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VR could simultaneously be the freshest thing since sliced bread and Meta could do the most masterful job at baking, slicing and packaging it – I would still no

by atoav 4y ago

VR could simultaneously be the freshest thing since sliced bread and Meta could do the most masterful job at baking, slicing and packaging it – I would still not use it. Why not? Simple: I don't trust Meta. And what I mean by that is, that I do actively distrust them in the sense of: if they made it, it must be bad for me and I should not use it. It is a little bit like if Malboro tried to sell you vitamin pills all of the sudden. Maybe they are good genuine vitamin pills, who knows, but I would not be the person to try that out. And even if there was conclusive proof they were good genuine vitamin pills, I would like to give my money to someone else. Facebook would be a decent product in the hands of people who knew how to wield it and how to earn (and keep) a users trust. Similar any VR they develop could be technologically really a masterpiece, it would howver still be a masterpiece managed by Meta.

bergenty 4y ago
Just use a fake username. What’s so hard about that?
- kwyjibo_hunter 4y ago
  That still contributes to the bad thing existing.
- atoav 4y ago
  You really think a username obsfuscates your behaviour at 60 frames per second?
- parker_mountain 4y ago
  Do you really think you could use a tool that is, by its own admission, expressly designed for collaborative experiences without giving up your implicit identity? The answer, by the way, is no. Facebook has had highly-accurate "shadow profiles" for people who do not use their service for over a decade. Having a basic interaction graph, geo-location data, and being in the income band able to afford a $1500 headset begins to narrow down people a lot faster than you think. Not to mention the headset is technically capable of gathering skin tone (easily mapped by the hand recognition), IP address, height, and even performing facial recognition. Using a fake username achieves nothing. Unless you use it for sideloaded, offline, single player games and nothing else - at which point, the pro headset doesn't really make sense.
- sneak 4y ago
  And a payment card (which you can’t get without strong identity in the USA)? What about phone number and IP? Your friends list also probably uniquely links the account to your shadow profile which has your real name and address bought from data brokers. Don’t forget that Facebook has your name/phone number from all of your friends’ phones who gave FB/WhatsApp contacts permission. Friend enough of them and they’ll know it’s you. Also, they have the plaintext of all of your chats with your friends, including that initial “hey it’s me bob” intro message.
- floatinglotus 4y ago
  It’s cute that you think that would hide your identity.
- throwaway384629 4y ago
  Wait till your profile gets temporarily blocked somehow and then they ask for a photo of driving license or passport to unblock it.
- c7b 4y ago
  You'd be surprised how hard it is to not be tracked by FB/Meta (and a bunch of other organisations), even if you don't sign up at all.
mrhands556 4y ago
I’m amazed at the level of distrust and fud from meta when the other side of the coin, google, is much more invasive and people generally enjoy opting into the google ecosystem. Gmail is reading all of your emails, google maps knows everywhere you’ve been and are probably going to go to, etc
- shaburn 4y ago
  That's a function of brand derived from leadership.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- midiguy 4y ago
  For me it's not about the collection of the data, it's about what the company does with it. I don't love that Google makes a fortune harvesting my data for targeted advertising, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make to in order to use their services sans fee. OTOH I am not willing to support a company that has been shown to use their masses of data to influence election results or engineer a behavioral addiction to social media.
  - mrhands556 4y ago
    Did Facebook the entity influence election results, or was it the result of awful guardrails by Facebook the platform?
    - arthurcolle 4y ago
      Bit of both. Hard to say "they didn't do enough" when its clear that they have enabled all of their client's evil activities via their loosy goosy ruleset i.e. choosing to not do enough to enable more revenue is worse than the potential remedy by saying "sorry, we didn't do enough" and should be penalized as such
      - fundad 4y ago
bamboozled 4y ago
It's true, few people are going to want to give themselves to Facebook and in live in their toxic platform. If Mark was smart (and honest with himself) he could've funded a completely different company appointed different management completely separate from Facebook and got started that way. I'm assuming he didn't because he sees Meta as his chance for keeping Facebook alive. Which is why I hate the idea of it even more. I loathe Facebook. I could think of nothing worse than having Facebook strapped to my face and it's never going to happen for me. The problem for Mark is, anything he innovates will be pretty easy to steal / copy and there will be a huge market for Apple (for example) to build something similar but more trustworthy for people to buy...this is all under the proviso that VR actually takes off. Personally, I'm not so sure it will because while I find it a fun novelty with some application, I feel there is too much value in being aware of my surroundings to go "all in".
- arthurcolle 4y ago
  Apple is so trustworthy that everytime they have an opportunity to adopt open web standards, they choose instead to not do that and re-implement something proprietary. If Apple is the bellweather for tech in terms of privacy, all I need to do is point to their new revamped advertising division to say "lol"
  - Schroedingersat 4y ago
    There's a vast difference between intent and ability to make someone drink the coolaid. Whether Apple are just as evil as facebook is immaterial. What matters is that every time someone expresses disgust at having silicon valley control and inspect every facet of their lives someone nearby will say 'what about apple, they're much hetter for privacy'.
  - WantonQuantum 4y ago
    Apple is the best of a bad lot.
  - skhameneh 4y ago
    What? No, seriously... Apple created WebKit (former engine for Chrome, replaced by Blink) and basically pioneered many web standards. Even some standard HTML elements are Apple's creation, like canvas. Apple is literally a founding member of WHATWG. That's not to say Apple doesn't deserve their share of criticism for various proprietary efforts, but at least recognize they've been a pretty big contributor to the web.
sebastien_b 4y ago
>Why not? Simple: I don't trust Meta. Absolutely correct. There’s a meme going around saying “Meta” is short for “metastasize”
tblflpr 4y ago
Here, here! Now do TikTok!
- atoav 4y ago
  Tiktok is the result of that meeting where someone asked: "What would be a good spiritual successor to Facebook?" and the brightest person in the room sarcastically rattles down a list of satirically bad ideas and expects a laugh — only to have the manager say: "Great! This is precisely how we are going to do it!"

