[wicket]

Meanwhile... Google, Microsoft and Apple* _receive_ money from their users to harvest the same personal data that Facebook is willing to pay their users for and nobody bats an eyelid.

* Apple is probably the least guilty here, however as long as their OS remains closed, we don't actually know how much personal data they are harvesting.

[heinrichhartman]

You can easily verify using Wireshark on a router, that neither Google, Microsoft or Apple are redirecting ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC through their servers.

This is quite a step up from sending home some telemetry data.

[wicket]

It appears that you edited your comment above to make my "Wireshark won't decrypt encrypted traffic" comment look stupid. Nice try, so let me clarify...

Facebook's market research app isn't "redirecting ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC through their servers" either. If you read the article it states that the app monitors phone and web activity and sends it back to Facebook. This is not really any different from sending home telemetry data. Google, Microsoft and Apple all send home encrypted data, most of which is not verifiable using Wireshark.

I'm no fan of Facebook, far from it in fact, but at least this is an opt-in service and users are being compensated for sacrificing personal data. The same can't be said for the other three companies.

[wicket]

Wireshark won't decrypt encrypted traffic.

[fooker]

But it can easily tell you where the traffic is heading.

[wicket]

Indeed. The parent poster edited his comment which meant that my comment did not make any sense. See my other comment for clarification.