[mortehu]

Isn't the main function of Facebook to allow users to upload or enter contents for others to view?

It seems like people here tend to think of ad profiles as the only data that matters, but Facebook "collects" messages you post and photos you upload, just like most email services "collect" all your emails. This kind of data is far more sensitive than your ad profile.

[iamacyborg]

> This kind of data is far more sensitive than your ad profile.

Yes and no.

certainly people share and post sensitive stuff on Facebook. But Facebook knowing I've visited certain categories of websites because those sites have a Facebook pixel or they're running a third party widget that has a FB pixel is historically a much more opaque form of data collection.

[lanstin]

The valuable data they have is to build a model of your personality and emotional dynamics, where they can control the input, what you see in timeline, and watch the output, the mood revealed by your subsequent actions and posts. Knowing what stimulus will upset you enough to donate or share a given type of content is pretty valuable, even compared to knowing you need a new laptop.

[mrathys]

The main function of Facebook is to spy on people, the providers of the data. All data gathered is then sold to paying customers. They make all their money this way. If they only had a graph with persons and relations between these persons and did nothing else with it than show this to these people, maybe we were not facing this discussion now.

The cynic in me would say: store all data on EU soil ;)