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   Daniel Anzulovic (samitchdoo@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 04:57:05 JST Daniel Anzulovic

   • Cory Doctorow

   The new bit of news to me out of @pluralistic's writeup of Google's enshittification is adding hidden terms to a user's search to trigger ads.

   https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

   I'm surprised the details made it into the public. The article also mentions how techbros tend to label their clandestine conversations as "I'm doing a crime here" as well. It very much makes me think of Trump and how he wants people to know he is doing a crime but does not want to suffer any negative consequences.

   • Embed this notice
     Peter Bindels (dascandy42@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 04:57:02 JST Peter Bindels

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Krupo

     @krupo @pluralistic
     The big problem with "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." is that it implies that when you pay for something, you're somehow better off. That's patently not the case, and in many case paying "customers" are equally bad off as non-paying "customers" - except that now they're losing money too.

     Same thing applies to "Linux is only free if your time is free". Windows isn't free to start with, and you still need to shove time (and money) into it.

   • Embed this notice
     Krupo (krupo@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 04-Oct-2023 04:57:03 JST Krupo

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow

     The latest @pluralistic is full of so many fantastic points. I've forwarded this a half dozen ways with seperate pull quotes for each friend

     "For a lot of people, the analysis stops here. "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." Google locks in users and sells them to advertisers, who are their co-conspirators in a scheme to screw the rest of us.

     But that's not right. For one thing, paying for a product doesn't mean you won't be the product. Apple charges a thousand bucks for an iPhone and then nonconsensually spies on every iOS user in order to target ads to them (and lies about it):

     https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

     John Deere charges six figures for its tractors, then runs a grift that blocks farmers from fixing their own machines, and then uses their control over repair to silence farmers who complain about it:

     https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it "

     All from: https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.