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Small, but really important clarification: Facebook and Google do not “sell personal information”. They sell advertising. There are lots of companies (called d

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.

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.