5 ms·

It's sad and upsetting, but when will people learn that Facebook, Google et al do not care at all about individual users? Their model simply does not factor in

It's sad and upsetting, but when will people learn that Facebook, Google et al do not care at all about individual users? Their model simply does not factor in the worries of a single user. (Worse is how they want to propagate the idea that software should be free and of highest quality, thus preventing any communal attempts at creating different models.) I advice everyone who has an account to at least download their data to keep a copy of it: https://www.facebook.com/help/1701730696756992 https://www.facebook.com/help/1701730696756992

Nextgrid 6y ago
I’ve read somewhere that Facebook even embeds tracking pixels in the HTML of the data export, so keep this in mind if you ever actually look at the exported data.
- apkallum 6y ago
  Would you be kind enough to post more information about this?
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    Google produces irrelevant results no matter what I try (searching anything about Facebook tracking pixels brings up tons of marketing-related SEO spam) so I suggest someone with a Facebook account just tries it and reports back. Until then, better safe than sorry, assume the worst (which at this point should be the norm when dealing with the company we're talking about) and proceed accordingly.
- tomaszs 6y ago
  I have heard images are also marked
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    Images on public Facebook are indeed marked (a unique ID is embedded in every picture's EXIF data) so I wouldn't be surprised if the exported ones were too (not necessarily for malicious reason even, if the images are being marked at upload time, Facebook may not even have the original unmarked image anymore).
- acruns 6y ago
  They don't for standard picture but they do embbed their own metadata https://iptc.org/news/what-does-facebook-do-with-your-photo-metadata/ https://iptc.org/news/what-does-facebook-do-with-your-photo-... https://www.carlseibert.com/facebooks-hidden-metadata-codes/ https://www.carlseibert.com/facebooks-hidden-metadata-codes/ You may be thinking of PhotoDNA which is used for different purposes https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna
lightgreen 6y ago
> when will people learn that Facebook, Google et al do not care at all about individual users? When will people learn, not just Facebook, Google et al, but no large company cares about individual users? Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Ford, Unilever, Visa, Walmart do not care about individual users. Not because all of them are bad, but simply because they physically cannot deal with every complaint. Even worse, when they become better at handling complaints, people start complaining more. So they focus on some more important complaints, and some users get thrown overboard. This is sad, but this is inevitable. That said, it would be great to have a paid technical support. You have lost an access to Google account (hacked, lost password, not logged in for two years, whatever), pay $100-1000 (if it's really valuable to you), and a special qualified person will do a proper background check (e. g. call your employer) to verify that you is really someone who you claim to be.
- x3n0ph3n3 6y ago
  It's a little difference with Facebook and Google, because unlike the other companies you mentioned, users are not the customers of Facebook and Google -- advertisers are. There is very little incentive to make their users happy when their users are not paying for the service.
  - lightgreen 6y ago
    > There is very little incentive to make their users happy when their users are not paying for the service This is plainly obviously wrong. When users are not happy, they leave the service, and advertizers stop paying. Even more, companies are much more afraid to lose users than to lose advertizers. Companies can live years without advertizers (by borrowing money for example or by burning reserves), but if a company lost it's users, the company is finished.
    - Sebb767 6y ago
      Yes, in some way. But sole complaints are simply not hurting FB. How many of the people complaining would've used Instagram otherwise or even go as far as closing their account? I doubt the can even zoom in their Dashboard far enough to see the impact. The real problem here is that for a single account, you're far more dependent on Instagram than Instagram is on you.

Nextgrid 6y ago

I’ve read somewhere that Facebook even embeds tracking pixels in the HTML of the data export, so keep this in mind if you ever actually look at the exported data.

apkallum 6y ago
Would you be kind enough to post more information about this?
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  Google produces irrelevant results no matter what I try (searching anything about Facebook tracking pixels brings up tons of marketing-related SEO spam) so I suggest someone with a Facebook account just tries it and reports back. Until then, better safe than sorry, assume the worst (which at this point should be the norm when dealing with the company we're talking about) and proceed accordingly.
tomaszs 6y ago
I have heard images are also marked
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  Images on public Facebook are indeed marked (a unique ID is embedded in every picture's EXIF data) so I wouldn't be surprised if the exported ones were too (not necessarily for malicious reason even, if the images are being marked at upload time, Facebook may not even have the original unmarked image anymore).
acruns 6y ago
They don't for standard picture but they do embbed their own metadata https://iptc.org/news/what-does-facebook-do-with-your-photo-metadata/ https://iptc.org/news/what-does-facebook-do-with-your-photo-... https://www.carlseibert.com/facebooks-hidden-metadata-codes/ https://www.carlseibert.com/facebooks-hidden-metadata-codes/ You may be thinking of PhotoDNA which is used for different purposes https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna

lightgreen 6y ago

> when will people learn that Facebook, Google et al do not care at all about individual users? When will people learn, not just Facebook, Google et al, but no large company cares about individual users? Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Ford, Unilever, Visa, Walmart do not care about individual users. Not because all of them are bad, but simply because they physically cannot deal with every complaint. Even worse, when they become better at handling complaints, people start complaining more. So they focus on some more important complaints, and some users get thrown overboard. This is sad, but this is inevitable. That said, it would be great to have a paid technical support. You have lost an access to Google account (hacked, lost password, not logged in for two years, whatever), pay $100-1000 (if it's really valuable to you), and a special qualified person will do a proper background check (e. g. call your employer) to verify that you is really someone who you claim to be.

x3n0ph3n3 6y ago
It's a little difference with Facebook and Google, because unlike the other companies you mentioned, users are not the customers of Facebook and Google -- advertisers are. There is very little incentive to make their users happy when their users are not paying for the service.
- lightgreen 6y ago
  > There is very little incentive to make their users happy when their users are not paying for the service This is plainly obviously wrong. When users are not happy, they leave the service, and advertizers stop paying. Even more, companies are much more afraid to lose users than to lose advertizers. Companies can live years without advertizers (by borrowing money for example or by burning reserves), but if a company lost it's users, the company is finished.
  - Sebb767 6y ago
    Yes, in some way. But sole complaints are simply not hurting FB. How many of the people complaining would've used Instagram otherwise or even go as far as closing their account? I doubt the can even zoom in their Dashboard far enough to see the impact. The real problem here is that for a single account, you're far more dependent on Instagram than Instagram is on you.