Why don't these companies just offer a paid version of their products? Giving people an opportunity to back out. E.g: Pay X per month to use Google and you get no ads or tracked. YouTube does something similar, but I guess they still track you.
I personally would still mostly use the free ad-supported version.
Naive question: If you preclude a politician from owning stocks, can't they execute such trades via an off-the-radar friend? And receive profits via "gifts".
I imagine this is already illegal? But isn't it harder to prove if done right?
It's questionable, but I think the idea is that ad tech makes ads more valuable? Ie a user gets something relevant to them.
Maybe the future will be this personalization happens offline on the user's device.
Your example on WhatsApp buttresses my point I guess. With payment, businesses have to rely on part of their userbase. And we all know that segment largely comes from particular geographies. This knowledge largely affects a company's strategy.
Ads are not totally different -- CPC/CPM varies across markets. But maybe can be compensated by volume.
> Whether they are separate issues or not depends on the company.
I don't understand this. At the end of the day they are separate things, probably you are saying a profit-seeking company is more likely to be unethical?
The fact that two things are usually correlated doesn't make them the same, right?
What alternatives to ads do you suggest? I don't see donations or paid services as a viable alternative (especially for people in emerging markets -- will companies still have any incentives to chase these markets?).
I don't think other concerns are less important to "privacy" concerns.
Each restriction just makes certain ideas/project impossible or less ideal [1].
Honestly as an Android dev, I will prefer devices come with these restrictions by default. Then there should be a "I don't give a f*ck" button in the device developer options settings.
The option can be hidden behind 10 screens. Audit rails can be added. Anything but completely eliminating power-use in the name of privacy.
I mean, if you really want it today, there are places in the world you could go to that have little to no internet access.
Where people still communicate mostly in-person.
(I'm only half joking haha).
> Does Facebook really make anyone's life better?
I can only answer for myself. It made my life better:
1. At the start of my career, I got connections, jobs, etc from local groups.
2. I connected with old school mates I wouldn't have found other wise.
3. ...
My assumption is when people are not addicted or living/following fake lives on social media, there is a lot of benefits to it.
It could be OP is referring to multiple layers of (unnecessary) abstraction.
In Android land for example, there is a popular "clean" 3 layer architecture, where model classes are blindly mapped multiple times (even in cases where this is suboptimal).
I have lost count of people building "clean" inefficient caching mechanism instead of just using an HTTP cache.
Side note:
I believe these things are useful in some situations. Maybe the solution is to have a smart compiler that compiles out these inefficiencies?
Some (most?) apps are just skins around a database. Amazing what Facebook did with Messenger rewrite [0]
Is there an incentive problem? Generally, people get bonuses/accolades for making a slow system fast, not for keeping a system consistently fast. I admit the former is easier to measure.
Not sure. I will just share my own personal experience.
I live in Germany and I go to parks to freestyle with a soccer ball. My issue has always been dogs off lease interfering with my personal business. I have some balls with bite marks. I have been snubbed and sometimes gotten a rude response from owners.
I have lived in the USA also. My observation generally is that people find it weird when you say you don't like dogs/cats/etc -- almost like they are hearing it for the first time. This was a big difference from my home place.
I don't hate them, I just feel totally uncomfortable. Sometimes I feel my heart racing or I just totally freeze when I see a dog off lease nearby. (I would love to fix this: would appreciate any pointers).
1. Fiction: I think it is pointless. I try to watch fictional movies.
2. Information I feel is irrelevant: Say I'm writing, I would prefer:
"He proposed to her in a park with friends."
To:
"The sun stood firm, there was melody in the wind, his body was perfect like diamonds rubbed together. He held her gaze for an eternity, ignorant of his friends at the park. She felt puzzled -- he could see her in a way that would make even Heimdall jealous. Finally, he brought out the ring and proposed."
I feel like I'm missing out on a colorful part of life. But my attempts to change this hasn't work (like forcing myself to see more fiction).
I'm also motivated to change this to improve conversations (like dates or group conversations). I find more people are into this than me.