August 28, 2019

I never noticed that Facebook had a slogan, but...

... it just changed its slogan from "It's free and always will be" to "It's quick and easy" (Business Insider). It's not as though that means Facebook is about to charge. More like:
"Facebook is not free nor has it ever been," lawyer and digital law expert José Antonio Castillo told Business Insider (he was apparently one of the first to tweet about the change). "Facebook's currency was and still is it's [sic] users' personal data. It's never been free, though, because data is worth a lot of money."
Just erasing the the basis for a tricky argument that they're deceptive, I guess.

23 comments:

Kay said...

Only a matter of time before people realize it’s not quick and easy either.

Darrell said...

We're SJWs!

Woke now. Broke later.

DarkHelmet said...

The real slogan: "We got your data, suckas!"

Just asking said...

Remember when Google's motto was "Don't be evil"?

Seeing Red said...

The slogan should be, “What’s yours is mine.”

tim maguire said...

If you want to say your personal data is the price of admission, then perhaps Facebook should claim they survive on donations (because we decide what and how much to give them).

tim maguire said...

Kay said...
Only a matter of time before people realize it’s not quick and easy either.


I find Facebook a pain in the ass to navigate, mostly because of the stuff it does for me that I don't want it to do at all.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

FAcebook: Only progressive leftwing opinions and democrats allowed.

Narr said...

"the the". Early ed. catches the typo.

Narr
Fecebook, Faceborg, whatever . . . never touch the the stuff

Lucid-Ideas said...

Should've changed it to "They trust me the dumb fucks" - Mark Zuckerberg

Short, truthful and to the point.

Fernandinande said...

"Facebook is not free nor has it ever been,"

Fecabook is free if you don't buy their data, which very few people do, so lawyer and digital law expert José Antonio Castillo statement is

Mostly false.

Bob Boyd said...

It's quick and easy

That's what the pimp tells a new girl.

Fernandinande said...

I don't use facebook so I'm not sure about how the number of "users" vs "pages", or "business pages" vs "number of businesses" works out, but -

There are 2.375bn billion monthly active [Facebook] users (as of Q3 2018).

"There are over 60 million active business Pages." (1/40th of # users = 2.5%)

But only 6 million of those businesses pay to be ‘active advertisers’. (1/400 = .25% of users)

Although 75% of brands will pay to promote posts. (.75/40 = 1.85% of users)
++

So, near as I kin tell, it looks like about 2% of facebook users pay money to facebook, and for about 98% of users it's free.

DarkHelmet said...

If you assign zero value to your personal data, it's free.

n.n said...

Facebook's capital valuation is based on manipulating perception (i.e. political and social platform) and mining and selling access to user information a la the umbrella corporation Alphabet et al. It has progressed because of robots, and people... persons who favor convenience over other considerations.

Kay said...

Fernandistein said...
Fecabook is free if you don't buy their data, which very few people do, so lawyer and digital law expert José Antonio Castillo statement is

Mostly false.
8/28/19, 8:58 AM


Not sure what this is supposed to mean, but FB is never free because everyone pays for the service with their data. And the charge is largely hidden, as a lot of people apparently don’t realize how their data is being used.

PM said...

Alt slogan:
"Thanks for Joining. Got Lettuce on Front Tooth."

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fernandinande said...

And the charge is largely hidden, as a lot of people apparently don’t realize how their data is being used.

If they don't know they're "paying", then there's no actual cost, so they're not paying. You might as well say that people "pay" to drive on a public road because their license plates are getting scanned/photographed.

Kay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kay said...

Well you already pay for driving on public roads through your taxes. If the government is using that data you speak of to generate income then I would call that a hidden charge.

Personally, I’m not comfortable with the government surveilling its citizens either, regardless of whether or not they make money off that info.

Yancey Ward said...

I have a Facebook page, though I never created one myself. I think it probably was set up for me by Facebook using my Classmates account I did create sometime in 1999. I have put literally nothing in it. I have gently suggested to my family to not include anything about me on their own pages, but that hasn't really worked.

Bob Boyd said...

Google changed their slogan from, "Don't be evil" to "You know what? Fuck it..."