Re: Data Gathering
 

This is the bit I don't care for, because you'll essentially be living in an echo chamber of your own confirmation bias (as curated by facebook or whoever).

Re: Data Gathering
 

This is part of why the "I have nothing to hide" sanctimoniousness is so deadly. That implies that we should all be prepared to have all of our information available at all times - and to whom exactly? Those of you who seem very blase about this: are you really sure that's what you want? Be very careful what you are giving away.

As an LGBTQ (and whatever other letters we're adding at the moment) person, I certainly want to control who has access to any information about me as there are many people, known and unknown, who would wish me ill. Indeed as an insufferable c***, I certainly want to control who has access to any information about me as there are many people, known and unknown, who would wish me ill.

I know several people who have had severe family trauma with involuntary outing because they could not figure out the infernal privacy settings on FB. One reason I have never joined. It is not for Facebook to decide with whom I want to share important and potentially risky personal information yet we seem to be mindlessly surrendering that prerogative. And the expectation that we should be happily prepared to do this becomes a new standard group norm - you must join those who have "nothing to hide". That stands ultimately to make the world an even more dangerous and unpleasant place to live.

Re: Data Gathering
 

i think this, posted in the Bali thread by Desert Shaikh, particularly the last scene in the video, pertains exactly to this topic also....



I'm sure some of you FB whizzes can figure out how to embed it properly... Er it seems I managed somehow but I'm sure some boffin - correction, server - in Peoria or Pune has logged it in my record of poor technical literacy against which my application for a licence to participate in future society will soon be judged.

Re: Data Gathering
 

So what are you hiding?

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Eh. People already do that, facebook or not. Nothing new there.


It's easy to pin the blame on facebook but confirmation bias and echo chambers are as old as time.

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I'm not blaming face book for that, however when (and increasingly so) all your news comes through one source with its sophisticated algorithms to curate to your tastes, it's a little different to days of old.

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That's a painfully obvious but very good point. A lot of my friends were pro-remain (as an example that's good but with the potential to derail us signinficantly) and posted / shared the pro-remain propaganda. I did see the opposite as well but less.

Just as a counter, for sake of debate....This is fair enough but user error isn't the fault of a business. Nor is anyone forced into joining any social media or expected to sacrifice privacy. I'm not a total facebook fanboy, I appreciate it's uses but have enjoyed Zuckerberg being interrogated because when he squirms it gives cause for concern but when he clearly articulates that they don't take X data, it's quite compelling and believable. It's certainly dispelling a lot of myths.

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You could have said the same about mother Beeb for a long time now.

We have far more sources for news and information these days that it's a sheer struggle to keep track of them all. Because of that people continue to stick with what they know and already trust, largely because they like seeing and hearing what they're told by those sources. The Guardian is definitely an echo chamber, has always been an echo chamber, and is no different today than 25 years ago. The DT does the same.

I remember having a discussion with a wise person who commented that a few decades ago the majority of news was controlled by a small handful of outlets. Today there is a far broader selection to pick from. What's actually happened is the lost of control of the media narrative by that previous small handful of outlets, who were usually left / establishment leaning. They are aghast at it, usually because they saw themselves as having a moral responsibility for filtering news to the common masses, but the truth is that they were no better or morally superior and were highly susceptible to their own biases.

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Imagine if in 1950s Germany, the government had access to so much data on people. Ann Frank would never have been able to finish her diary.

Zee Germans are great these-days on data protection for these exact paranoia concerns.

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Godwin's law, eh?

Anne Frank was already dead by the 1950s but your point is taken. The question goes back to what I earlier alluded to and it's whether you trust your government or not.

Speaking of Germans, if you explore their cities on google earth you'll find a lot of buildings blurred out. I find it intriguing. It's very rare to find blurred buildings or houses on google earth in the UK. That says much about the differences between the Germans and British.

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Germany won't allow Streetview either.

This a screenshot of the French German border, but you can't guess where it is?

https://preview.ibb.co/eLLE97/Screenshot_1.jpg

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No, not at all. It's a great example - and exactly why Germans lead in data protection: they learnt from history. Obviously, I forgot when the war ended :lol:

Do you trust your government? Given that they have lied repeatedly and show no interest in stopping that, or data collection... probably not. Nor do I wear a tin foil hat.

Downloaded my facebook data - they only have the one post I ever did and nothing else. The email address that's registered to them stopped working several years ago and I have no intention of updating it. I only use facebook to complain on company's websites about customer service when things need getting resolved.

Instagram... now that's an issue but that's mostly me watching videos of girls twerking or men deadlifting.

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Yes, generally speaking, I do trust the government in the sense that I trust them not to abuse my information. All governments, even the most well intended ones, are riddled with incompetence and mistakes made by well meaning people, and that would the greatest risk to personal data. But I do have faith that the British government (and society by extension) will continue to muddle its way to the future as fairly and honestly and well meaning as possible. So I'm not unduly worried about the British government having access to my personal data.

One might even argue that the more personal data the government has, the harder it will be for them to deliberately abuse it to my disadvantage. The less information the government has one me relative to other people could make it easier for mischievous people to build up a false profile and assign it to me.

Of course, if Corbyn and McDonnell ever get into power I might be singing a different tune!

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Nice, of course you are probably sending your data to a location not controlled by the British government.

Personally I wouldn't trust the Brits over anyone else, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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All of that maybe true but you give up the choice provided by varied sources when it is curated through the filter of Facebook or whatever your app of choice is.

That was my point