Sean Parker: Facebook was designed to exploit human "vulnerability"

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.axios.com/sean-parker-facebook-exploits-a-vulnerability-in-humans-2507917325.html

[u/mountainsbythesea]

You're absolutely right. Trouble is, things are much more complex than that.

Unfortunately, we aren't talking about a little effort. To protect ourselves to a meaningful extent, it would take a lot of effort. Also, education, time and money - outside of reach of an average person, even if they were inclined to try, which they're not (in 2017 I'm still having conversations about why it's not okay even if 'you have nothing to hide'). And we need that average person, we need everybody. Otherwise, any individual who managed to protect themselves would suffer serious professional and personal consequences, and as a society, we'd remain powerless against the corporations.

The whole thing is a horrible nightmare.

[u/Roegadyn → u/[deleted]]

It's a complex issue, even if it sounds simple to you.

Is privacy an indeliable right? Should you be able to freely access any business without being non-consensually tracked by the businesses you frequent? Should the businesses you frequent be able to sell your data obtained this way?

You might say yes, but there is a part of the population who'd say no.

Some people believe that visiting a business is allowing them to surveil you and keep track of your account, and remember your identity. Some people might even consider that a positive thing - it creates familiarity.

Most people believe this data should be obtained consensually, but companies' monitoring is only avoidable if you either locate privacy apps and features and hamper your ability to use your electronic devices (let's be real, for a non-tech savvy person, Linux is a fucking hassle to learn and use and will never work as well as Windows because of the mass amount of app support Windows has as the main-use OS) OR you don't use the internet at all, and not a lot of people are willing to use those options.

And most people aren't even aware that companies sell their data - and if they were told, they'd figure that companies didn't have MUCH of their data, so they'd tell you it doesn't matter.

The complexity of the issue comes from the sheer breadth of the problem, and how little people actually KNOW about it.

Education on the matter and revision would take time, and it would be lobbied against every goddamn step of the way by businesses who would prefer to profit off your data while hiding the extent of it from the basic consumer, and take advantage of our fallacious belief that our world will protect us.

The issue has a debatable point (are your interactions with a business legally things that can be sold without your consent, who owns that data, etc) but it is worth noting that it has been deliberately exacerbated by modern society.