|
|
|
|
|
|
by harmonicon
4434 days ago
|
|
|
I am very dismayed at news that Facebook acquired Moves. That's one less app I will be using on my phone. However I have to stop to think is this just a knee-jerk reaction? Most of my friends, when I talk to them about how much information is being collected by FB/GOOGLE, just do not care all that much. Responses range from "I got nothing to hide from anybody" to "I think targeted ad is just fine". At that point I don't know what to say. Since in my case I just have a visceral hate toward company who attempt to collect all data about myself. Is it actually that bad? |
|
|
Thing of it as your credit rating (if you live in the US) or you ability to lie to your plumber and say “I’ll just ask another one” when you have a leak, water up the knees and he asks for a month’s salary to fix the issue. Information matters when it allows to measure you willingness to pay for something — it’s basic micro-economics.
You can step in a wine merchant or your car dealer (both classic cases in the economic literature) or with either a t-shirt or a suit and tie; in either case, they’ll offer you all the same options, but unless the labels are true (they are not if they are too high and without dealer-negotiated rebate) the price will adapt and make sure you’ll pay as much as you can.
So… what happens on-line? Well, with the traces of your Facebook and Google logs, airlines can tell if you are really willing to take that flight, and might rake up the prices accordingly. It can come in many ways, depending if they have LinkedIn information (and can tell if it is for business or not) and they are generally far from perfect, but… Imagine that at one point, people notice it can be cheaper when you use the Incognito mode.
That would trigger a reaction: political ones (banning the practice, unlikely in the US; already done for some cases in the EU); one would be to only sell through a mobile application that have your Facebook ID (or your mobile phone, same thing) and don’t let you the option of hiding it. Very rapidly, anyone who refuses to be identified will be refused service — just like you can only pay using credit cards and letting FISA know you bough something big for many things today.
Forced service, cash is King? No problem: just make it more expensive than most non-revealing option, like what happen now if you want to purchase a car sticker-price. You are perfectly welcome to say you have negotiation and don’t want to deal with the slimy sales tactic: they would be happy to oblige.
But imagine that is not jus cars, but anything that is advertised on Facebook now: restaurants, transport, real-estate, games, electronic. Face value crazy high; “social price” lower, but never exactly the same.
You might be fine not having the social value — but if a single entity controls enough information about how much enough people are willing to pay… we will all suffer, except the stock-holders of that application.