.
  - herbst 9y ago
    For me it is the exact different. More and more people are available outside of the Facebook eco system because at this point the media conception is bad enough that you don't need to argument anymore. Due to hangouts we are all connected in a social media like but private environment anyway. This only works because nobody i know has a iPhone anymore tho. Literally the only reason I used facebook were low effort marketing actions. However they widely lost their effect the last years. Tldr: from my point of view it never was easier to not use Facebook. And I highly believe everyone can just not use it if they actually wanted to.
- gambiting 9y ago
  I guess we're slowing reaching a point where we're about to find out how much all that legalese is actually worth - every user agrees to share their data, but when companies use it in such horrendous ways, are we going to accept it as a society? Just like EULAs are worth pretty much nothing in EU, I wonder if these "I agree to Facebook scanning my texts/calls/pictures for all intentions and purposes" declarations can actually stand up to scrutiny.
- amelius 9y ago
  Imagine this happened to telecom companies. Would you have said: nobody forces anyone to use a phone?
  - herbst 9y ago
    This is the wrong pov IMO. A better example would be using comcast when there are better alternatives in your area. Except the social media market share Facebook does not hold any monopolies and even that is wobbly.
- smt88 9y ago
  I'm forced to visit it for work sometimes (as a software dev) and because it's the only place my widespread family post updates and photos.
  - herbst 9y ago
    I too used facebook until a year ago or so for ads/work. However i dont see why anyone would care about baking and holiday pictures of their extended family.
    - smt88 9y ago
      My extended family is all over the world. I want to see their kids grow up, their vacation photos, etc.
- mancerayder 9y ago
  What's so bad about WhatsApp other than being owned by Facebook? I thought it was secure and the data ephemeral?

matt_s 9y ago

It used to be easy to tell non-technical people that a Nigerian prince trying to wire money (or whatever) is a scam. How would you summarize the deception involved here to tell your non-technical Aunt? Basically, don't use facebook, or don't click on anything that isn't from someone you personally know? I'm now curious if Facebook reports what market segments their ad revenue comes from? Like what percentage is pill pushers?

zombieprocesses 9y ago

> Facebook employees actively working to help scammers get billions of dollars out of uneducated poor users. Despicable. Welcome to the wonderful world of advertising. You think bloomberg is any different. The news/tv show kids soda and candy ads all day. FB isn't doing anything revolutionary.

luckydude 9y ago

Yeah, I'm not a facebook fan, I don't use it because it always felt sort of creepy. But fleecing poor people through AI like technology seems worse than creepy. They'll get regulated at some point, assuming the politicians are awake enough to understand what is going (that's not at all clear). At least I hope they do.