by atoav 4y ago

bergenty 4y ago

Just use a fake username. What’s so hard about that?

kwyjibo_hunter 4y ago
That still contributes to the bad thing existing.
atoav 4y ago
You really think a username obsfuscates your behaviour at 60 frames per second?
parker_mountain 4y ago
Do you really think you could use a tool that is, by its own admission, expressly designed for collaborative experiences without giving up your implicit identity? The answer, by the way, is no. Facebook has had highly-accurate "shadow profiles" for people who do not use their service for over a decade. Having a basic interaction graph, geo-location data, and being in the income band able to afford a $1500 headset begins to narrow down people a lot faster than you think. Not to mention the headset is technically capable of gathering skin tone (easily mapped by the hand recognition), IP address, height, and even performing facial recognition. Using a fake username achieves nothing. Unless you use it for sideloaded, offline, single player games and nothing else - at which point, the pro headset doesn't really make sense.
sneak 4y ago
And a payment card (which you can’t get without strong identity in the USA)? What about phone number and IP? Your friends list also probably uniquely links the account to your shadow profile which has your real name and address bought from data brokers. Don’t forget that Facebook has your name/phone number from all of your friends’ phones who gave FB/WhatsApp contacts permission. Friend enough of them and they’ll know it’s you. Also, they have the plaintext of all of your chats with your friends, including that initial “hey it’s me bob” intro message.
floatinglotus 4y ago
It’s cute that you think that would hide your identity.
throwaway384629 4y ago
Wait till your profile gets temporarily blocked somehow and then they ask for a photo of driving license or passport to unblock it.
c7b 4y ago
You'd be surprised how hard it is to not be tracked by FB/Meta (and a bunch of other organisations), even if you don't sign up at all.

mrhands556 4y ago

I’m amazed at the level of distrust and fud from meta when the other side of the coin, google, is much more invasive and people generally enjoy opting into the google ecosystem. Gmail is reading all of your emails, google maps knows everywhere you’ve been and are probably going to go to, etc

shaburn 4y ago
That's a function of brand derived from leadership.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
midiguy 4y ago
For me it's not about the collection of the data, it's about what the company does with it. I don't love that Google makes a fortune harvesting my data for targeted advertising, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make to in order to use their services sans fee. OTOH I am not willing to support a company that has been shown to use their masses of data to influence election results or engineer a behavioral addiction to social media.
- mrhands556 4y ago
  Did Facebook the entity influence election results, or was it the result of awful guardrails by Facebook the platform?
  - arthurcolle 4y ago
    Bit of both. Hard to say "they didn't do enough" when its clear that they have enabled all of their client's evil activities via their loosy goosy ruleset i.e. choosing to not do enough to enable more revenue is worse than the potential remedy by saying "sorry, we didn't do enough" and should be penalized as such
    - fundad 4y ago

bamboozled 4y ago

It's true, few people are going to want to give themselves to Facebook and in live in their toxic platform. If Mark was smart (and honest with himself) he could've funded a completely different company appointed different management completely separate from Facebook and got started that way. I'm assuming he didn't because he sees Meta as his chance for keeping Facebook alive. Which is why I hate the idea of it even more. I loathe Facebook. I could think of nothing worse than having Facebook strapped to my face and it's never going to happen for me. The problem for Mark is, anything he innovates will be pretty easy to steal / copy and there will be a huge market for Apple (for example) to build something similar but more trustworthy for people to buy...this is all under the proviso that VR actually takes off. Personally, I'm not so sure it will because while I find it a fun novelty with some application, I feel there is too much value in being aware of my surroundings to go "all in".

arthurcolle 4y ago
Apple is so trustworthy that everytime they have an opportunity to adopt open web standards, they choose instead to not do that and re-implement something proprietary. If Apple is the bellweather for tech in terms of privacy, all I need to do is point to their new revamped advertising division to say "lol"
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  There's a vast difference between intent and ability to make someone drink the coolaid. Whether Apple are just as evil as facebook is immaterial. What matters is that every time someone expresses disgust at having silicon valley control and inspect every facet of their lives someone nearby will say 'what about apple, they're much hetter for privacy'.
- WantonQuantum 4y ago
  Apple is the best of a bad lot.
- skhameneh 4y ago
  What? No, seriously... Apple created WebKit (former engine for Chrome, replaced by Blink) and basically pioneered many web standards. Even some standard HTML elements are Apple's creation, like canvas. Apple is literally a founding member of WHATWG. That's not to say Apple doesn't deserve their share of criticism for various proprietary efforts, but at least recognize they've been a pretty big contributor to the web.

sebastien_b 4y ago

>Why not? Simple: I don't trust Meta. Absolutely correct. There’s a meme going around saying “Meta” is short for “metastasize”

tblflpr 4y ago

Here, here! Now do TikTok!

atoav 4y ago
Tiktok is the result of that meeting where someone asked: "What would be a good spiritual successor to Facebook?" and the brightest person in the room sarcastically rattles down a list of satirically bad ideas and expects a laugh — only to have the manager say: "Great! This is precisely how we are going to do it!"