https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/tim-cook-may-have-just-ended-facebook.html
"Technology does not need vast troves of personal data stitched together across dozens of websites and apps in order to succeed. Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it, and we're here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom.
If a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform."
zing.
With apple's new privacy stance, I'm actually thinking about buying an iphone for the first time ever.
QuoteWith apple's new privacy stance, I'm actually thinking about buying an iphone for the first time ever.
I think you are at least the second to say that, and I have certainly thought it. I feel like washing my mouth out every time!!!
I mentioned it earlier. I said I've always been anti-Apple, seeing it as a walled garden of overpriced proprietary hardware that props its prices up through cult-like adoration, but these current moves make me rethink that. They are also a company that has no real need to track and target and are able to take stances like this.
I've had an iPhone for years, but only because my former employer gave me one and never took it back (they only reprovision phones if it's the current or previous version). It finally died and I was on the fence between Android and iPhone, but I think I'll buy a used iPhone 10.
I have to say that I have really had to rethink my attitudes toward Tim Cook and Bill Gates over the years.
The one thing I can say is that even at their worst, neither were ever a threat to democracy or to the mental health of billions of people.
Good for Apple! Doubt I'll be buying anything from them soon, I'd rather have a ten year old device running Linux.
Facebook needs to be burnt to the ground though.
>Facebook needs to be burnt to the ground though.
I think that's more of a male response. Females I know are totally immersed in FB. I'm even seeing young teen girls being purposely indoctrinated/inducted by their female elders. They tend to combine 2 platforms -texting & FB- to handle the bulk of their socialization. Text is for quick, personal interactions and FB for family stuff.
> Doubt I'll be buying anything from them soon.
Same, as I've basically given up carrying a phone. (Giving up text for direct business contacts with local contractors was the hardest, though.)
phone privacy related:
Did you notice how many of the capitol rioters were doxed using their phone data? Location data & embedded gps info in their posted photos pretty much nailed it down.
<+>
>2 platforms
And definitely NO email! As Rumbas mentioned, even berating them to "Check your f@#$ing email!!!" doesn't work --female or male.
Quote from: littleman on February 01, 2021, 05:11:32 AM
Facebook needs to be burnt to the ground though.
What is a single, concrete action that an individual can take that makes a difference if
1. you've already quit all social media except The Core ;-)
2. You are an active user for Facegram or Tiktwit or whatever
>burnt to the ground
It's 50% look at me Living My Best Life™ and 49% a demonstration of how vulnerable the average human is to misinformation.
> a single, concrete action
Part of me hates the opinion I have today, but I believe the only way to clean up social media is to legislate in host responsibility for the propagation of misinformation. If a shared anti-vaxxer video could be partially responsible for someone's death then companies like FB should be able to get sued for allowing that video to be propagated on their platform.
"Facebook on Monday will begin urging some iPhone and iPad users to let the company track their activity so the social media giant can show them more personalized ads."
Facebook strikes back against Apple iOS 14 IDFA privacy change
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/01/facebook-strikes-back-against-apple-ios-14-idfa-privacy-change.html
> Doubt I'll be buying anything from them soon.
There is a significant trend of local small business owners abandoning their domain/website and instead rely on their Facebook digital presence. No cost and easy to update. I see it the most with restaurants, but it's also happening with boutique shops. If Facebook doesn't completely screw up, the site will start to look more like Shopify. We know Facebook is good a copying competitors, but can they create their own compelling shopping experience?
>> see it the most with restaurants
I see it in the wedding sector too.
I see a lot of new businesses not even bothering with a website/domain from the start. They have even abandoned Twitter. It's FB all the way. I'm acquainted with some of these business owners and my suggestion they have at least a brochure website just falls on deaf ears.
FB is trying to paint Apple as the bad guy in this, but it only helps consumers and only hurts FB and Google. I think Google's response is to opt out of Apple's unique identifier option with some sort of nefarious new Google scheme to identify iOS users, if I'm remembering that right.
> nefarious
"So quietly, in fact, that even industry insiders hadn't heard about it."
Google's Quiet Preparations For Apple's IDFA Change Offers Hints On The Future Of Its Own Mobile Ad ID
https://www.adexchanger.com/mobile/googles-quiet-preparations-for-apples-idfa-change-offers-hints-on-the-future-of-its-own-mobile-ad-id/
Quoteat least a brochure website just falls on deaf ears.
