It’s nonsense when you start insisting that a website, that has a well documented history, and is publicly traded MUST be actually a government conspiracy. Now if you want to talk about how the government MANIPULATES social media, that’s another matter entirely. But that’s NOT what you’re talking about. You’re barking up well worn and factually FALSE conspiracy nonsense.
Even your same day thing is WRONG. Feb 4 is when they changed the name of the site. It had been up for 9 months before then. FB wasn’t actually useful for data collection for YEARS afterwards. It was a minor place for college kids to talk about stuff. The USERS are what turned FB into what it is today by putting their entire life on it. Add in the Share button and all the tracking code that goes behind it and walla. But even then, half the country isn’t on FB, it really is not the total collection point.
You want a total collection point: Google Analytics. That’s the app that knows everything everybody does on the internet, and it’s not opt in. It tracks EVERYBODY.
They’re listening to our toasters don’t you know? Why aren’t you frightened?
First, I haven’t insisted on anything...calm down. Second, you can’t prove your assertions either.
Of course it wasn’t useful for years - never said it was intended to be. So what?
I don’t disagree about AWS or GA - and it’s not just about FB. We don’t know how many entities are sharing what data and what analysis is being done on it all.
https://www.military.com/defensetech/2004/02/04/lifelog-dead - February 4, 2004.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook - FOUNDED February 4, 2004.
There’s nothing out there that demonstrates this is a “well worn and factually false conspiracy”. Get over yourself. I’ve worked with academia, the military, and government officials on projects - I understand deep neural networks and the breadth and depth of data we’re talking about. You’re naive if you think this is beyond any possibility.
I’ve been writing and designing systems for over 35 years. Server based, desktop based, embedded devices, consumer/military. My main goal was only to raise awareness of how powerful the combination of government and technology can be in this new age and how it will influence our freedoms - with a curious backdrop that nobody can claim has been proven false. FB was not always public. Considering the Patriot Act, changing CIA/NSA behavior, the close timing of things, and how the government often gets things done (academia+industry+$$$) it’s not that huge a leap. Sure - I can’t prove it. Neither can you - why it was posted in General Chat. It didn’t deserve some of these rabid posts. I know a hell of a lot more about computer technology than 99% of the people here.
“Feb 4 is when they changed the name of the site. It had been up for 9 months before then.”
When rolling out a new computer system or feature, we’ve always run parallel systems for weeks/months until the bugs have been identified and fixed. Wouldn’t DARPA?