Facebook has already recovered their losses from the recent privacy scandal

http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-stock-price-wipes-out-cambridge-analytica-data-scandal-losses-2018-5

Look at how shallow the outrage was.

People pretended to be shocked that Facebook provided a platform for companies to deeply manipulate them. Social media pumped out a few hashtags, Congress pretended to care about their citizens' rights.

Then a week later everyone went back to using the platform whose very existence relies on manipulating its users, like nothing ever happened.

Is democracy still a viable system?

Reply 1

username3782690

Original post by AngeryPenguin

How is democracy involved in this? Facebook didn't actually break any laws or do things people didn't agree to.

Reply 2

Thomazo

Overreacting much lol.

I’m very interested to hear some elaboration from you as to how facebook ”relies on manipulating its users”

There is nothing inherently evil about what facebook does.

And I’m not even going to attempt to guess how democracy is related to this.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 3

ThomH97

Everyone installed adblock and deleted their apps.

Reply 4

AngeryPenguin

Original post by FrankGary

How is democracy involved in this? Facebook didn't actually break any laws or do things people didn't agree to.

Social media, big data, and machine learning have come together to make it far easier for corporations and the rich to manipulate the populace and the electoral system. Under these circumstances, our democracy may come to resemble a plutocracy.

Facebook could swing entire national debates if it chose to - and it has quietly been testing its capabilities in this area with Cambridge Analytica for some years now.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 5

AngeryPenguin

Original post by Thomazo

Facebook exists to serve ads to its users. Not just the ads on TV that are designed to have broad appeal, but specifically tailored ads for each user, taking advantage of all their psychological weaknesses that they have identified.

Facebook's founding president himself explicitly admitted that Facebook exploited peoples' vulnurabilities to keep them dependent on Facebook.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-sean-parker-human_us_5a0468d8e4b0f76b05c3d65a

Reply 6

Thomazo

Original post by AngeryPenguin

”Psychological weaknesses” haha lolol, you have got to be kidding me.

Yes the ads are targeted. But all it means is that for example if you like a lot of pages about fitness, you’ll be shown ads about fitness products. Because it makes sense, it’s a lot more useful for the advertisers if teir products are shown to people who are likely to want them.
I don’t know all the details, but that’s the basic idea.

They only have what you have decided to share. They’ll only know that you are into fitness if you decide to share that on facebook. If you decide to call that ”psychological weakness” then so be it.

That’s no secret, and completely normal. Not just facebook does it, google and others do it as well. Every time you see an ad on the internet it’s been targeted to you using you search history etc.

Yes, social media is designed to be addicting. But that’s a completely separate issue.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 7

AngeryPenguin

Original post by Thomazo

Ads aren't to show you what you already want. Ads, especially personalised ads, are designed to make you want the product, to hijack your psychology in order to make you interested in something you never cared for before.

You think car ads featuring scantily clad women is a coincidence? Those ads are designed manipulate mens' most basic reproductive instincts. But they aren't nearly as capable as personalised ads, which can be exactly tailored for your pyschology.

They only have what you have decided to share.

That is false, and the Belgian privacy watchdog are taking Facebook to court for it.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-belgium/belgian-privacy-watchdog-takes-facebook-to-court-idUKKBN0OV1YQ20150615

Not only does Facebook collect a lot of data that most users don't even know they are providing (such as the messages that they begin to type but never send, their browser fingerprint, and other seemingly uselesss data that becomes useful in large quantities), but they also collect data from non-users.

For example, Facebook deploys many tracking technologies across the web, tracking users and non-users alike. Every website with a facebook 'like' button is telling facebook that you visited that page, even if you don't click the button. They use this to build up 'shadow profiles' of non-users, who have never even agreed to Facebook's dodgy user agreement.

They’ll only know that you are into fitness if you decide to share that on facebook. If you decide to call that ”psychological weakness” then so be it.

Again, false. Facebook uses very advanced machine learning algorithms to predict patterns. They infer a lot of details about yourself that you don't know you are giving away.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 8

ma_long

Share price has more than recovered, it's a buy the dip event, buy into fear and sell into greed.

Reply 9

username3782690

Original post by AngeryPenguin

What you're saying makes sense but ppl shouldn't be so reliant on social media esp about stuff like who to vote for.
If social media changes your mind then you're to blame.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 10

Joleee

a good friend of mine works in media and ad trafficking specifically and it's really f-cked up what they can do; what they know about you etc. they're so sly about it that people don't notice or maybe they're too used to it, probably both. obviously users risk their privacy every day because internet social interaction is worth more to them and what you don't know won't kill you. .

me, i'm like one of those old grandpas who are paranoid about internet privacy, so hide all their moneys under their mattress (i'm not that bad). of course everyone leaves a footprint as soon as they log into WiFi, but compared to the average person you won't find much personal information about me online (unless you're an ad trafficker and them i'm f-cked).

p.s. this is a good reason to be mindful of the racist, sexist, hateful sh*t you put online because it can be used against you, as proven in the recent uni cases.

Reply 11

Napp

Original post by AngeryPenguin

Is democracy still a viable system?

Define viable? Can it go on? sure. But there are 'alternative' systems now which are proving to be more popular than the so called liberal democracy - something which, so the argument goes, has been living on borrowed time since 2008.