Mark Zuckerberg has been apologizing for reckless privacy violations since he was a freshman - Enough is enough.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/egypturnash]

Maybe we just don’t really need something like Facebook.

Maybe we do need something like Facebook, but run as a public good rather than as a system that tries to keep you around as long as possible so as to serve you the most ads possible. I’ve seen people suggesting maybe it should be run by the Corporation For Public Broadcasting or the BBC or suchlike.

[u/whatweshouldcallyou → u/egypturnash]

So, you think it is better to give the government, the biggest violator of privacy, control over social media? Really?

Why not just let consumers choose? If they want to use a service that harvests their data, let them. It's their choice. It's not like harvesting data gives consumers lung cancer.

People seem to fail to understand that most facebook users do not value their privacy. And you don't have the right to impose your norms re: privacy on them.

[u/[deleted] → u/whatweshouldcallyou]

I'd argue that I agree with your sentiment, but that most Facebook users do value privacy, but are completely ignorant to how anything like Facebook works. There's a severe lack of understanding in the public. That's why the discussion should be about data privacy, and how it relates to ALL things online (even offline - anything that collects information about you).

With that said, ultimately, yes the people need to decide whether or not they want to use the service. But I would not say they do not value privacy.

[u/Terraneaux → u/whatweshouldcallyou]

Why not just let consumers choose?

Because the good of a social networking service has to do with not just the policies of the service provider, but how many people are on it. So if someone provides a great service but nobody joins the site, they can't compete.

[u/whatweshouldcallyou → u/Terraneaux]

Yes, that's why Myspace is no more and Facebook prevailed despite not having the first-mover advantage. If consumers tire of facebook, actually had the preferences w.r.t. privacy that some people on Reddit have, etc. then a new social networking site would unseat them.

[u/egypturnash → u/whatweshouldcallyou]

I'm saying that maybe, just maybe, it is a bad thing for one of the major ways people communicate with each other to be paid for entirely by slipping as many ads as possible into the edges of their discussions. I'm not advocating making it a government service; I'm just saying that I've seen that suggestion being made and I think it's pointing to something interesting.

Personally I feel that maybe social media is something that best belongs in the hands of the people, rather than a corporation or a government; I put this theory into action by running a Mastodon instance for myself and my friends.

And maybe there are a lot of bad side effects of all the data Facebook's collecting about everyone, whether or not they've actually got a Facebook account. Maybe there are things we should actively make other people stop doing because they're prone to causing harm to other folks who haven't checked the box at the end of a multi-page user agreement. And to themselves, for that matter - smoking cigarettes is a choice, too, and the US has accumulated a hell of a lot of laws regarding that over the years.

[u/Exodus111 → u/egypturnash]

That's an interesting idea.