Do we Need to Regulate Google and Facebook

I never joined. Although FOMO is a powerful motivator.
Isn’t the Choice Community also a form of social media, as is LinkedIn. The latter I needed to join because it was what a recruitment agency required.

Facebook is voluntary. The business model though appears to make itself essential. If there is to be regulation it would be a wise start to legislate against it becoming the exclusive tool for access.

Choice forums are, but they are providing a service alongside the main site. I hate LinkedIn. I was “in” for a few months years ago, but after I deleted my account I kept getting spammed. Then sometime after that stopped, a friend added me to her contacts list and I started getting spammed again. i HATE LinkedIN, possibly more than FB.

The difference between this site, and others like it, are that discussions are generated. Facebook doesnt encourage discussion at all. one’s post scrolls off the bottom of the news page faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Of course, posts are available on people’s personal pages, but then, you have to hit every one individually… and that is not something made easy by how FB is set up. And it takes a lot more time. FB also decides what you want to see. For example (and this is what has prompted my most recent dummy spit) I was presented with a large advertisement for an alt-right group on FB. Now why they would think it interested me, I have no idea. Maybe one of my friends is alt-right and I dont know who that is…either way its unacceptable. So too is the advertising. When I was looking for a new mattress (not on facebook) I began being served up ads for mattresses there. Likewise a fridge, a washing machine, a dryer, and mobility scooters. This is because FB cookies are everywhere on the web. You cannot hide from them.

Choice is not in the same class. Thank god.

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Garbage - he’s ignoring under-12s.

You can, with a decent ad-blocker. (You might also wish to change your preferred search engine.) Of course there are plenty of tracking technologies that do not rely upon cookies or beacons but instead look for things like your screen resolution, colour depth and installed fonts (for instance) - but they are not quite so wide-spread as Facebook/Twitter/Google etc. beacons that you encounter on so many pages if you do not block them.

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Duckduckgo and Blockbear at the mo, but I am about to reinstall Weblock as a system wide blocker on my ipad. It works too well, if anything.

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Another 6 years and they will get to vote!

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Change of mind. I was all set to advertise some stuff I need to be rid of, and realised that facebook market is the only place I have ever had any success. So I’ve gone back again. Gumtree is full of tyrekickers, or scammers (not that there are none on Market, but there do not seem to be that many) and I just don’t want to play on feebay. Oh well, only lasted 2 days.

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Why not use one browser for all the junky stuff, and block everything on your main browser?

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Thats a sensible idea… no wonder I didnt think of it :slight_smile: Thanks :slight_smile:

An interesting article regarding Facebook and Google.

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All ‘problems Facebook’ may be resolved next week. Stay tuned for Facebook changing its name as reported by many media. That surely fixes things. Surely it must. Right it will. Well maybe?

The question is whether the change will just be for the holding company, or to Facebook. Most likely akin to Google becoming Alphabet and keeping Google. Such antics are in vogue as are meaningless empty apologies.

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I thought that piece was a silly oversimplification. It fails to address so many aspects of the problem including how to deal with companies that have already grown by acquisition to become huge. I like The Conversation generally but sometimes their academics produce articles that concentrate on the one solution to a problem that the author thinks they can get a handle on rather than the solutions that are most likely to do good.

A big change coming for 'social" media.

How does the social media company know how old the user is? People lie about their age online all the time, I am not sure how Tweetbook can possibly police this.

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What don’t they know about them already? :grinning:

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Facebook is changing their name.

No mention of changing their behaviour.

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What could possibly go wrong?

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Is the motivation purely PR, or were there other risks for Facebook? As the system was never transparent, were errors arising from use of their system (unlikely as they might seem) with real potential to cause harm and unintended consequences. Perhaps there were legal risks arising from mis-identification? It’s a good thing IMO if the system is genuinely being nuked.

Facebook is not the only one who has this ability?

No, the NYPD uses or at least used facial recognition, as do many law enforcement entities around the world.

Yes, including Australia.

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Google has lost their appeal in the EU against the antitrust finding against them. This means they have to pay a fine of around 2.5 billion Euros. The fine was first levied in 2017.

Many are saying the fine won’t affect Google’s behaviour nor is it big enough. 5 years to resolve the issue and the amount seems paltry Even that amount would be a very minor inconvenience if it was only 1 year to resolve the case.

Almost like many of the ACCC outcomes we often see……paltry compared to the harm done.

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