3 ms·

A way to get young people to use FB more? I know they literally know who's best for a user based on the ton of data we feed, but I'm wondering the privacy consc

A way to get young people to use FB more? I know they literally know who's best for a user based on the ton of data we feed, but I'm wondering the privacy conscious folks would be hesitant to create a dating profile on FB.

tempodox 8y ago
> ...they literally know who's best for a user... That's what I'm genuinely wondering about: Putting all the privacy issues aside, will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people?
- Digit-Al 8y ago
  > will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people? Unlikely, but that's not really the point. Current dating sites can't predict "chemistry" either. What people are suggesting Facebook will be able to do better is work out who you are "compatible" with, it's then up to you to decide if there is any chemistry or not.
- scj 8y ago
  I interpreted the comment as: "Facebook would have a better chance of predicting it than competitors given their information." Remember, you don't need to outrun a bear, just the other people around you.
usrusr 8y ago
Would people who avoid facebook because of privacy concerns use any dating sites at all? I guess there must be some who recently #deletedfacebook, but somehow I perceive that more as a fashion statement than as actual privacy concerns. What will certainly give facebook a hard time in that market is the rule of isolation that people with moderate privacy concerns instinctively apply: you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do online dating, you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do friend feed social media, but if you can keep those data trails from merging you will gladly do whatever it takes. It's the same thing that killed google+: if I have a choice between a friend feed site that also has all my web search history and a friend feed site that doesn't, it's absolutely clear which one is the lesser evil. For similar reasons I would not want to use a social network or a search engine operated by my desktop OS supplier (quitting this argument right here, before I convince myself to defect to iphone - guess I'm a bit inconsequential after all)
- Lionsion 8y ago
  > Would people who avoid facebook because of privacy concerns use any dating sites at all? Why would they? The privacy problem with Facebook is its size and the amount of personal data it integrates. If you're privacy conscious, using a stand-alone dating site is fine because the data is more siloed. It's also more practical to setup a burner identity on a special-purpose site than on a one that tries to be your online identity and social graph. I never used tinder, but I thought about it. Part of that plan was to create a burner FB profile for it.
  - e12e 8y ago
    > The privacy problem with Facebook is its size and the amount of personal data it integrates. ... And The business model. A dating site you might pay for while you use it - there's no way to "pay" for Facebook in way that aligns fb's priorities to coincide with yours. This is also a big problem with Google, although they have some experiments were they appear to be breaking even.

tempodox 8y ago

> ...they literally know who's best for a user... That's what I'm genuinely wondering about: Putting all the privacy issues aside, will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people?

Digit-Al 8y ago
> will some machine learning algorithm really be capable of predicting “functioning chemistry” between people? Unlikely, but that's not really the point. Current dating sites can't predict "chemistry" either. What people are suggesting Facebook will be able to do better is work out who you are "compatible" with, it's then up to you to decide if there is any chemistry or not.
scj 8y ago
I interpreted the comment as: "Facebook would have a better chance of predicting it than competitors given their information." Remember, you don't need to outrun a bear, just the other people around you.

usrusr 8y ago

Would people who avoid facebook because of privacy concerns use any dating sites at all? I guess there must be some who recently #deletedfacebook, but somehow I perceive that more as a fashion statement than as actual privacy concerns. What will certainly give facebook a hard time in that market is the rule of isolation that people with moderate privacy concerns instinctively apply: you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do online dating, you can't avoid creating a data trail if you want to do friend feed social media, but if you can keep those data trails from merging you will gladly do whatever it takes. It's the same thing that killed google+: if I have a choice between a friend feed site that also has all my web search history and a friend feed site that doesn't, it's absolutely clear which one is the lesser evil. For similar reasons I would not want to use a social network or a search engine operated by my desktop OS supplier (quitting this argument right here, before I convince myself to defect to iphone - guess I'm a bit inconsequential after all)

Lionsion 8y ago
> Would people who avoid facebook because of privacy concerns use any dating sites at all? Why would they? The privacy problem with Facebook is its size and the amount of personal data it integrates. If you're privacy conscious, using a stand-alone dating site is fine because the data is more siloed. It's also more practical to setup a burner identity on a special-purpose site than on a one that tries to be your online identity and social graph. I never used tinder, but I thought about it. Part of that plan was to create a burner FB profile for it.
- e12e 8y ago
  > The privacy problem with Facebook is its size and the amount of personal data it integrates. ... And The business model. A dating site you might pay for while you use it - there's no way to "pay" for Facebook in way that aligns fb's priorities to coincide with yours. This is also a big problem with Google, although they have some experiments were they appear to be breaking even.