My Favorite Facebook Conspiracy Might Be True

https://medium.com/futuresin/my-favorite-facebook-conspiracy-might-be-true-bf153c217773

by TechFinder • 7 years ago

3 5 7 years ago

FB is definitely monitoring Messenger. I have a fake FB account I use just to chat with my daughter on Messenger. I don't use the account for anything else. I was chatting (text only, no audio/video) on Messenger via the web client on facebook.com and on this occasion, we had a conversation on a very particular subject. The next day day inundated with group recommendations specific to this very particular conversation topic.

etdev• 7 years ago

I'm curious what the practical repercussions would actually be if it came out that Facebook was just flat-out lying about this the whole time.

zepto2• 7 years ago

“For me to imagine that Facebook, Google, Apple or Microsoft really cares about privacy is beyond belief, because these are data companies. Their business model is all about harvesting data and training it with AI.”

The author loses a lot of credibility by making this clearly false statement about Apple.

It’s demonstrably false that Apple’s business model is about harvesting data. The fact that they don’t get this right when there is overwhelming public evidence that it is false means that they lose all credibility for asserting a conspiracy theory.

Of course I don’t trust Facebook and they could be lying, but this author has no credibility on any topic if they don’t check the most basic public facts.

karmakaze• 7 years ago

It's important to be aware of motivations. Apple has demonstrated how it doesn't directly care about its users (batteries, antenna, throttling, keyboard, display wiring, and general right to repair). Privacy is only a business factor because it's working at the moment. As soon as it isn't I wouldn't expect anything.. Also anything not in the public record doesn't need to favor privacy either so I don't assume it does.

zepto2• 7 years ago

None of those things you listed demonstrate anything negative about Apple’s motivations.

Not that they aren’t problematic or signs of problems, but literally zero of them prove that Apple doesn’t directly care about its users, especially when compared against every one of its competitors.

Take throttling, for example. Throttling is proven to be done to prevent the iPhone from behaving unreliably as the battery degrades. This extends the useful life of the phone, and reduces the need to upgrade.

The story that throttling is done to make people want to upgrade is flatly in contradiction to the facts. No facts support any negative inference about Apple’s motivation, and the same is true in all of these cases.

Of course if you have a preconceived notion of their motivations, you can ignore the facts and just assert that your narrative is supported.

My Favorite Facebook Conspiracy Might Be True

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