I have a Xiaomi phone. They already know everything about me.
Tell me, did I have a fever dream about this or does Xiaomi actually have ads in their settings and system apps?
It isn’t a dream, more like a nightmare.
I mean, they can be disabled, but it is pain in the ass to do so.
More like Buys the same data from Meta but okay.
And if I don’t use facebook?
Then they still have a profile on you.
Considering the few times I’ve seen targeted ads, it’s never actually relevant to me, I doubt their profile of me is in anyway accurate.
I use blockers so facebook doesn’t know what websites I’m visiting.
Accuracy is not really relevant to the conversation. The point is that though the Chinese app gets a lot of crap for being a dataminer, the American social media apps are no better and in fact worse because they create ghost profiles of non users and make a ton of money selling that data indiscriminately. There’s no need to take offense, it isn’t a personal attack on your privacy practices.
Ever notice how any time a Chinese app gets highlighted as being for data harvesting, there’s a bunch of people crawling out of the woodwork to claim “whatabout american apps!?”, but whenever an American app gets the same exposer, noone ever goes “whatabout Chinese apps apps!?”
Highly personalized, targeted ads are more dangerous because they can create tailor made political ads. This was happening with Cambridge Analytica and it’s why having any political discussion online is impossible anymore because you’re never really sure what the other person “knows” anymore. Before that shit, everyone got the same speeches, news and ads.
You also have the blackmail factor. I do consider Chinese officials getting blackmail material on American politicians and businesses more dangerous then American companies doing the same. It’s a small margin, but there is a difference.
The best I can do is minimize how much they get from me, give them bad data and block any ads. The few times I see targeted ads seems to imply they think I’m a conservative woman. Who the hell else would want Concern Carry Yoga Pants?
These data harvesting creating fake profiles to sell to ad companies are not my concern. Let these shit companies cheat each other.
Ever notice how any time a Chinese app gets highlighted as being for data harvesting, there’s a bunch of people crawling out of the woodwork to claim “whatabout american apps!?”,
Yes, because the American social media apps and other data harvesters have a much greater affect on our lives than Chinese, but American media goes on and on about the dangers of Chinese social media and most Americans don’t even think about American social media.
And did you just accuse me of crawling out of woodwork?!
but whenever an American app gets the same exposer, noone ever goes “whatabout Chinese apps apps!?”
Yes because it makes perfect sense on western social media to cry “What about tiktok?!” When an article comes out about the very scandals you’re talking about. In fact I’m not sure what point you’re even trying to make saying the outrage is manufactured but then giving reasons why it should be legitimate.
I do consider Chinese officials getting blackmail material on American politicians and businesses more dangerous then American companies doing the same.
Well that’s an insane take. American companies blackmailing American politicians is why we slide further and further into a corporatocracy.
Can I just brag for a moment? I feel like I am among my people, and there is a little lesson at the end.
to calibrate: White dude in my 40s, nerdy by nature but non-technical in my education/employment
Twitter - signed up in the early 2000s when it first came out, pretty much stopped using by 2011
Facebook - signed up in the early 2000s when it first got big, pretty much stopped using by 2011, deleted my abandoned account last year
Google +, I’m sure I never signed up, but I had an account that I never used. Google being google negated me ever having to contemplate whether or not I would ever use it
Snapchat - never used
TikTok - never used
Instagram - never used
Are there others? I don’t know.
Reddit was the only “social media” I ever used for a sustained period of time and the only one where I felt part of any sort of community. I left reddit in June of 2023 when I made this account and I’ve never been back.
So, in many ways, I am successfully resisting/avoiding “the algorithm” and I am a good example of high media literacy with good resistance to manipulation by social media.
But, just to emphasize why community itself is so valuable and worthy of exploitation by techbros, here are life changes I’ve made since joining Lemmy, even without any algorithms or dark patterns. Not that Lemmy is strictly causal in all of these, but the relationship is there:
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I am now making my way through TNG, and am generally more Trek-literate
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Linux, natch
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Cancelled all streaming services (honestly most ‘subscription services’) in favor of a NAS running Plex (for now, will probably move to Jellyfin), Calibre, AudioBookshelf, Immich, Joplin, NextCloud, etc, etc, etc
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Now using Steam Deck as my daily driver for gaming
In other words, though I prize my independent thinking and avoidance of Big Cloud, and though I think all of these are positive changes representing a positive influence, I am clearly impressionable. And so are you.
Got you beat. 40’s dude who’s never used any social media except for reddit (if that counts). I also have never used a smart phone.
