HRM Resident
2024-04-16 18:37:56 UTC
I spent a day (in total, off and on this past week) and did a LOT of
research on YouTube (owned by Google,) Meta, (used to be called
Facebook), Amazon, etc. These outfits are building profiles on their
users in infinite detail, sharing the info the collect between each
other, and generally playing "Peeping Tom" on their users. It's way
worse than I suspected.
Their "free" services comes at a high cost. I am so glad I smelled
a rat 10-15 years ago WRT social media. I need Amazon, but I don't need
the other crap.
Ditch FB, avoid YouTube (use https://piped.video/trending instead)
and do your Internet searches with DuckDuckGo. If you can, use a VPN
to hide your IP and ensure your data is encrypted. Telegram or Signal
are good alternative to texting, if you need to shoot one-liners off to
your friends.
None of this is new "news" to anyone here, but I decided to
convince myself it was as bad as the rumours. It's worse. In the
words of Rick Walker about CCTV cameras, "I have nothing to hide, so
what's the problem?" The problem is not just targeted ads. It's
equivalent to stores putting CCTVs in public wash rooms and sharing the
videos of you wiping your ass with other companies without telling you.
I like my ass, but I don't want everyone who works at Walmart and Costco
looking at it! :-)
Deleting a FB account is equivalent to solving a Rubic's cube. Good
luck on figuring out how . . . it's well hidden. Watch a cat video on
YouTube, and all the outfits I mentioned will add something like "cat
nut" to your profile and use it to their advantage.
Protect your privacy as much as possible. At least Usenet *seems*
to not spread info everywhere about us. Sigh. The Internet was such a
wonderful thing . . . and Social Media has made it a voyeur.
research on YouTube (owned by Google,) Meta, (used to be called
Facebook), Amazon, etc. These outfits are building profiles on their
users in infinite detail, sharing the info the collect between each
other, and generally playing "Peeping Tom" on their users. It's way
worse than I suspected.
Their "free" services comes at a high cost. I am so glad I smelled
a rat 10-15 years ago WRT social media. I need Amazon, but I don't need
the other crap.
Ditch FB, avoid YouTube (use https://piped.video/trending instead)
and do your Internet searches with DuckDuckGo. If you can, use a VPN
to hide your IP and ensure your data is encrypted. Telegram or Signal
are good alternative to texting, if you need to shoot one-liners off to
your friends.
None of this is new "news" to anyone here, but I decided to
convince myself it was as bad as the rumours. It's worse. In the
words of Rick Walker about CCTV cameras, "I have nothing to hide, so
what's the problem?" The problem is not just targeted ads. It's
equivalent to stores putting CCTVs in public wash rooms and sharing the
videos of you wiping your ass with other companies without telling you.
I like my ass, but I don't want everyone who works at Walmart and Costco
looking at it! :-)
Deleting a FB account is equivalent to solving a Rubic's cube. Good
luck on figuring out how . . . it's well hidden. Watch a cat video on
YouTube, and all the outfits I mentioned will add something like "cat
nut" to your profile and use it to their advantage.
Protect your privacy as much as possible. At least Usenet *seems*
to not spread info everywhere about us. Sigh. The Internet was such a
wonderful thing . . . and Social Media has made it a voyeur.
--
HRM Resident
HRM Resident