Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens, not 5%

Re:Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens,... by liquidise on Friday March 01, 2019 @02:55PM (#19284647)

I don't understand the uproar around these numbers. Saying that 18% represents a clear intent to target teenagers strikes me as intentionally misunderstanding the math.

Teens, i would imagine, represent at least 18% of recreational internet usage. If anything 18% feels like it risks under-representing the group if i were designing research on the topic.

There are plenty of reasons to be upset with facebook (deceit, privacy, bs marketing, etc) about this very issue. All this hullabaloo about 5 vs 18% feels like manufactured outrage to me.

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Re:Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens,... by moosey on Friday March 01, 2019 @03:18PM (#19284850)

I guarantee that when all is said and done, that a part of this project, or whatever it is, will be attempts to alter human behavior in various ways. Basically, a continuation on the human experimentation that facebook has been allowed to get away with as long as I can remember. People have gotten so used to Facebook changing the news feed on a whim to try to change human behavior and interaction on the site, that we don't think of it as what it is.

Basically, I believe that a curated feed that isn't completely controlled by end-user rules will be declared illegal at some point in the near future.

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Re:Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens,... by taurath on Saturday March 02, 2019 @12:01AM (#19287657)

What is advertising if not an attempt to alter human behavior? When a 4 year old sees 10 candy commercials an hour they are gonna want candy

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Re:Facebook admits 18% of Research spyware users were teens,... by Ensorceled on Friday March 01, 2019 @03:03PM (#19284721)

Well, other than the fact that Facebook lied about the number.

The reason Facebook tried to initially downplay the number indicates that even they thought this was an issue so I’m not sure why you think this is manufactured outrage.

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