[PragmaticPulp]

> if enough people know they're the product and know how Facebook makes money, would they delete their account in a fit of rage or continue to use it, knowing that they're victims of surveillance capitalism?

People know. They just okay with it. If they aren’t, they would have stopped using it by now.

If anything, the general public seems to think that Facebook and Instagram’s tracking is more pervasive than it really is. How many times have you heard people insist that Instagram showed them ads based on a verbal conversation they had where their phone was nearby? The idea that your phone is listening to every word you speak is obviously a myth, yet many people believe it and continue to use those apps anyway.

Outside of privacy centric tech bubbles like HN, targeted advertising isn’t viewed as a violation and free products are understood to come with advertising tradeoffs. HN isn’t uniquely enlightened about the “you’re the product” trope.

[______-]

> How many times have you heard people insist that Instagram showed them ads based on a verbal conversation they had where their phone was nearby

Yeah and most of the time this is recency bias. You know: when you learn a new word and suddenly see it everywhere.