this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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Privacy

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This is the problem with using VPN services in general, you have to have complete trust in the service provider.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (4 children)

@yogthos Is anyone surprised by this anymore? Facebook is evil- full stop. We don't need any more reasons to obstain from using their products but "mArKeTplAcE" and "mY cOuSiNs WoNt SwiTcH."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I'm trying really hard to get my family to use something else for communication but they won't. It's a fucking drag.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I feel you. I've spent the last couple years building up self hosted replacements for these enshittified services as they flop. But despite all the work I've put in, I can't even get them to log off facebook to look at what I've got.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What does yours have of value to them that Facebook doesn't?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

You make an excellent point, without use it’s mostly just there for nothing.. but, specifically I build shit that they complain about. I have my personal photo site up with all my digital photos from the last 25 years catalogued and available from anywhere, I did this because they complained about not having them accessible. Hasn’t been logged into by anyone but me...

But I don’t really blame them, I get it. The easy button is right there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Marketplace is pretty useful. I hope a solid open-source alternative comes along.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

What's important here is not the source code, but whether the service collects unnecessary information.

Craigslist does a pretty good job of respecting privacy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I agree. However, I think that most people won't use Craigslist simply because it doesn't have a lot of the modern niceties, specifically modern messaging solutions. The email system they have is pretty painful to use.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's easy enough to do messaging via text, or whatever other contact info you choose to give out. I like that I can use Craigslist without giving them much info about myself.

If you're suggesting that a messaging system built into the venue is critical for success, then I suppose all of us wanting privacy are out of luck for now... but perhaps Craigslist (or some other privacy-friendly venue) could make it happen by integrating Matrix.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I agree that most messaging services are problematic, but Facebook having Messenger is part of the moat that's keeping FB users on Marketplace. I think offering any non-email messaging solution would be hugely beneficial. I like the Matrix idea quite a bit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Europe's new Digital Markets Act might help in this department, too, through legally mandated interoperable messaging. Let's hope it works out in our favor.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Craigslist also doesn't have shit on it. try and buy a car on there. if you're looking for a beater, sure. but a halfway decent sports car, fb marketplace is the only place

its still OK for other stuff, I've bought tools and whatnot off Craigslist, but for vehicles fb is unfortunately still king

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

What you're describing is the network effect in action, not a flaw in Craigslist.

(It will be the same with every alternative you find, except perhaps one that's well funded with outside money, which will be awful on the privacy front, of course.)

The way we overcome a network effect is piece by piece:

  • First we switch to the privacy-friendly service for everything we can. That immediately reduces our exposure, reduces the power of the incumbent, and makes the alternative more useful by giving more users a reason to switch.
  • Then, over time, we switch for the remaining things as we find a suitable service for each one. (This might even be the same privacy-friendly alternative we started with, after it has grown a little.)

If I felt I had to buy a sports car, and some awful invasive site like Facebook was somehow the only viable venue, I would buy just the car there. I wouldn't make them the middle man for every other transaction in my life.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

well yea its not Craigslist itself that's the issue, its the fact that its a smaller platform. and yea I use eBay or Craigslist for everything but vehicles.its sad that Craigslist has been forgotten though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Maybe the idea is to show the folks who keep complaining about defederating from Threads that they either don't know or have forgotten just exactly what kind of company Meta is.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Network effects do make it really hard for any new platform to displace the incumbents.