Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by iamacyborg 1861 days ago
> 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.

1 comments

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.