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Comment by holstvoogd | Hacker News Reader

I'm so fucking tired of these asswipes from companies are a thousand times worse pretending they are better. They literally sell all your data to anyone who wants is, but noooo, apple bad! I'm not saying apple is some kind of bastion of privacy or whatever, but at least they are not selling my data to pay for their spyware vessels.

To those 'experts': Get off you high horse and do better. Prove me wrong, go build a working open-source phone, go provide a image hosting service that does not analyze every single photo you upload. Go build a fucking app with out trying to steal my contact book. Fuck you

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> They literally sell all your data to anyone who wants is

Where/how can I buy all data for, let's say a dozen users, that facebook collects?

No wonder public is completely misinformed about how ad revenue based companies operate when even on HN blatant lies are highly upvoted.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-...

Thats not facebook. Some scummy companies do sell user data, but facebook does not and never has.

For Facebook to be selling my data, it isn't necessary that they email a data broker some spreadsheet of my personal data. Selling advertisers access to an incredibly intimate and private picture of my personal life so that they can best exploit my specific life circumstances to unduly influence me is exactly what bothers me about Facebook "selling my data."

To claim that Facebook isn't selling my data is a semantic distinction without a difference at best, and just downright dishonest at worst.

“literally sell all your data to anyone who wants”

This, which started the discussion, is just downright false. Who does Facebook sell my private photo albums to for instance? How could I buy someone’s photos?

Sure, they aren't selling strings of user passwords or pictures of users' government ID, so I guess the word "all" is inaccurate (in a wholly pedantic sort of way that's a red herring from what the actual concern being discussed is.)

What is being sold is access to incredibly in-depth pictures of users' private lives collected via the surveillance of the near totality of their online lives, to include even websites they visit off-platform. This access is sold to anyone who wishes to weaponize this deeply intimate picture of a user's private life (a picture only developed due to an unconscionable level of surveillance) to unduly influence them to believe or behave in ways they otherwise wouldn't.

Become an advertiser. "Selling your data" is a shorthand for what actually goes on: selling your attention based on data that those platforms have on you.

Google does this too. Any brand that relies on advertising instead of sales of its actual hardware is in this game.

yes "selling the data" is a oversimplification. but "they sell access to your data to other companies, that also have a significant base of user/customer-data, and this let's those other companies correlate your identity/profile" is just not as catchy or understandable.

You sound like someone lashing out after having their faith challenged. You're even making things up to make yourself feel better about your choices.

Calm down. People challenging Apple to do better only benefits you.

As someone who feels the same way as the commenter you are replying to: it does feel strange that the head of WhatsApp owned by Facebook would have even the slightest bit of credibility when discussing privacy, especially as it relates to Apple. The list of people with less credibility on the subject is incredibly low.

I have no love for apple and their crap. I'm just tired of the endless stream of this bullshit fake outrage by the worst perpetrators.

> Go build a fucking app with out trying to steal my contact book. Fuck you

Not saying I agree. But people have tried, guess which social networks self-select out of survival?

> But people have tried, guess which social networks self-select out of survival?

Is the implication that a social media network won't survive if it doesn't steal my contacts? Besides, not all social media companies stoop to that level. For all it's problems, Reddit doesn't steal your contacts.

Well, there was that priest who got outed through data brokers recently…

> Prove me wrong, go build a working open-source phone, go provide a image hosting service that does not analyze every single photo you upload.

the market says it has to be either free or elitist/glamorous, superior and idealistic don't work.

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