• Bloobish [comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ad based and user data based in which data on everything and anything is sold in large user packets by certain demographic groups to ad agencies.

      • RebloodlicanDemocrip [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yannis Varoufakis has an interesting view of this reality - that it's digital serfdom. We are the serfs that browse many places on the internet for 'free' (living on the lord's land) and our data is our bodies being worked to farm the land. The profit ratio is the same - we get nothing but the 'privilege' of inhabiting a space, whilst they keep all the profits of our living.

        I've probably butchered the explanation somewhat, so go check it out for yourself.

      • DiltoGeggins [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        got it. so, much more intel-based, matching the ad against the user "need" or "interest" as it were. I had something similar to that happen on reddit but much more cringey. This was a couple years ago and I hadn't changed my settings to prohibit reddit selling my info to third parties. And I think also that they were less restrictive on who they sold user data to. Anyoo, I had made a comment in like a kayaking subreddit or something very topical like that completely showing absolutely no interest, just a comment basically on kayaks for whatever reason, using the term "kayaks" in my comment. The next day I was getting kayak ads sent to my gmail account. I quickly changed all my settings and it stopped, but it was quite interesting, and a proof of sorts. I posted about in on r/lifehacks and within an hour had over 1,000 likes or whatever. But all the main "front page" subs have rules that users are not allowed to post about reddit itself, so my advice got deleted. I remember feeling pretty frustrated, but also impressed by this organism's incredibly effective self-preservation techniques.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Except ads don't work outside the very top level agencies and brands anymore, so FB's model is also fucked in the medium term because the current digital agency model is fucked.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, and they have their own service for each demographic that they created or bought. Facebook for boomers and family friendly profile, Instagram for younger people and hustle nonsense, WhatsApp for instant messaging. And even within those services there's stuff like Facebook marketplace, WhatsApp communities and business, Instagram video and stories, etc.

      This allows them to monopolise everything and sell nicely collected user data based on each demographic that uses the different services.

      China does something similar with Weibo and WeChat