It’s almost as if their business model’s primary focus is not to connect sellers and buyers. I wonder how Palantir feels about the effectiveness of fb data.
1. doesn't benefit the merchants (by providing better targeting)
2. doesn't benefit the consumers (by providing better targeting)
C. I really don't care if they're running a scam, I'm not on FB nor am I advertising on it.
Then what the hell do they actually need all this tracking data for?!!
All that's left is that it benefits the political influence ecosystem (like you said, Palantir & co).
But! We used to believe it benefits the merchants, too (I don't think we ever honestly believed it benefited the consumer, ever). And for all the same, what if in a few months we'll hear political marketing companies and super-PAC whotsits complain that, also for them, FB ads don't really give a great ROI. That it's so much more effective to cold-call people or go door-to-door and do flabby meatspace stuff.
Then what? Why are they tracking us? Really, why are the big machine learning data centres tracking us? I'm just saying. Anyone who still thinks this century can't get any crazier hasn't been paying attention.