Also, are we all going to pretend that Meta isn't just Facebook, the company that sold all our data to Cambridge Analytica for a quick buck, a company who then used that data to direct target right leaning moderate, pump them full of anxiety and fear, and turn them into Trump devotees? A company that then later didn't store that data properly and leaked it, allowing thousands of identities to be stolen (including mine)? Meta / Facebook / Instagram are not good actors on the internet and we should be doing more to sully their name

[–] the_artic_one@programming.dev 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not saying that Facebook/Meta aren't terrible but this is a misunderstanding of what happened with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook didn't sell anything to Cambridge Analyitica. Their API at the time allowed CA to gather information about you and all of your friends when you took one of their free personality quizzes (during the era when 90% of Facebook was people sharing personality quizzes).

When Facebook found out what CA had done, they fixed their API to prevent it from happening again (not because they cared about user privacy but because CA got a bunch of information from them that they could use to target advertisements on their own without paying FB to run ads) and covered it up so their users wouldn't know how massively negligent they had been with their data.

So it's not that Facebook was wantonly selling you data to shady characters so much as they were carelessly leaking your data to any shady characters who happened by.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

It may just be me but I feel like that is even worse. Because who knows who got a hold of it now.

[–] Grant@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Don't forget that the groups they targeted were as small as 10 people. Facebook is the reason our world is a shit as it is now. Fuck meta. Fuck Facebook. Fuck all of them. I despise them with deeper hatred than 99.99% of the things I have ever known

[–] psilocybin@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 year ago

Don't forget that they paid teens to (unbeknownst to them) install a vpn and collect all their data, including message content

They also used a hacky mechanism bc they knew they were breaking the app store rules

Facebook / Meta / the instagram owner is evil as fuck

[–] SevFTW@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well, we aren't. But if you mean "we" as in "humans". Then yes, we've already forgotten and we don't care anymore if you remind us. You're being a paranoid nerd, I don't get all this techy crap, and I'm sure Mark has learned his lesson or at the very least the government will do something.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I do mean "we" as in "humans." I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you think Mark Zuckerberg is going to pivot permanently away from the most profitable set of activities his company ever engaged in.

You're based on a Germany focused instance, I see. You're probably more safe from the kinds of things Facebook gets up to than we are on our side of the Atlantic. Over here, Facebook paid $100,000,000 in fines for their behavior. This was 3.3% of the original fine. No regulatory changes were made. It's unknown how much money Facebook made from data brokering with Cambridge Analytica, but they sold the data of 87 million users. Disturbingly, the number of users Facebook who directly participated in the app used to siphon this data was around 270,000. In other words, Facebook didn't even need people to interact with Facebook directly to collect information about people, since they were using network connection information to build profiles about people.

THIS is my concern about why they're so hot to get on the Fediverse right now. They don't want a huge number of users to sign up for Threads. If numerous users do, that would help them greatly with what they do want, though. They want insight into the greater distributed network of the Fediverse. They want to collect information about Mastodon, Pelorma, Friendica, Calckey, Miskey, BookWyrm, KBin, and Lemmy users who interact with users on Threads.

[–] SevFTW@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Oops I forgot my le epic reddit /s

[–] Grant@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Mark hasn't learned his lesson because look at the data they are trying to collect. He's trying to collect so much data that it has become a meme. Do you realize how much information can be captured by using that new Twitter replacement? It seems like you just plugged your ears, screamed "Lalalalala", then buried your head in the ground
"He learned his lesson" was also used by a senator to justify trump and he then led a coup against the US government. The rich don't learn lessons, they get slaps on the wrist. Nothing has changed from 2016 when this all went down.
The government will NOT do anything because they are lobbied by ISP providers. There's no reason for them to make any changes because they are making bank as is. We peasants don't pose any risk and we certainly aren't making the elected officials millionaires so why should they listen to us?

I wrote my senior paper at university on data collection and facebooks role in all that. You are so off base with your comment, it's sad. That "paranoid nerd" you just shit on is entirely right and you sound like a reductionist oaf

[–] ZERO16LIVES@vlemmy.net 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the comment you replied to needed a /s

[–] Grant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very likely! I wouldn't have thought so until you mentioned it

[–] SevFTW@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Really didn't think it would be necessary with "I'm sure mark learned his lesson" while he actively continues to destroy society lmao but I see the /s is necessary even on lemmy