Whataboutism isn't helping anything. Google doing something doesn't make it okay that Facebook does it. And Google's tracking is being discussed in this very thread, so it's not even accurate whataboutism.
Another view is that the root problem is every company.
"Root problem" seems to imply one central point of failure that, if only it were fixed, the issue would be resolved.
Instead it could be that every company converges based off whatever constraints having an Internet business at that level of scale requires, and this convergence happens independently from each another.
If that is the case, addressing the root cause would not look any different than addressing each company's business model separately, meaning that every company has to be individually at fault.
There's always a larger context though. Who cares about Facebook or Google when the NSA is tracking everything we do? Who cares about anyone being tracked when the global climate is on track to destabilize society? Who cares about society when we're not doing anything about the inevitable heat death of the universe?
Pointing out the larger context isn't automatically helpful. I believe the GP's comment is an example of unhelpful whataboutism.
>Who cares about Facebook or Google when the NSA is tracking everything we do? Who cares about anyone being tracked when the global climate is on track to destabilize society? Who cares about society when we're not doing anything about the inevitable heat death of the universe?
Your hyperbole isn't helping anything, and you still havent explained why delecti shouldnt point out the similar practices of other companies like GOOG.
NSA tracking could be considered relevant, seeing as how they get much of their data from FB and GOOG tracking, but you're being silly and disengenuous by asking what about climate change and physics being relevant, that's an obvious strawman argument that isn't even close to what delecti or anyone here is talking about.
>Whataboutism (also known as whataboutery) is a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument,[1][2][3] which in the United States is particularly associated with Soviet and Russian propaganda.
OP did not "attempt to discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy". Please stop trying to stifle genuine intellectual discussion with erroneous assertions.
I want to see all journalists at least mentioning this whataboutism, if they really want to solve a problem. They’re just gaining traction and views on Facebook’s negative momentum, and they don’t even mention the bigger elephants in the room (such as google analytics, for instance).