Facebook users would have to pay to opt out of their data being used for ads | Hacker News Reader

Facebook users would have to pay to opt out of their data being used for ads

cnbc.com

16 pointsvijaybritto13 comments

I wonder if it will be a bidding system. Like if you pay $15/mo then that is used to win the ad bidding process and keep your data safe from ad bids less than $1. However, if someone is bidding $5 per ad spot, then it over comes your ad buffer and you see it. In a way, everyone loses and facebook makes way more money by weponizing their concerned users who have enough cash to pay for puedo privacy.

Honestly turning it into an auction sounds so close to a Black Mirror episode I can almost already picture the cast

I'd be alright with a few quid here and there to remove all ads from the site and remove my data from the advertisers' hands (Max limit: ${netflix_price}/mo) but an auction would definitely have me glancing elsewhere

Nobody is going to spend time each month thinking about how much money they should bid to keep their data away from advertisers, to make people pay for something, make them think less about the purchase.

I think the people that would have been willing to spend money on FB to protect their information from advertisers have already left, and are not going back.

Drug rehab ads will be over $100 for a click through. Similar medical ads are just as expensive (cancer treatment ect).

Anyone that really needs that privacy won't get it with such a plan.

Well, this shouldn't be controversial. Of course if you cut the main revenue stream for facebook by opting out of data collection they would have you to pay for the service in a different way. They're not in it for the good feelings.

The real questions are:

1. Would it be a good idea from a purely privacy perspective (if I'm guaranteed it works, I'd say yes)

2. Will people pay with money?

Even if they're not collecting your personal data, they can still present you with adverts. Your local TV company of Newspaper don't have information about you - they still sell advertising.

Facebook's model is still viable with no data collection at all. They platform would still make money, it just wouldn't have a market cap of $400Bn, it'd be in the region of $x0Bn like a huge newspaper.

> 2. Will people pay with money?

No. 100% no.

How could anyone trust Facebook? Even if I paid money, I'm sure they would continue to share my data. And if they were ever discovered, they'd blame it on another 'bug'.

In the context of Facebook's tracking of non-users and logged out users being found illegal in Belgium, and potentially elsewhere in Europe, couldn't this legally be considered an extortion racket?

Facebook is naturally very good at optimizing their platform to extract more and more money per user.

I wonder whether the price of such monetization opt out would account for their increasing revenue per user by rising accordingly.

... on the other hand: it's price probably won't fall in the case of a drop in ad revenue either.

They would still be collecting it for when you decide to stop paying for your subscription...

If they do it as some kind of data storage angle it seems like a pretty start forward product.

Deleting your account not simply enought. EU forces data privacy to all companies, but somehow forgot Facebook, Google and Twitters.

Quite .. Odd ?

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