There’s a major difference between the government’s data gathering, and Facebook’s.
When you participate in Facebook, you know that it is essentially a marketing organization that makes its money by well-targeted advertising, and that you sacrifice your “privacy” when you post stuff on what is, after all, a site you know is owned by someone else and was started for their purposes (to make money selling ad space) not yours. You agreed to all this when you set up your page.
Personally, I’m not disturbed nor even annoyed by the ads that pop up that I can tell are targeting me based on, say, the vacuum cleaners I checked out on another site. Somebody pays for the “free” stuff on the internet and it is these ads that do so. Can’t help but notice that on many of my pet personal blogs, that ads will pop up featuring EXACTLY the same merchandise I had checked out on another site.
Government spying is something else. I distinctly did NOT agree to let government authorities eavesdrop on my phone conversations, or read my email, or plant bugging devices in my walls. Additionally, the government is empowered to make uses of the information that an entity like FB is not, like to toss me in prison with no formal charges on “suspicion” that I might be a “terrorist”- another Term of Use that I never agreed to and that is unlawful and immoral.
work-in-progress
March 15, 2014 6:10 pm
Free? How is the internet free?
Chicago999444
March 15, 2014 11:09 pm
Your connection, of course, is not “free”, but much of the content is free to you, being paid for by the ad revenue it generates. And advertising is much more valuable when it can target its market, instead of just being a shot in the dark.
There’s a major difference between the government’s data gathering, and Facebook’s.
When you participate in Facebook, you know that it is essentially a marketing organization that makes its money by well-targeted advertising, and that you sacrifice your “privacy” when you post stuff on what is, after all, a site you know is owned by someone else and was started for their purposes (to make money selling ad space) not yours. You agreed to all this when you set up your page.
Personally, I’m not disturbed nor even annoyed by the ads that pop up that I can tell are targeting me based on, say, the vacuum cleaners I checked out on another site. Somebody pays for the “free” stuff on the internet and it is these ads that do so. Can’t help but notice that on many of my pet personal blogs, that ads will pop up featuring EXACTLY the same merchandise I had checked out on another site.
Government spying is something else. I distinctly did NOT agree to let government authorities eavesdrop on my phone conversations, or read my email, or plant bugging devices in my walls. Additionally, the government is empowered to make uses of the information that an entity like FB is not, like to toss me in prison with no formal charges on “suspicion” that I might be a “terrorist”- another Term of Use that I never agreed to and that is unlawful and immoral.
Free? How is the internet free?
Your connection, of course, is not “free”, but much of the content is free to you, being paid for by the ad revenue it generates. And advertising is much more valuable when it can target its market, instead of just being a shot in the dark.