Sorry - I want to make clear that the point of sharing this article on HN is not to give credit to who came up with this concept. I simply want to start (or continue) discourse on this particular subject.
To be honest, this isn't even just about Facebook, I'm sure you could have the same argument about the majority of today's tech companies who are commoditizing information about users and using that to monetize.
Generally, though, this is a trend that is not slowing down, instead it's rapidly speeding up. In addition to that, the methods have become increasingly worse. I'd like to continue discourse on methods of combating this particular phenomenon.
I agree that this particular article probably doesn't introduce any new ideas into conversation. However, I think it's important to continue dialogue on methods of action to combat this phenomenon. Realistically, while there are more and more articles and comments like this, the fact of the matter is that Facebook's growth and monetization is not slowing at an appreciable rate at all, and their methods have not substantially changed (if anything, they have changed for the worse as they concentrate more and more on monetization).