Facebook data harveting is no worse than the Guardian’s
Anyone who has ever written an email to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg should check their inbox. A report on Techcrunch claims Zuckenburg’s messages have vanished. Their own replies and missives were intact – but all of his words had gone. Erased down the memory hole?
So will Facebook extend the same courtesy to you? Don’t bet on it. Apparently, when Facebook claimed any private videos uploaded by users would vanish on the users’ request, instead Facebook “permanently retained these videos”. Who owns your photos and videos?
Is it all matter of, if you think Big Tech is taking you for fool, it’s taking you for fool? Facebook is a bit of fun, a distraction from the stress and joys of real like. You can tun it off of ignore it. Many are.
Techcrunch reports:
Facebook now says that it plans to launch an “unsend” feature for Facebook messages to all users in the next several months, and won’t let Mark Zuckerberg use that feature any more until it launches for everyone. One option Facebook is considering for the Unsend feature is an expiration timer users could set. But it’s alarming that Facebook didn’t disclose the retractions or plans for a Unsend button until forced, and scrambling to give everyone the feature seems like an effort to quiet users’ anger over the situation
Facebook is mired. But let’s not be hypocritical.
Around its story “‘Utterly horrifying’: ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting as routine”, the Guardian is operating not one but three trackers, including Doubleclick (it gathers data for Google ads to target you with stuff), Scorecard Research Beacon. What it does you can read about on the Guardian:
…it has “approximately two million worldwide consumers under continuous measurement”…
the cookie may be used to observe certain types of browsing behaviours, which are then combined with other browser data to give a picture of what people are likely to do when they surf the web. The data obtained through ScorecardResearch cookies is kept for up to 90 days. When it is aggregated to observe trends, it may be used for analytical purposes indefinitely.
And – get this – the Guardian story also uses Facebook Custom Audience, which once all the user data has been harvested and stored can:
- Create an ad using the ads create tool. You can set it to show in News Feed or the right-hand column and on any device.
- Choose your Custom Audience and select targeting options like location, age, gender and interests
- Set a budget and place your order. Your ad will be served to the audience you’ve chosen to target.
Do all Guardian readers know?
Spotter: Techcrunch
Posted: 8th, April 2018 | In: Broadsheets, Key Posts, News, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
