It's a fair bit easier to switch away from Google, as most of their services have much weaker network effects. For example searching, I can only resort to Google if everything else fails, and easily switch back and forth. (This is not to say that there aren't still tracking issues.)
With Facebook, there is no alternative. If you want the value that the network provides you are trapped.
Facebook has much more data on you and the data is a lot more private. What is the most private data google has? Gmail? Locations? AFAIK fb has access to a lot of people’s gmail accounts.
Everything you searched for. Every place you've been (along with the times of each). Every tutorial video you watched. And for most people, every email correspondence you've ever done. Add in google drive and google docs / calc, and it has far more insites into your life than FB.
I don't see how FB would have access to Gmail accounts...
I don't get it either. I guess people like to have a single villain. Facebook is bad but there are so many other companies that play fast and loose with data (Equifax for example). I hope there will be more legislation like GDPR instead of going after specific companies.
Google has just as much, if not more data on you than Facebook. The difference is that they _don't_ play fast and loose with your data.
Google's business security interests and my privacy interests overlap. The way that Facebook uses user data does not produce that overlap, in fact, it's the opposite, they make money by telling people about you.
I think it's simply that it's obvious to people that Facebook has a lot of data about them. Most of the general public does not think about things like search history, ad targeting, click tracking, etc.
Of course Facebook does those things too, but most people appear to be outraged that things they shared with Facebook ended up being more public than they expected, and were shared with an organization that might have helped elect Trump. Most people probably still don't realize the click tracking and stuff like that is going on.
It's not even "most people" that are outraged with Facebook though. It's the media. The same media which is financially threatened by the democratization of news and information (fake or otherwise) through social networks, and by recent moves that FB made to deprioritize news feeds in favor of social content.
If the comments even here are an indication, it’s because people have absolutely zero level of understanding into the level of data Google produces and has access to on you.
Google and Facebook both have privacy issues, but Facebook seems to have some negative impacts that google doesn’t. It’s addictive; it encourages shallow social engagement; it contributes to political polarization and the spread of disinformation, and so on. I’m not saying that those charges are right, but while the people at HN are possibly most concerned about the privacy issue the average Facebook hater has a lot of other issues with them.
And a person who hates Facebook for non-privacy reasons is likely to give them a harder time about privacy too. They may not be rational, but I think it’s pretty normal human behavior.
Google and Facebook both have privacy issues, but Facebook seems to have some negative impacts that google doesn’t. It’s addictive; it encourages shallow social engagement; it contributes to political polarization and the spread of disinformation, and so on.
Sure, all true, but perhaps that's because Facebook has to 'get engagement'?
I'm no notifications addict like many of my friends. However, I'm using a Google phone, rely on Google Maps, Mail, single sign on, and a lot more. There's no FacebookMail, FacebookMaps, and so forth that's glued to operating systems like a FacedroidOS.
Google has the best of all worlds, because it's in the infrastructure. It's free to spy in plain sight while Facebook is the canary (even if a very real, and totally predictable one.)
It's purely about who journalists and other writers see as friends vs. enemies. Nothing at all to do with actual privacy. People who hope to make money from their own websites see Google as neutral or even beneficial, helping them get more clicks and more ad dollars. They see Facebook as stealing those clicks, as the content is read on Facebook itself. This is clear from the very first example in the OP: "We Don’t Make Any Money If You Don’t Click The <censored by HN> Link"
I'm not saying who's correct or incorrect, right or wrong, just that the belief exists and drives behavior. Even if there's no deliberate ill intent, there's a natural tendency for people to be more hyper-aware of their perceived enemies' failings than of others'. Always consider self-interest when seeing what other websites publish about the big tech companies, or I guess about anything else either.
So I can't view the article because they're asking me to agree to cookies, which I'm happy to do, only some tool has decided that a plain checkbox needs JavaScript to work, and I can't check it on IE mobile. It literally won't toggle
They're probably using JavaScript to submit that to the server. Although it's technically not necessary, it's completely believable that they would use JS for that.
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 84.7 ms ] threadWith Facebook, there is no alternative. If you want the value that the network provides you are trapped.
I don't see how FB would have access to Gmail accounts...
Google's business security interests and my privacy interests overlap. The way that Facebook uses user data does not produce that overlap, in fact, it's the opposite, they make money by telling people about you.
Of course Facebook does those things too, but most people appear to be outraged that things they shared with Facebook ended up being more public than they expected, and were shared with an organization that might have helped elect Trump. Most people probably still don't realize the click tracking and stuff like that is going on.
And a person who hates Facebook for non-privacy reasons is likely to give them a harder time about privacy too. They may not be rational, but I think it’s pretty normal human behavior.
Sure, all true, but perhaps that's because Facebook has to 'get engagement'?
I'm no notifications addict like many of my friends. However, I'm using a Google phone, rely on Google Maps, Mail, single sign on, and a lot more. There's no FacebookMail, FacebookMaps, and so forth that's glued to operating systems like a FacedroidOS.
Google has the best of all worlds, because it's in the infrastructure. It's free to spy in plain sight while Facebook is the canary (even if a very real, and totally predictable one.)
I'm not saying who's correct or incorrect, right or wrong, just that the belief exists and drives behavior. Even if there's no deliberate ill intent, there's a natural tendency for people to be more hyper-aware of their perceived enemies' failings than of others'. Always consider self-interest when seeing what other websites publish about the big tech companies, or I guess about anything else either.
https://archive.is/veTbZ