Ask HN: Instead of #deleteFacebook, how about changing our demographic data?

2 points by dplgk 7y ago ↗ HN

#deletefacebook was cute but mostly ineffective due to the monopoly FB has on certain aspects of communication - people simply don't want to delete their accounts. How about a way to keep using Facebook but to thwart their ad revenue?

What if we change our demographic data, liked bands, sports, restaurants etc to create a very high noise ratio for FB's ad targeting? I think a lot more people would be willing to do this than to delete their accounts or installing adblock. Badly targeted ads = less revenue.

5 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 19.7 ms ] thread

smt88 7y ago ↗

You assume that FB advertisers will stop spending money if targeting gets worse. I doubt that assumption is correct.

There's already enough noise in my profile that most of my demographic targeting is garbage.

The real value Facebook provides is tracking me across other sites. It'll pull items out of my cart at some online retailer and show me an ad on FB. I haven't figured out how to escape that.

ctrlaltdev 7y ago ↗

Some adblockers also blocks tracking scripts from social media sites

smt88 7y ago ↗

I use multiple blockers and JS is disabled by default on all sites. I also use Facebook Container on Firefox.

Facebook is really, scarily good at tracking us.

ctrlaltdev 7y ago ↗

I guess that paper is still relevant then D: : https://panopticlick.eff.org/static/browser-uniqueness.pdf

ctrlaltdev 7y ago ↗

I feel that the goal behind #deletefacebook is not only to 'hurt' FB, but for the user to benefit from the deletion as well.

I don't see that much benefit in getting badly targeted ads for the user.

I tend to continue to think educating the user is the only long-term way.