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User data must be kept secret to be valuable. Facebook only makes money if it keeps user data mostly secret from advertisers.
by jp555 6y ago
User data must be kept secret to be valuable. Facebook only makes money if it keeps user data mostly secret from advertisers.
- klmadfejno 6y agoThat's because Facebook sells ad space. There are companies that don't do this, and are happy to sell your information. Like, say, the California DMV...
- jp555 6y agoIs the California DMV a private company?
- klmadfejno 6y agoObviously not, but the point was snide humor. Do you really not believe there are private companies which sell personal data?
- jp555 6y agoSure, CC companies have been doing it since the 1950s. But only aggregate data has any value. Advertisers care a lot more about finding a large group of potential buyers than individuals. Something like the more data you have the less detail you know, because noise expands faster than signal.
- klmadfejno 6y agoIf you're implying that advertisers only want aggregate data to build a marketing strategy that requires leveraging the individualized data from ad platform holders like facebook, that feels like some serious cognizant dissonance about the meaning of privacy.
- AlexandrB 6y agoFacebook also makes money by letting politicians micro-target potential constituents with propaganda.
- jp555 6y agoIs that a new thing? Seem to me that's been happening for like hundreds of years. I've worked at a PR firm and in a Newsroom. I've seen the sausage being made.
- AlexandrB 6y agoThe key phrase was "micro-targeting" not "propaganda". Previously, if you put out an ad full of religious zealotry to appeal to fundamentalist Christians, you would risk turning off more moderate parts of your base. Now you can make sure only the "right" people see that message.
- danielscrubs 6y agoLove to hear it
- rbecker 6y ago> to be valuable And selling lists of vegans to slaughterhouses is one way to extract that value. Similar for all the other abuses I listed. I assumed it was obvious.