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A comment on Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook. Parent comment

Re:Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook by cortesoft on Sunday June 26, 2016 @05:04PM (#11982710)
I really hate this argument. Sure, everyone knows that Facebook makes money by selling advertisers access to targeted users. However, it isn't like users aren't getting something in return for this. Users of facebook aren't 'useds', they are participants in a transaction. They are given a service they enjoy, and in return they grant their eyeballs for ads, and their data for targeting those ads.

Now, we can argue whether users are aware of what they are trading, or if the trade is fair, but I think most people have a pretty good idea of how Facebook is making money.

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Re:Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook by superobserver on Sunday June 26, 2016 @05:17PM (#11982769)
You can hate the argument all you like; although such an emotionally charged term being levelled against the argument itself is curious but probably not particularly informative. It also doesn't change the way Facebook violates norms of privacy in a number of ways that should give people pause for thought, at any rate. RMS has put forward excellent reasons that detract from the use of the platform.
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Re:Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook by cortesoft on Sunday June 26, 2016 @10:27PM (#11983866)
I was not using the term 'hate' in the emotional sense. Perhaps a better choice of words would be to say that I find the argument disingenuous; almost everyone these days knows what Facebook does for a living, so to act like Facebook users are somehow being tricked is simply untrue.
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Re:Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook by superobserver on Sunday June 26, 2016 @09:14PM (#11983678)
Cf. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ad_iram
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Re:Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook by pdonis on Sunday June 26, 2016 @10:48PM (#11983930)
> I think most people have a pretty good idea of how Facebook is making money.

I don't. I think most people don't even think about how Facebook is making money. They just see that it doesn't cost them any money, and they think "oh, great, I can connect with people for free!" and use it without considering the costs or the bigger picture. This certainly describes practically everyone I know personally who uses Facebook.

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