That used to be easier, Buy a domain, throw up a page an it's done. Now you have to pay for HTTPS as well thanks to Google.
Then there's the tracking, keeping it updated.... If you are already doing that on Facebook, where your customers can see the latest menu in their feed, why have a website?
> why have a website
Yeah all that. That's the answer I get. Plus domains alone keep getting more expensive. Suggesting that FB may start charging businesses for a FB Page someday does not register.
>>Now you have to pay for HTTPS
https://letsencrypt.org/
>>why have a website?
https://seths.blog/2021/02/chasing-the-cool-kids/
Quote from: ergophobe on February 03, 2021, 12:10:45 AM
>>Now you have to pay for HTTPS
https://letsencrypt.org/
>>why have a website?
https://seths.blog/2021/02/chasing-the-cool-kids/
I think for a small business Seth is wrong. For a publisher fine, but then that's what blogs are for.
For a small local business, Facebook works as most customers are already on it. I think in the UK the pandemic has actually accelerated it, as communities come to support local shops/pubs/cafes and restaurants. That's the case round me anyway.
Lets Encrypt is a techies version. For a business owner it's ANOTHER £70 or more for a brochure that does not really bring in business. Might as well have a google listing.
Infact how about this one. My local barber now has an image of a piece of paper with the names of the barbers on it:
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x487a18bc18a14b01%3A0x2d2b495bd332d4e9!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNBhhf4rVT9AJCb6R0R2i2KRUXiFpOD7ztwH7X4%3Dw173-h175-n-k-no!5sashbourne%20barber%20shop%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNBhhf4rVT9AJCb6R0R2i2KRUXiFpOD7ztwH7X4&hl=en
They don't even bother with a facebook page.
Why bother with a website for them.
Quote from: Rupert on February 03, 2021, 09:15:01 AM
I think for a small business Seth is wrong.
I think it's like the question of whether or not you own the property at which you do business. There are advantages both ways. But in general, if you are going to build assets, I think it's better to own those assets. Building a massive set of assets on Instagram and effectively losing ownership is troubling.
Quote
Lets Encrypt is a techies version. For a business owner it's ANOTHER £70
How so? LE is baked in to CPanel, Plesk and Webmin. Anyone who can figure out how to upload a file to their website can have free SSL/TLS. If you can't upload a file to your website, then you either have to hire someone who can, who is guilty of malpractice if they build you a site without SSL/TLS, or you are on a hosted solution like Shopify or Weebly, which are all https by default.
The only circumstances I have seen where SSL/TLS is another £70 is if someone is locked into a hosting service that has specifically disabled LE in CPanel so they they can make more money by upselling their customers on overpriced certs. Now, if you're a bank or a credit card processor, you will need the full cert with physical location checking for hundreds or thousands of dollars. But that $30 or $70 certificate basically has no reason to exist now. I have no clue how LE works or how to set it up, but I use it everywhere.
QuoteSSL/TLS is another £70 is if someone is locked into a hosting service that has specifically disabled LE in CPanel
Thats me...
Facebook Is Gaslighting Users Into Allowing Ad Tracking on iOS 14
https://medium.com/big-tech/facebook-is-gaslighting-users-into-allowing-ad-tracking-on-ios-14-7df7dd3f7359
It might become a 3-way.
Google is weighing an anti-tracking feature for Android, following Apple's lead - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/4/22266823/google-anti-tracking-feature-android-privacy-apple-ios-app-tracking-transparency
This was just resurrected on /r. Worth a watch
The AntiSocial Horror
https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/lgvu3a/the_antisocial_horror/
And yet... even for the anti-social, there is leakage. It's not uncommon for people to mention something about me and when I ask how they know, they say, "Facebook."
When I go hiking with people, if it's a less-frequented spot, I have a "no social media" rule - if they take a photo and post it and I find out, they are banned from hiking with me.
Quote from: ergophobe on February 01, 2021, 02:38:34 AM
I mentioned it earlier. I said I've always been anti-Apple, seeing it as a walled garden of overpriced proprietary hardware that props its prices up through cult-like adoration
Or, it could be because their hardware and software works really, really well. I changed over to a Mac in 1997 because I was sick of fighting windows to make it work.
