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[Trekkin]

Facebook brought in over 40 billion dollars in revenue in 2017.

At the end of that year, they had 2.2 billion active users.

It's not pennies, it's just north of 18 dollars per person per year.

It's not that simple.

The value of data is separate from the total sale price of targeted advertisements, and the value of one person's data is not the same as another's even across all advertisers; there's no simple way to give people "their cut" that won't have some group or other claiming they're victims of some kind of data value gap. At minimum, there's some value in selling ads toward the person an algorithm imputes you to be based on your use habits even if you don't tell it anything, and again, that value varies.

[misko27]

Well, Zuckerberg was forced to make some uncomfortable admissions, and its clear that Congress is pretty mad, but its not clear that they can agree on what exactly they are mad about or what they are going to do about it.

[Dunamisdeos]

He started out saying that Facebook makes their money through ad revenue, and then once they asked for more info it came out wellllll we sort of sell data to a lot of different people.

2.2 billion users aren't generating 40 billion in ad money, you see. The internet proclaims that only about 2% of people click ads in general, and Facebook is set to take in 100 billion according to projections. The projections are that most ad-based system pay between $1.50 and 2$ per click.

So I think their main concern is the idea that Zuckerberg can gather the information on everyone on the planet and then sell it to whoever he wants with no real overwatch but himself, and also that he's obviously been doing this for years.

[Dunamisdeos]

He started out saying that Facebook makes their money through ad revenue, and then once they asked for more info it came out wellllll we sort of sell data to a lot of different people.

2.2 billion users aren't generating 40 billion in ad money, you see. The internet proclaims that only about 2% of people click ads in general, and Facebook is set to take in 100 billion according to projections. The projections are that most ad-based system pay between $1.50 and 2$ per click.

So I think their main concern is the idea that Zuckerberg can gather the information on everyone on the planet and then sell it to whoever he wants with no real overwatch but himself, and also that he's obviously been doing this for years.

Not really. His story has been, always, that Facebook does not actually release any data that it collects whatsoever to advertisers. Rather, it shares data with applications developed in conjunction with Facebook. Again, what Facebook collects is innocuous on its own. It's what can be built from that data that freaks people out.

That has always been his story, until he outright admitted he's been selling data to other firms. The numbers don't add up for a company that survives on ad revenue alone. Also, he is a monopoly. Noone is regulating him, not even the usual natural balance of competition.

I mean, am I wrong here? He makes way, way more money than ad revenue actually pulls in, and admitted to selling data, but he totally is sorry and only sold it to one firm. Two firms. Just those two, he promises.

[Dunamisdeos]

Ah, I see then. That makes things clearer.

[nenjin]

And IIRC, the academic was only posing as an academic to get access to the data. Once FB learned what was up, they cut their access. But again, there's not as much vetting or oversight of the process, obviously, to the degree I'm comfortable with how they operate.

[bloop_bleep]

Jesus Christ, that guy is a fucking android wearing human skin, you can't convince me otherwise.

[misko27]

Could you be more specific?

[redwallzyl]

Could you be more specific?

Clearly Jesus is an android that wears human skin to walk among us.

[wierd]

Zuck is a Terminator, Creating SkyNet and causing world escalation of nuclear Armageddon?

[Rolan7]

Jesus Christ, that guy is a fucking android wearing human skin, you can't convince me otherwise.

That was my impression too.  Zuckerberg seemed really on the ball during questioning, certainly more so than our elected representatives. The lawyer in high office pretending not to understand legalese was more embarrassing than the one stumbling over the question of "migrating devices", because at least the latter is technical.  And the "wouldn't you agree you're terrible and your company is bad" questions had me tuning out.

The description of ISPs as pipes made me chuckle ("tubes", one might say).  Then it made me sad for the death of neutral ISPs...
I'm not sure what Facebook being slow to take down foreign-language hate speech had to do with anything else that was discussed, but Zuckerberg and our representatives seemed to agree:  The priority is to delete anything that looks like hate speech ASAP, instead of taking time to verify.

Reminds me a lot of Youtube, lately.  They've never been truly neutral platforms of course, but they were founded on an idea of hosting all sorts of opinions.  That's changing.

[wierd]

When your platform enables alternatives to the mainstream narrative, and does so efficiently, expect the incumbent regime to take notice, and action.

News at 11.

[nenjin]

After this word from our sponsors.

[Trekkin]

That was my impression too.  Zuckerberg seemed really on the ball during questioning, certainly more so than our elected representatives. The lawyer in high office pretending not to understand legalese was more embarrassing than the one stumbling over the question of "migrating devices", because at least the latter is technical.  And the "wouldn't you agree you're terrible and your company is bad" questions had me tuning out.

That's Congress in public for you; the matter at hand, and indeed all of reality, is secondary to the fact that they have cameras on them and a hot mic and must thus generate sound bites until physically incapable of doing so because that's how they got there and that's how they'll stay there. The play's the thing.

It's not their job to be on the ball, really. It's their job to be electable enough to attract talent to be on the ball for them.

[Starver]

Zuck is a Terminator, Creating SkyNet and causing world escalation of nuclear Armageddon?

Spoiler: https://xkcd.com/1978/ (Monday's xkcd) (click to show/hide)

(Hovertext: James Cameron's Terminator 3 was the REALLY prophetic one. That's why Skynet sent a robot back to the 1990s to prevent him from ever making it, ultimately handing the franchise over to other directors.)