Hacker News Reader

Comment by 2muchcoffeeman | Hacker News Reader

>I hope this platform dies, rather quickly. Because it harms society and individuals more than we are aware of.

I'm not deleting my account. I only signed up because I was using the Facebook API for something once and needed an account to test. Other than that, I occasionally post links to news, pictures (look at my food! look at this funny animal!), and I check on groups that I belong to, especially the trading ones. The groups are especially useful. I also only ever log in from a single place, my mobile.

It always amazes me how people use it. What did you think was going to happen to that data? How do you think a service as large as Facebook was paying it's bills? People don't need to stop using Facebook. They need to sit for a second and think about they are using it.

View on HN

My problem is not how they use / misused the data. Thats a whole different chapter. I am accusing them of having made a platform that is designed to make you come back, as often as possible. They give you the illusion of being connected, liked when you post something and others hit the like button, but in reality many of your contacts feel miserable when you did something that they can't. And all that happens is that your attention gets distracted, whenever you login. Also, this is a machinery that allows to manipulate the psychology of the masses. Manipulate the masses in a way our societies never have seen before. Democracies are vulnerable. They always have been. But never as much as with platforms like this.

And by the way: This man is a genious. He made half the population of the world believe that privacy isn't something valueable, that we should share our most precious moments with half the world.

Edit: minor change

"designed to make you come back" ... but that's true of the whole ad-supported internet, broadcast TV etc. If it's free, you are the product. Still a problem, but not just a FB problem.

> What did you think was going to happen to that data?

In some sense you are right, but in this context you are missing the point. The whole point of this recent uproar is that 3rd parties got access to significant amounts of data without consent. Why should people expect that to happen?

I think the biggest problem with a lot of companies is that it's all about growth. Every year more money, more customers etc. Eventually something will give when you're trying to provide a free service and become a huge company. They have to sell something to someone who will pay.

So for a social media company that is free for users and requires a huge software development effort? What are their assets? Pretty much just users. Maybe their code based. I think it's almost inevitable that they put ads on stuff and then later sell your data. What else were they going to do? Start asking users to pay a subscription? Sell the software so that others can spin up their own social media websites?

Its become a cliche but "if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer, you're the product". Now obviously companies with products and services you pay for, are still going to screw you over. But yes, I think this is exactly what people should expect to happen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com