
Ask HN: Instead of deleting Facebook why not just sabotage them instead? - burtonator
In light of Cambridge Analytica and all the constant Facebook fuckups many alpha geeks are talking about deleting their Facebook.<p>However I&#x27;m very very cynical that this would even have an effect.<p>Once we&#x27;re no longer using their platform there will be no more dissent there and the rest of the users will just continue on as if nothing happened.<p>Additionally, we would only impact a VERY small percentage of Facebook.<p>Because of the fact that Facebook is so viral and controls so much of the market - they&#x27;re not going away anytime soon.<p>What if we did this.<p>What if we sabotaged them - legally of course.<p>I think their achilles heel is data - and specifically their monopoly of that data.<p>They have a walled garden.<p>They charge companies for access to this walled garden because they have petabytes of user data that Google, Apple, etc don&#x27;t have.<p>... and what is important here is that this data is PUBLIC.<p>So what if people were to start running a browser extension that exported their data into the public web.  Into a shared queue that anyone from Google to Apple, etc could access.<p>The bad guys ALREADY have this data... and I&#x27;m only talking about PUBLIC user data - not private data.<p>So if someone posts something public on Facebook this extension would then break the walled garden and post it on the Internet.<p>It would have an massive amplification effect.  The small percentage of us that would run the extension would now be able to export 100x more content because we&#x27;re not just exporting OUR content but THEIR public content too.<p>Facebook would no longer have a monopoly on this data...
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stephenr
> many alpha geeks are talking about deleting their Facebook

What the fuck is an alpha geek?

> However I'm very very cynical that this would even have an effect

It has a very definite effect on you (i.e. the person who stops using it).
That's the whole point.

> the rest of the users will just continue on as if nothing happened.

And that's their choice. Yes, it's a scummy company run by a guy with less
human qualities than Data from star trek, but it's their choice to make stupid
decisions.

> because they have petabytes of user data that Google don't have.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

It's hilarious and sad that you think Google doesn't have a ridiculous amount
of personal information about people.

> Into a shared queue that anyone from Google to Apple, etc could access.

Apple expressly take steps to not rely on user data for their business model,
even releasing less-featured products and services if necessary (e.g. early
versions of Photos.app didn't sync recognised face data via iCloud, newer
versions do this peer to peer, to some extent).

The sort of Data Google makes money from, isn't the sort of thing anyone would
willingly share with them if it was made clear what they're sharing.

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krapp
If there were any value to data posted on Facebook, and it was possible to
scrape the site at some arbitrary scale without getting caught, then no
advertisers or third parties would be paying Facebook for anything. Everyone
would already be doing that.

Also, data which requires a login to view is not necessarily "public" in a
legal sense.

Also, this wouldn't actually "sabotage" Facebook. This is a site with billions
of user accounts making who knows how many posts filtered with varying levels
of privacy - not every user has access to all data posted on Facebook. A few
hackers with browser plugins and fake accounts aren't going to accomplish
anything but getting themselves banned. People aren't going to not join
Facebook because someone is dumping data from it, you would also have to
replicate the functionality of the site, entirely, and in real time (because
remember Facebook also has messaging, chat, private groups, etc.) to work
against the network effects.

And again, if that were feasible, some startup would already have done it.

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suann
What users are posting on FB is just a peak of an iceberg, probably it's the
least valuable subset of data.

However, the sabotaging approach would be very efficient weapon in fighting
many other privacy intrusive companies. If an adblock would fake data instead
of just blocking any tracking it would have a huge impact.

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rchaud
Yeah, the bigger thing would be those Facebook pixels which are invisible to
the user but lets FB track wherever you go on the web and ties it back to your
account, as you're still signed in.

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qnsi
Thats an interesting idea, but not sure if that would be 100% legal.

