Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/16/most-facebook-users-dont-kno.html
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Many just don’t care. “So what” is a common response.
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IME, it’s the standard response.
Most common variation: “not a problem, I’m using WhatsApp.”
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i teach high school juniors and seniors. fill in with instagram or snapchat and i hear that a lot when i talk about privacy issues.
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Talking like this gives me the impression that we are the product to be sold and not the users of these services.
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Facebook, like the GOP, counts on a large population that’s ignorant, unsophisticated, and/or apathetic when it comes to real-world issues that affect their own best interests.
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Was impressed to discover that the browser/facebook plugin I’ve been using for years, "Fluff Busting Purity, has a one-click method for clearing out all of the data nuggets in your ad ‘preferences’. …facebook will keep refilling them with scraped garbage, but its a pain to manually delete each one of them (surely what they’re counting on).
( I have no connection with the plugin’s owners, just spreading the word. )
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I tried AdNauseum for a while. It is an ad blocker that clicks every single ad and poisons Googles data collection. After running it for a while my Youtube recommend list was filled with conspiracy/illuminati type videos. I think Google has now banned it from Chrome.
If these sorts of tools catch on then the data they collect will be garbage.
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i’ve got several facebook friends who are doing the “ten year challenge” but, although i do still use facebook, i have to wonder if this is going to be used mostly to tune-up facial recognition software to recognize age progression.
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Why not simply use a blocker that gives them no data at all? Aren’t the ad companies still getting paid for those automated clicks? You’re supporting this fucked up system while you intend to poison it.
That’s the beauty of it-- Facebook or Google still gets paid for the click, but the entity buying the ads is the one facing diminishing returns on their investment.
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I must admit I never like pages any more, because of this, it puts me of liking any page business or services as i know it will just be used to target adverts at me, so i only like my friends posts of cats dogs and children, its the only way not to give them to much information, I think i have like 10 pages i liked when facebook was 1st a thing and i saw the way it was going so stopped liking pages…
tl, dr.
Shorter title: “Study finds most Facebook users are idiots”
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If you’re not paying for a commercial service you are the product being sold. It is known.
Also, most people have no business being on the Internet, for the simple reason that they are completely exposing themselves. It’s much too dangerous for them and the rest of society.
As a fresh ex-web developer who got online in about 1990, every time I see friends of mine using the web without at least an adblocker I want to shout, what the fuck are you doing!
Also, if you’re using Chrome you’re doing it wrong. Google exists to collect data. You don’t have to make so ridiculously easy for them by using their browser.
Also check out this:
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Depending on who I’m talking to, the comments I hear are often along the lines of, “So the other day I used Google to find socks, and all of a sudden there’s sock ads on Facebook! And when I clicked on someone’s Facebook comments about pies, all of a sudden I get ads for pies everywhere I go. It’s almost like the internet is watching me! Pretty cool, huh?”
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Actually the article was excessively tl:dr, given that it could have ended after the first six words.
Most Facebook users have no idea
IMO if you’re still using FB, not “liking” any pages is the wrong approach. Like them all! Well, as many as ask you. Many of my associates ask me to like pages I have absolutely no interest in. Why not? I find it comforting to think they have inaccurate information about me. Every time they market me with ads for shaving foam or razors I laugh out loud.
I don’t know if it’s fair to call them idiots… I suspect that most people just aren’t educated on technical side of how this stuff works.
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