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IMHO, I'm glad Microsoft is not part of this. It's not about profits, it's about data monopoly. Writing a modern OS is almost impossible from scratch, but ther
by pyentropy 6y ago
IMHO, I'm glad Microsoft is not part of this. It's not about profits, it's about data monopoly.
Writing a modern OS is almost impossible from scratch, but there's nothing preventing you from hiring enough people and making Windows or Azure.
But the problem with Facebook and Google is that they started by scraping stuff for free and without limitations, but if you try to do the same thing with them they bite you with Terms of service, paid data graphs and API quotas. How do you build a index of businesses/venues and people? No matter how many people you hire you cannot achieve the same snowball / network effect.
Instead of breaking them up, make them release open data.
- annadane 6y agoAnd because of C.A. FB can probably claim they need to close the graph so that sort of thing doesn't happen again But yeah, drives me nuts. Innovation happens due to the initial openness... then everyone closes down and takes their ball and goes home
- zozbot234 6y agoTotally open data is likely a non-starter, but they could be forced to interoperate with other suppliers of comparable services under an open standard. There's no inherent reason why Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. couldn't all be Fediverse instances, with shared feeds at least for publicly-broadcasted activities (as opposed to the private data that CA was collecting).
- scarface74 6y agoThat means your friend list includes my data. I don’t want my data shared between other companies.
- scarface74 6y agoFacebook did not “scrape stuff for free”. People willingly gave FB their information.
- wegs2 6y agoPeople gave Facebook my stuff for free. RMS explains this much more eloquently than I do. He doesn't have a Facebook account, but he's all over Facebook, without any control, desire, or influence. Many people set up Facebook accounts to have some control over this. Without an account, I can have nasty things about me on Facebook. To have controls over that, I need to agree to a contract with Facebook which gives away other stuff.
- oblio 6y agoWhen I joined Facebook a few years ago (so many years after Facebook was launched), I was quite stunned to see the friend suggestions quite neatly sorted from people I knew a lot to people I barely knew. Their shadow profile on me was very solid, it seems.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoI've seen his explanation, but I don't follow the concept of data ownership being expressed. I can be in my friends' conversations, my company's management discussions, even the newspaper without consenting to it - why is Facebook different?
- fsflover 6y agoBecause it’s for-profit?
- Nasrudith 6y agoThe newspaper is also for profit and while commerical speech may have more restrictions (truth in advertising) they aren't barred from those areas. Not a fan of Facebook but the objection appears to be pure novelty bias because it hasn't been as normalized as the old ways.
- pyentropy 6y agoHow was Facemash (Hot or Not) developed (pics of Harvard girls never used the site)? How did they get website traffic data from their like button without visitors using Facebook? Also, how is my grandma part of their database because all her grandchildren have her in their phone contacts?
- ProAm 6y agoWindows 10 telemetry?
- mliker 6y agoThese companies did "release open data". It's called Cambridge Analytica. Look it up.
- jt94mf90d 6y agoSo case closed.
- fsociety 6y agoUh hello, Microsoft has a ton of telemetry setup in Windows. Microsoft’s greatest achievement is their data collection and how no one cares.
- mas3god 6y agoOne of windows' competitors is free, theyll never have an os monopoly