Many props to you. I feel like reddit doesn’t count as social media, but I couldn’t energetically defend that position. They are certainly engaging in social media tech bro behavior, so the distinction probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it felt different than social media before it went to shit. Now, obviously when it “went to shit” is a point in time that is highly relative to the observer, but always sometime after the observer joined. That’s just the nature of enshittification.
Steam has an algorithm feeding you game suggestions
yeah and I gobble that shit up like candy.
I am not immune, and I don’t find all algorithms predatory - for example, I log on knowing that steam is selling me a product, but I am not the product. I just said in many ways I am successfully avoiding “the algorithm”, though the scare quotes immediately following a run down of social media networks was meant to indicate a specific type of algorithm that is meant to induce engagement or enragement (both are profitable) and change my behavior because I am the product.
I still have plenty of time for algorithms that serve me up games for that crucial 15% of my library that I bought but haven’t played yet.
One thing at a time Maxxie.
Fair enough :)
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Never used TikTok, but I’m not going to pretend that China (and pretty much every other government if it wants it) doesn’t have access to my data, there isn’t much I can do about it at this point.
EDIT: they do* have it, I’m just sleep deprived
No wörries I still had a Huawei for several years and still use the Huawei health app.
So I’m pretty sure China could — if they had any interest in — know literally my very heartbeat.
Health apps scare me. Idfc where it’s from.
I’m ideologically against, but personally, I’m not bothered. Like I do not believe in the bullshit “nothing to hide nothing to fear” rhetoric, I’m very much against it.
But like personally, I’m not really bothered if they know when I have a wank, tbh.
I am worried with what they do with all the data they have, I just don’t think anyone is interested in me personally and if they were, I’d kinda take it as a compliment tbh.
I am worried with what they do with all the data they have, I just don’t think anyone is interested in me personally and if they were, I’d kinda take it as a compliment tbh.
nobody is interested personally. it is all computers, algorithms, advertisers, possibly hackers, and never to be deleted data troves. nobody is interested in you, but lots of companies are interested in who can they milk for a penny more in any way possible, even if through deception and harm
🤢
Heh, nice. Now do American corporations.
Your turn, Captain Noposts!
Haha I never downloaded chrome.
Now google spies on me only through maps, youtube, email, my friends’ email, and android. Also chromebooks if I am a highschooler.
Last one is compulsory. You can’t deny using google products if you wanna graduate child.
I mean, I have it installed, but I have it installed in a “sandbox” (Co-opting androids work profile feature) I use Insular
But looking now, it seems it hasn’t been updated in a year so I might have to look for an alternative soon if it has issues when I upgrade to Android 16 lol
Look into Shelter, it works on latest Android though it’s been several months since the last update.
https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter
Big brain move, let’s make them buy our data from someone else. 🙌
They still know your name, phone number, relationships, and every piece of info ever supplied to or from you in a text message going back as far as it is recorded on every phone which has ever downloaded the app. Your mother, your brother, your sister, your ex.
It’s a cruel and terrible world for those who aren’t ignorant.
They still know your name, phone number, relationships, and every piece of info ever supplied to or from you in a text message going back as far as it is recorded on every phone which has ever downloaded the app.
Only because they bought the info off Microsoft, Facebook, and Google.
It’s a cruel and terrible world for those who aren’t ignorant.
At some point, being terminally anxious over the idea that a Chinese bureaucrat has access to a stack of high school yearbooks does nothing of benefit. There’s a long term material benefit to simply staying off social media (particularly the bigger instances) in a few rare but critical circumstances (getting a high security job, avoiding being hassled by the police). But for virtually everyone else, none of this shit matters.
More like “keep your nazis”. The place is fucking infested and every report comes back with “no violation” for literal double lightning bolts and posting that one anti-semetic wojak.
I like some of the content, but will not download the app either. I mostly just want to talk to other people anyway. The funny pictures and videos are just a bonus. That’s why I am here and not much else; this site is setup better for actually engaging with the users.
Unpopular Opinion: You folks are missing out.
TikTok is home to some of the most hardcore leftists you’ve ever seen and has content about how to fix our current fascism problem that’ll get you banned on Meta instantly.
It’s also a great to see what real people are taking about since they’re walking down the street or in their cars speaking as a genuine human.
No thanks. Lemmy isn’t great by any means but social media is poison and a direct cause of the current state of affairs
I already have Mastodon for that which is almost entirely made up of transfem devs
