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So don't do those things. It just doesn't make any sense to me how people expect that you can use a web service without the webservice like...knowing that you'

by blhack 8y ago

So don't do those things. It just doesn't make any sense to me how people expect that you can use a web service without the webservice like...knowing that you're using it? Reddit knows what subreddits I'm subbed to. Usenet servers know what groups I post to. Gmail knows what email I get (sortof) etc. If I didn't want anybody to know that I was interested in amateur radio, then I wouldn't post to /r/amateuradio with my real name. This is a classic "have your cake and eat it too". You can't both share your real name with people and also not share your real name with those same people at the same time.

quickthrower2 8y ago
It depends on how much you trust the web service with your data and how much meta data they gather about you, and how much you care about that. It is not as simple as you are making out because of 1. The vast amount of meta data that can be mined from your browser requests, scripts running on sites, your logging into multiple devices. 2. The scripts that run on other sites when you are not using FB, that know your FB identity or might send data back to FB. Safe to assume it's being shared with 3rd parties. Safe to assume those parties are in different countries with different laws. 3. The amount of computational power FB has, machine learning technology etc. 4. What we learned from Snowden. It is naive to think of giving information to Facebook as being the same as giving it to a small community site running PHPBB. There are personal privacy concerns, as well as aggregate ones. I.e. by being on facebook you are helping other's to have less privacy unless you use it in a very restricted way.
croon 8y ago
> It just doesn't make any sense to me how people expect that you can use a web service without the webservice like...knowing that you're using it? This is true, but what you seem to disregard is that [webservice] can monetize differently. You can set up your own forum for almost free, or your community could pool a couple of bucks each month for server cost. You can use some experimental p2p mesh hosting for your conversations. You can charge users a low low price for the cost of your service. Or you can sell userdata like facebook et al. All these services would know everything I'm willing to share with users on said service, but how that data is used could be very different. Wanting to both share your data and have that data used scrupulously isn't having/eating your cake. It's very reasonable and possible. Maybe not for free, but close to.
mcguire 8y ago
Your solution to the "I can't join my community without...." is, "Don't join the community"?
- blhack 8y ago
  My solution is that if you want to join a public community, then you should only share information with that public community that you want to be public.

by blhack 8y ago

quickthrower2 8y ago

It depends on how much you trust the web service with your data and how much meta data they gather about you, and how much you care about that. It is not as simple as you are making out because of 1. The vast amount of meta data that can be mined from your browser requests, scripts running on sites, your logging into multiple devices. 2. The scripts that run on other sites when you are not using FB, that know your FB identity or might send data back to FB. Safe to assume it's being shared with 3rd parties. Safe to assume those parties are in different countries with different laws. 3. The amount of computational power FB has, machine learning technology etc. 4. What we learned from Snowden. It is naive to think of giving information to Facebook as being the same as giving it to a small community site running PHPBB. There are personal privacy concerns, as well as aggregate ones. I.e. by being on facebook you are helping other's to have less privacy unless you use it in a very restricted way.

croon 8y ago

> It just doesn't make any sense to me how people expect that you can use a web service without the webservice like...knowing that you're using it? This is true, but what you seem to disregard is that [webservice] can monetize differently. You can set up your own forum for almost free, or your community could pool a couple of bucks each month for server cost. You can use some experimental p2p mesh hosting for your conversations. You can charge users a low low price for the cost of your service. Or you can sell userdata like facebook et al. All these services would know everything I'm willing to share with users on said service, but how that data is used could be very different. Wanting to both share your data and have that data used scrupulously isn't having/eating your cake. It's very reasonable and possible. Maybe not for free, but close to.

mcguire 8y ago

Your solution to the "I can't join my community without...." is, "Don't join the community"?

blhack 8y ago
My solution is that if you want to join a public community, then you should only share information with that public community that you want to be public.