I keep my macs for a long time because they work really well for a really long time. (I just upgraded from a 2012.) When I upgrade to a new OS, I don't have to blow away everything to make it work. When I move to a new machine, I click a few clicks and it automatically moves everything over.
It will take a lot for me to go to another system. It may be overpriced, but it's worth not having the headaches of windows.
>> overpriced
It's good value for those of us who prefer to spend our time on other things than monkeying with hardware.
Honestly, I haven't spent significant time monkeying with Windows since Windows 95. I've found Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 to be quite stable and reliable. Vista was a bit of a botched release that did require some monkeying for many.
I don't even spend that much time monkeying with a Linux server now, and virtually none of that is on the OS-level. The tools are quite good.
I just can't find the software I need other than Win. Otherwise a chromebook would work for me.
"QuickBooks for Mac 2016 is being discontinued and the Mac users will be supported only till May 31, 2019. Intuit conveyed that this is the last version of the product available."
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/13/zuckerberg-facebook-inflict-pain-on-apple-privacy/
"Zuckerberg, outraged by Cook's comments and public influence on Facebook's reputation, reportedly told internal aides and team members that Facebook needs to "inflict pain" on Apple, according to sources who spoke on anonymity to The Wall Street Journal."
I'm pretty sure that pain will end up going in both directions if war breaks out.
iOS 14.5's "App Tracking Transparency," rolled out Monday as part of an update to the operating system powering the iPhone and iPad.
Apple's iPhone privacy clampdown arrives after 7-month delay
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-eea494f3a1158100de0d4bbd93f5c31f
Yep, they actually went through with it. Impressed. Our next phone will be an iphone.
Is off-site tracking on shakey ground?
Everyone is Blocking Google FLoC tracking
http://th3core.com/talk/traffic/brave-is-blocking-google-floc-tracking/msg72657/#msg72657
> Is off-site tracking on shakey ground?
Yes and it's increasing.
The threat factor to Google continues to rise. Back in the day we accepted Google's 35 year cookie because they were still all warm and fuzzy and so not evil. Well that cookie was tame compared to now and everything we learn about Google is waist deep in creepy.
Google is going to have to tap dance real hard. Nobody knows what FB will do but probably self-inflicted blunt force trauma is a good bet.
Facebook used the pandemic to develop non-advertising business, while ad money kept pouring in - MarketWatch
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-used-the-pandemic-to-develop-non-advertising-business-while-ad-money-kept-pouring-in-11619549618
"adtech firm Blis says it has evidence from the first 24 hours of iOS 14.5 showing that when users were asked, 30% agreed to allow tracking but 70% said no.
There were wide variations between countries with 50% of US users agreeing to be tracked, compared with only 20% in the UK."
So how did users react when the mobile operating system, with its App Tracking Transparency, was released on Monday?
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56928626
Facebook and Instagram notices in iOS apps tell users tracking helps keep them 'free of charge'
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/2/22415824/facebook-instagram-notice-ios-apps-free-privacy-tracking
https://www.imore.com/facebook-and-instagram-threaten-charge-access-ios-145-unless-you-give-it-your-data
Just 4 percent of U.S. iPhone users opt in to ad tracking
https://mashable.com/article/ios-14-5-users-opt-out-of-ad-tracking/
"That rate has consistently been around 4 percent for users in the United States. It's significantly higher worldwide, with average daily opt-ins around 12 percent."
Android Developers Blog: New safety section in Google Play will give transparency into how apps use data
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/05/new-safety-section-in-google-play-will.html
Your take on that?
It looks like Google is noticing people like me who were planning to switch to Android, but are hesitating as the privacy models diverge, so they have to do *something*, but beholden as they are to ad revenue, they want to make sure it's as little as possible.
I think G is being disingenuous. They are reacting to the negative brouhaha and, as you say, announcing *something* in the (kinda distant) future. Meanwhile, they are moving to FloC and have enough popular services that they -like FB- could still cobble together a pretty good profile. Waze, Chrome, ChromeOS, search ..the list of available in-house trackers goes on.
"a regulator in the nation said the company's attempt to make users agree to the practice in its updated terms isn't legal."
