[zombieprocesses]

The same could be said of arstechnica, HN, news and most of media. They are selling "customers" to their advertisers. Also, not sure where Tim Cook has any room to talk. By most measures, Apple is just as bad or worse than facebook. They are in bed with china exploiting slave labor, using advertisement to peddle overpriced junk to the uneducated masses and of course using tax loopholes to avoid paying taxing.

Microsoft used to say something similar as well. But when they realized that they could make much more money off customer data, they went converted to an ad-centered model with their OS.

The only reason Apple is acting high and mighty is because they are able to rob their customers by charging ridiculously high priced products.

[mercer]

For some reason I'd not considered HN compromised, but considering the nature of Ycombinator and their investments, it's probably safe to assume that all my activity here is 'out in the open'.

All my comments and writing style, all my alts, and all my opinions are compromised, and it's more a matter of 'when' than 'if' as to the leaking of this data to entities that I emphatically do not want to know all this information.

And linking this information to my person is probably easier than it already seems in my occasional thought experiments.

[zombieprocesses]

> For some reason I'd not considered HN compromised, but considering the nature of Ycombinator and their investments, it's probably safe to assume that all my activity here is 'out in the open'.

If you aren't paying for it, you are the product. It's the model that google popularized in the early 2000s. I'm really puzzled ( though I have my theories ) on why FB is being targeted for something everyone does.

> And linking this information to my person is probably easier than it already seems in my occasional thought experiments.

Given enough data points it shouldn't be that hard. Browser fingerprinting, IP address ( even if you have dynamic IP ) and enough raw data, it should be a cakewalk. Throw in browsing pattern analysis, writing analysis, click analysis, etc and they could tie much of everything together.

[ElKoji]

“using advertisement to peddle overpriced junk to the uneducated masses” using advertising to sell products? like every single company ever? also that is their point, they sell a physical product (what you bitterly call junk) that’s it, unlike Facebook that deliverily hides or obfuscates the fact that its customers are really the product, and before you start saying that they never lied because it is in their T&C, tell that to eldery people who simply join to see the photos of their grandchildren, they can easily simply chose not to buy an Apple product because of the price tag is visible at plain sight, but the price for Facebook use is not so easy visible.

[zombieprocesses]

> like every single company ever?

That was my point.

> Unlike Facebook that deliverily hides or obfuscates the fact that its customers are really the product

How did they hide it? It was their business model. The one they copied from google.

> but the price for Facebook use is not so easy visible.

Are you saying that facebook forced the grandparents to use facebook?

I'm not a fan of either facebook or Apple. My dislike of apple goes back. But I taken aback by the anti-fb posturing justaposed by the pro-google and pro-apple lobby here.

I'm not saying that facebook is good. I'm saying apple isn't good either.

It's so striking how an innocuous comment in every anti-fb thread is met with downvotes and attacks.

I agree with you. Facebook is terrible. That's why I don't use it and never have. But I also don't use apple products because apple is terrible. Is that okay?

[starsinspace]

> The same could be said of arstechnica

Well, it's your choice, they offer "Ars Pro", a subscription which is, they say, not only free of ads, but also free of tracking: https://arstechnica.com/staff/2018/03/ars-pro-now-free-of-tr...

[time0ut]

Are there paid advertisements on HN?

[wmeredith]

No. And Ars Technica has a subscription service that totally removes ads.