You are the commodity.

I'm sure this won't be news to too many folks here. What should be of wonder is the scale and profit it is being done and why you are being farmed and sold digitally, with little or no recourse or say.

Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.

The social network permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends, and it let Yahoo view streams of friends’ posts as recently as this summer, despite public statements that it had stopped that type of sharing years earlier.

As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants

I often wonder what the paycheck per user might be. Lets say you offered up your information, for a price, and that it was a way to actually make a little side money.

Nothing about this is even close to that however. Also worth noting, if you are a FB user, you gave them permission by simply checking a box to proceed with the application.

If you’re not on FB - stay off FB.

If you’re on FB - get off FB.

Either way, stay off FB.

As the saying goes, if any good or service is given for free, you are the product. This isn't even limited in scope to modern digital goods, it applies back as long as your information is required for purchase, attendance, or sale. Facebook (and myspace before it) allowed for a massive centralization of personal information to be bought and sold, and you agreed to it when you signed up. Furthermore search engines and cookies track you and monetize your every action on the internet. That is why google went from a fantastic research tool in about 2007 to a lobotomized advertisement machine. Rather than feeding you somewhat Boolean logic in searches, they have been replaced with algorithms to get the most ad money possible out of every search and every link.

a reply to: JinMI

eyeballs = money

While mining the data off your phone? While you pay for the data used by your phone. While watching the commercials that used up bandwidth. What an F’n rigged system.

Facebook free since 2012.

I used to think that I needed social media to be successful. I thought I needed it for advertising and branding myself, so that people knew of my business and knew who I was. Then, after years of headache and privacy issues I finally said enough is enough. I took the plunge and pulled the plug on all of my social media. I haven't noticed any loss of business. I went back to the old school way of just phone calls, e-mails, and meetings in person. I ordered a few different business card designs. I'd give cheap ones out for casual customers and to leave at other places of business, and I had nicer ones for more serious customers.

I don't even have a website anymore. A majority of my advertising is through word of mouth. I've had people e-mail or call me from the other side of the country and even in other countries. So, I don't think I need to credit social media for anything, nor do I think I will ever go back to any of them.


It's of my opinion that people really would be happier if they avoided social media altogether. There's a trend going on where I am currently located and it's only gaining in popularity. I meet more and more people all the time who have chosen to forgo social media. I even meet younger people who are in their teens and young adults who are disgusted with the way people perceive and portray themselves on social media. Those very people who don't utilize social media tend to be happier and more involved with those around them. That's awesome to me.

I know of way too many people who will waste hours of every day recorded themselves doing completely ridiculous things, talking about nothing significant, or just sitting around playing with their phones while having the camera on.

The craziest thing of all to me is that there are people who will actually waste just as much time watching these people waste time.