Facebook Ordered to Stop German WhatsApp Users' Data Collection - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-11/facebook-ordered-to-stop-collecting-german-whatsapp-users-data
Wired - How Apple screwed facebook
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-ios14-facebook
Getting to be a real pissing contest.
Apple Refused Request to Remove Negative Ratings for the Facebook App
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-refused-request-remove-negative-ratings-for-facebook-app-2021-5
related
UK gov's Competition and Markets Authority watchdog to work with Google to stop Chrome tracking
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/12/competition-watchdog-to-work-with-google-to-stop-chrome-tracking
Apple's App Tracking Transparency Framework Causing Advertisers to Spend More Money Targeting Android Users
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/05/att-causing-more-ad-spending-on-android/
Long term, regulation of Google ads and privacy problems will even this out. It could take a long time but you know it's coming.
"It's been pretty devastating for I would say the majority of advertisers," said Eric Seufert, a mobile analyst who writes the Mobile Dev Memo trade blog. "The big question is: Are we seeing just short-term volatility where we can expect a move back to the mean, or is this a new normal?"
Facebook advertisers, in particular, have noticed an impact in the last month. Media buyers who run Facebook ad campaigns on behalf of clients said Facebook is no longer able to reliably see how many sales its clients are making, so it's harder to figure out which Facebook ads are working.
Facebook (FB) Advertisers Impacted By Apple (AAPL) Privacy iOS 14 Changes - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-14/facebook-fb-advertisers-impacted-by-apple-aapl-privacy-ios-14-changes
>burnt to the ground
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/17/1038180275/the-wall-street-journal-takes-a-deep-dive-into-the-facebook-files
Among other things:
Quote
KING: The fourth part of your series details horrific things that can be found on Facebook, including job postings that lure women into situations akin to slavery. Tell me about what you found and why that has been allowed to go on.
HORWITZ: So this is sort of a crisis of, I suppose, a lack of concern in some respects.
KING: Huh.
HORWITZ: Facebook was very much aware that it had a problem with human trafficking on its platform, large scale. And in fact, in some instances, it even allowed people to sell maids so long as they were doing it through, quote-unquote, "brick-and-mortar" establishments in the Persian Gulf and Gulf states. And they simply tolerated this until Apple, the - you know, maker of my iPhone, decided that it needed to tell them that it was going to either kick them off the App Store - so remove Facebook and Instagram from its App Store - unless they took care of it immediately. They did it then, but then they let the problem get back out of hand. And there's no question that they knew that there were massive amounts of this stuff on their platform.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039
G Floc out, cookies in.
Bad News Confirmed For 2.6 Billion Google Chrome Users
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/12/04/serious-new-google-chrome-problem-on-android-samsung-apple-iphone-and-windows-10/
OK... so let's say I have Chrome with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger and Firefox with just plain old Firefox, no plugins (which, actually, I do). How does the level of tracking compare depending on which browser I'm on?
And BTW, I keep using Chrome as one of my two browsers
- I use Streak as a CRM and that only works with Chromium browsers
- I've just never had a good long-term experience with other Chromium browsers even after using them for months. I get sick of all the sites that ID user agents and then do stupid things because it's Chromium but no Chrome.
My wife, who does not use Streak, is completely on Firefox and much happier. Without that one condition, she just finds it to be a superior experience, completely setting aside privacy issues.
The biggest difference is that with Chrome, Google is getting the tracking data direct right from Chrome. uBlock, Privacy Badger can't block that. Google admitted that even in Privacy mode, they (Google) are still getting telemetry.
Well... As long as Streak requires Chromium, I'll probably be a Chrome user. As I said, I'm tired of using Chromium browsers and having whatever oddities that seem to crop up. It just wears me down after a while. I'm on Google Workspace for email anyway... so my biggest secrets are out regardless of what browser I'm on.
Again, I'm loathe to move away from that since these two accounts now hold a dozen years of email archive. It can be transferred of course (I own the domains - at least they are not @gmail.com addresses), but still...
What we really need are psuedo-IPs.
Report: iOS Users Who Opt-Out of App Tracking Continue to Be Tracked by Facebook and Snapchat - MacRumors
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/12/08/users-continue-to-be-tracked-by-facebook/