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These big tech companies are so frustrating. Why does every single aspect of our digital lives need to be monitored? It’s like whack a mole trying to get the mo
by bix6 1y ago
These big tech companies are so frustrating. Why does every single aspect of our digital lives need to be monitored? It’s like whack a mole trying to get the most basic of privacy.
- saubeidl 1y agoBecause that way they can build profiles of you and use them to manipulate you into buying junk you don't need. That, in turn, makes the line go up and the share holders happy. That's tech capitalism in a nutshell.
- RiverCrochet 1y agoWhy do I keep getting ads for stuff I can't afford then?
- dylan604 1y agoHow else are you going to keep up with the Joneses? They are just looking out for your social wellbeing
- pengaru 1y ago> Why do I keep getting ads for stuff I can't afford then? You must be new here, have you not yet unlocked the wonders of credit card debt?
- ozgrakkurt 1y agoWork more so you can buy more
- jfyi 1y agoI largely get ads for things I already have bought. Otherwise, it's really general demographic stuff that doesn't strike a chord. I assume it's because I don't really browse for buyables unless I have the intent of buying something immediately. On a personal level, I fail entirely to understand the value proposition in web advertising.
- bakugo 1y agoGet with the times, grandpa. Thanks to the wonders of buy-now-pay-later services, we don't have to worry about that anymore, just stop thinking and consume!
- bonoboTP 1y agoSo that when you see all that stuff you can't afford on the neighbor/coworker or your friend's place, you can be envious, so their spending was worth it. Same with all those car and watch ads in magazines. It's not like regular people are constantly looking to buy a new car. But the brand must be etched into brains. Your neighbor must be reasonably convinced that people around him are on the same page regarding the prestige of a certain brand, else it's not worth spending on. So even if you can't afford whatever car model, the fact that you're aware that it's prestigious is already worth it. This is somewhat weaker in personalized online ads because your neighbor can't know what ads you saw. Billboards and super bowl ads a much better for establishing common knowledge, but perhaps that's why influencer-based marketing is gaining ground. All followers know that all followers saw the embedded ad. Maybe they should introduce ads where it says "Your friend Joe Schmo watched the following ad:"
- RiverCrochet 1y agoThis might hold water in 1980 when neighbors talked to each other and coworkers often worked in the same building and didn't wear Bluetooth earbuds, but I don't know so much about now.
- bonoboTP 1y agoMany people still interact and do things together in friend or acquaintance groups, even if not literal neighbors or coworkers.
- soco 1y agoBuying junk is so yesterday. Today the game is to feed you conspiracies and farm political support.
- okanat 1y agoI wonder how much of this is actual advertising working (proven by independent A/B testing) and how much of it is big tech bullshitting their shareholders and customers. Even Veritasium had a video ~10 years ago, describing Facebook's way of reducing view counts to coerce advertisers to pay higher.
- GiorgioG 1y agoMonetization. If people aren’t willing to pay for the products, these companies have figured out how to make the customers’ data the product.
- hmmokidk 1y agoThis is a dumb take. They will make money every way they can.
- sudobash1 1y agoYou can pay for Google services. But even if you pay for Google One or YouTube premium, I'm sure that Google will still track your behavior and mine your data. Why would a company not "double-dip"?
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y agoEven better, by paying you prove that you have disposable income. You are a more attractive cow for advertisers to milk.
- PaulHoule 1y agoMy favorite example of this is the thoroughly craven New York Times which puts content behind a paywall and loads it with awful ads aimed at people who’ve proven they are made of money. Contrast that certain TV dayparts saturated with subprime ads promoting Medicare scams and other offerings for people who can’t spend their own money on things except for an occasional ad for a car dealer because if people weren’t driving you’d have much less reason to call a personal injury lawyer. Ad free tiers for Netflix and whatnot have the problem that people who won’t pay for ad free aren’t really worth advertising to.
- GiorgioG 1y ago> My favorite example of this is the thoroughly craven New York Times which puts content behind a paywall and loads it with awful ads aimed at people who’ve proven they are made of money. It's almost as if you don't remember the good old days when the NY Times sold you a physical newspaper...that was (and still is) stuffed with ads.
- IncreasePosts 1y agoWhat exactly is being monitored? It looks like this enabled Gemini to send a message via Whatsapp if you ask it to. Maybe the problem is what you consider a privacy violation, other users consider a feature.
- shortn 1y agoRTFA. Don't act like your opinion is the only one that matters. You may not, but other people do care about their privacy. "Here's the thing: Google promises that under normal circumstances, Gemini cannot read or summarize your WhatsApp messages. But, and this is a big but, with the "help" of the Google Assistant or the Utilities app, it may view your messages (including images), read and respond to your WhatsApp notifications, and more." Doesn't matter what your opinion is on privacy, google doesn't give you the option to opt out. - "regardless of whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off."
- jeroenhd 1y agoThe article claims Gemini can read your messages but Google denies that. From Google's own documentation: > What Gemini can’t do with WhatsApp > Read or summarize your messages > Add or read images, gifs, or memes in your messages > Add or play audio or videos in your messages > Read or respond to WhatsApp notifications Of course, it's possible neowin says Google is lying, but they'll need to come up with something better than "maybe something may happen in the future" if they're going to make these claims.
- IncreasePosts 1y agoIt seems like OP (bix6) is the one who needs to be lectured that their opinion isn't the only one that matters, not me. My point is that different people have different opinions. Just because someone thinks an app violates their privacy doesn't mean they get to unilaterally decide the app shouldn't exist. If someone is concerned with their privacy by this feature, then they can just not use it. If someone is concerned that someone else might use this feature on private communications they had with the user, then that person misunderstands privacy and needs to realize that once they communicate their remarks to some other party, their ability to control their privacy to their own standards goes out the window generally, and not just with AI apps.
- vpShane 1y agoData points. Adtech. The more the better, for them.
- jazzyjackson 1y agosimple solution: don't have a digital life
- kelseyfrog 1y agoAs someone without a digital life, Simple ≠ Easy.
- SoftTalker 1y agoI find it pretty easy. I don't have WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, LinkIn, or anything else really besides a few forum memberships like the one here.
- bix6 1y agoYour ISP and device manufacturers are still tracking you though?
- fsflover 1y agoMy phone's manufacturer doesn't track me. Sent from my Librem 5. Also I use Tor.
- jazzyjackson 1y agomy telecom pinging my device (Sonim flip phone) location is quite different than my personality and political views being widely scrapeable.
- anton-c 1y agoI believe the kids would call this "based"
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Workaccount2 1y agoBecause people collectively vote for the ad model over the subscription model.
- xandrius 1y agoAre those the only options? How about paying once, owning a specific version and that's it?
- dukeyukey 1y agoNot great for a chat app, which needs ongoing active servers and someone to fix stuff that breaks, even if you feature-freeze it.
- phalangion 1y agoThat works for software, but not as well for services like YouTube
- dilyevsky 1y agoEven for software practice has shown few are actually willing to pay hundreds to thousands for a lifetime license. And you still need to purchase service packs, etc
- os2warpman 1y ago[flagged]
- portugalportuga 1y agomoney
- sneak 1y agoWhatsApp is surveillanceware from a surveillance company. Anyone running into this problem willingly opted in to having surveillance software on their device. Meta’s track record is not secret.
- JohnFen 1y agoIt's become so terrible that I've given up on trying to secure Android anymore because it's become essentially impossible. This is the primary reason why my current smartphone is my last smartphone.