A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
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I have not found any news article on this on a whim. Because my friends and family, I need to use Facebook Messenger, and Messenger Lite was a OK client - lightweight, no unnecessary features, etc., compared to the regular Messenger app.
Now I'm a little torn, having a Meta app on my phone is already bad, but having to downgrade to the bloated Messenger app? Not sure I will make a change. What are your thoughts?
You're still using their shit, just in a very inconvenient way. In fact, you're going to their site that contains targeted ads rather than using an ad free app. What a strange hill to die on.
I have exactly one group that insists on communicating this way. Which is why this isn't a big inconvenience for me. Your point is well taken, but doesn't really apply in my case. I'm not a user of the service, which is why it's so easy for me to refuse to install it, and hopefully I can use this to pressure the group to move to discord or some other means of communication. But if not I will continue to use the desktop site rather than install an app.
I'm in the exact same position as you and take the same approach. It's a hill I'm getting a mildly stubbed toe on.
I'd rather have a slight inconvenience of seeing their ads on their website for the few moments I'd need to send a message than having their spyware of an app tracking everything I do all day long.
Not only is that not possible on both Android and iPhone nowadays, that's a myth that's never been remotely proven.
Yeah, none of that means they're tracking everything you do all day long.
What? Nowhere does that say their apps are spying on you when you aren't using them, this screen just says they have a cross app profile on you. You've clearly misinterpreted what this screen means, but "just keep sitting there and saying nuh uh".
I'm a Data Engineer, in tech, focused on privacy. Lol
https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy?section_id=4-HowDoWeShare
Man, this is the single most ignorant comment I've seen regarding Facebook. You've never wondered how a company that offers a free product makes billions?
If that list didn't have anything on it except "location", I'd still say that you're wrong about them not tracking you. How can you read all of the other things on that list and not realize that selling your data is how they make money?
I work in tech privacy, I'm an expert in this space, it's literally my job to know how this stuff works. I've had this conversation many times and the amount of times I've been called an idiot, ignorant, a shill, etc for trying to stop the spread of misinfo on here is fucking exhausting. But sure, let's do it again.
Facebook makes billions by selling targeted ads, not by selling your data. Facebook has never sold user data, that's never even been a popular criticism of them. The "other companies" it mentions here are other Meta products. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus are all considered "other companies", and even cross app linking is coming under regulation by the GDPR.
You are being tracked on the internet via web cookies (not personal identifiable information), but that was never the topic of conversation, we were discussing whether or not you're being spied on "all day long". There's a misconception that Facebook products listen to your conversations through your microphone or somehow root onto your phone and dig through your data without you knowing it. This doesn't happen and there's no reason to think it's ever happened.
Additionally, Facebook's policy is that the content of private messages in Facebook Messenger is not used to target advertisements.
And before you say you don't believe them, look at the size of the GDPR fines that are being handed out. Lying about something like this has the potential to wipe out tens of bllions of the revenue of a company that makes $80-90B per year. That's hugely significant. Getting caught once would absolutely obliterate their stock price.
There are plenty of actual reasons to be skeptical of big tech and social media and your comment is nothing but a distraction.