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When they approved for access to personal data feeds of information, they might not have imagined the use-case or might not have know about the usage in details

When they approved for access to personal data feeds of information, they might not have imagined the use-case or might not have know about the usage in details. "Cambridge Analytica" came out due to political implications, there might be many others people don't now. Facebook's primary business is selling personal information for profit. This is how they sustain their business. So it will be naive for users to think otherwise. Now even WhatsApp and instagram become a conduit for collecting personal data with photos. Indeed sometimes I am astonished that many people are worried not about privacy, but more about that people do not know them or like or dislike them on Facebook and Instagram so they do everything to become influencers. I was astonished when an account is created for a 11 year old kid, facebook and instagram suggested them adult friends or people to follow, which are not part of their circle. This is done as many kids use parents phone and Facebook use the contact phones of parents to suggest link to kids. I talked to one of my banker friend and he told me that the kind of data he gets from Facebook is simply not possible with any other company. He can pinpoint his target market at an individual level using Facebook and customize his banking products like loans, investments, equities, bonds for them.

bcherny 7y ago
Small, but really important clarification: Facebook and Google do not “sell personal information”. They sell advertising. There are lots of companies (called data brokers) that actually sell personal information to advertisers. Facebook, Apple, Google and other walled gardens don’t do that. Instead, they let advertisers target people, but ultimately the advertisers don’t get access to peoples’ data.
- gibolt 7y ago
  Why is this at the bottom? It is amazing that people (even on this site) still don't get how targeting works. Pick a page, word, or interest, and the platforms will target users to match the input, and optimize who is show based on predicted preferred action. It is a blackbox to the client and mostly to the platform.
  - dragonsh 7y ago
    Facebook hire armies of people to discredit it's criticism. So this is normal any critical comments will be at bottom. In case of"Cambridge Analytica" it's not advertising or targeting but personal datafeeds access provided by Facebook. It's the same feed they offer to large MNC's. It's not an anonymous system but a system based on personal and private information of individuals including their address or contact books and their communication history.
    - cameronbrown 7y ago
      I hate Facebook yet can understand the difference. Just because some of us want fair representation of a situation doesn't make us shills.
      - dragonsh 7y ago
        I didn't get the difference part. I do not think Facebook provides advertising and datafeeda from anonymous data. I believe there system is based on intimate personal data they collect not the anonymous data respecting user's privacy.
        cameronbrown 7y ago
        I didn't explain myself properly. You're right they do share extremely targeted data to big companies/advertisers and that's deplorable, but they also have less invasive methods of advertising. What we need is a discussion on where the line lies, rather than 'facebook bad'.
- dragonsh 7y ago
  Facebook is not really an anonymous advertising system. "Cambridge analytica" is not some anonymous advertising system access either. Facebook offered personal datafeeds as they offer to large MNC customers. This is the only way they make money using private and personal information including communication history, photos and videos to provide specific target audience feeds at an individual level with numbers to MNC customers. If it's an anonymous system and they follow the privacy laws in spirit not just enough to avoid prosecution, no one will pay them the premium. Since those anonymous statistics, company can collect on their own.
smsm42 7y ago
> He can pinpoint his target market at an individual level using Facebook and customize his banking products like loans, investments, equities, bonds for them. Maybe he can, but I've never seen or heard about a bank doing anything like this. I'd be fine with a bank tailoring their products to fit my needs better (I have spectacular credit scores, good salary and quite modest credit needs from time to time, which would be very easy and safe for a bank to serve if they were interested) - but that never ever happens. I get surveiled up to wazoo, get tracked on every site I visit - and the dream of "personally tailored services" that I've been told about for over a decade now is still nowhere here. What the heck are they doing with this information? Sell it to each other to serve me poorly targeted ads which I block anyway? Eventually leak it to criminals so that they can sell me credit monitoring services? Sell it to politicians which try to convince me to vote for some guy who I never heard of but immediately hate once they start talking about him? Seriously, what that whole industry is doing and could it do at least a little to provide some useful stuff? I mean, if you killed my privacy (or at least tried very hard to), can I please get at least some spoils from it?

bcherny 7y ago

Small, but really important clarification: Facebook and Google do not “sell personal information”. They sell advertising. There are lots of companies (called data brokers) that actually sell personal information to advertisers. Facebook, Apple, Google and other walled gardens don’t do that. Instead, they let advertisers target people, but ultimately the advertisers don’t get access to peoples’ data.

gibolt 7y ago
Why is this at the bottom? It is amazing that people (even on this site) still don't get how targeting works. Pick a page, word, or interest, and the platforms will target users to match the input, and optimize who is show based on predicted preferred action. It is a blackbox to the client and mostly to the platform.
- dragonsh 7y ago
  Facebook hire armies of people to discredit it's criticism. So this is normal any critical comments will be at bottom. In case of"Cambridge Analytica" it's not advertising or targeting but personal datafeeds access provided by Facebook. It's the same feed they offer to large MNC's. It's not an anonymous system but a system based on personal and private information of individuals including their address or contact books and their communication history.
  - cameronbrown 7y ago
    I hate Facebook yet can understand the difference. Just because some of us want fair representation of a situation doesn't make us shills.
    - dragonsh 7y ago
      I didn't get the difference part. I do not think Facebook provides advertising and datafeeda from anonymous data. I believe there system is based on intimate personal data they collect not the anonymous data respecting user's privacy.
      - cameronbrown 7y ago
        I didn't explain myself properly. You're right they do share extremely targeted data to big companies/advertisers and that's deplorable, but they also have less invasive methods of advertising. What we need is a discussion on where the line lies, rather than 'facebook bad'.
dragonsh 7y ago
Facebook is not really an anonymous advertising system. "Cambridge analytica" is not some anonymous advertising system access either. Facebook offered personal datafeeds as they offer to large MNC customers. This is the only way they make money using private and personal information including communication history, photos and videos to provide specific target audience feeds at an individual level with numbers to MNC customers. If it's an anonymous system and they follow the privacy laws in spirit not just enough to avoid prosecution, no one will pay them the premium. Since those anonymous statistics, company can collect on their own.

smsm42 7y ago

> He can pinpoint his target market at an individual level using Facebook and customize his banking products like loans, investments, equities, bonds for them. Maybe he can, but I've never seen or heard about a bank doing anything like this. I'd be fine with a bank tailoring their products to fit my needs better (I have spectacular credit scores, good salary and quite modest credit needs from time to time, which would be very easy and safe for a bank to serve if they were interested) - but that never ever happens. I get surveiled up to wazoo, get tracked on every site I visit - and the dream of "personally tailored services" that I've been told about for over a decade now is still nowhere here. What the heck are they doing with this information? Sell it to each other to serve me poorly targeted ads which I block anyway? Eventually leak it to criminals so that they can sell me credit monitoring services? Sell it to politicians which try to convince me to vote for some guy who I never heard of but immediately hate once they start talking about him? Seriously, what that whole industry is doing and could it do at least a little to provide some useful stuff? I mean, if you killed my privacy (or at least tried very hard to), can I please get at least some spoils from it?