Surveillance Capitalism, Facebook coin, KYC, crypto

[Cnut237]

Thanks everyone, a good discussion and some interesting opinions!

I think it's inevitable that Facebook, Google et al will continue to extract our data for behavioural analytics, and that Facebook coin is a step on this path towards the end state of being able to predict (and influence) all of our decisions. It may in future become almost impossible to avoid this stuff, particularly with Android phones, but being aware of the issue does at least give us a tiny bit of control.

[redsun114]

It's quite funny how some people are feeling happy over Facebook releasing their own cryptocurrency, I think that's stupidity, cause I see nothing to be happy about. Most of you here always talk about anonymity which is your main purpose of making use of cryptocurrency, so why do you go about supporting currencies that wouldn't give you that? Facebook for sure will never do things that is never going to benefit them, they are all about collecting users info and selling it to advertisers and stuffs like that, so you shouldn't be so happy about it. Even their cryptocurrency wouldn't be something as bitcoin, and you're even the one investing and they will also use your money for business.

[thehun]

If you are not the customer, you are the product. Period.

A company needs to make revenues to survive and if they are not charging you anything for the usage of the platform, it inevitably means that your data will be sold or at least used for their own profit. And 99% of people either don't realize this, don't know what consequences this can have or simply don't care as all they want are "freebies" and being able to share the latest cat video with their 2000 "friends".

However, the monetization of our data is not the worst part. Selective censorship (for political/ideological reasons) and sharing of your activities with the authorities is a way larger threat, and there have already been cases of people prosecuted for inappropriate comments or even for liking someone else's comments.

[fullhdpixel]

Honestly facebook is already getting all the data that is required to know what we would buy and all, since we do click on ads that sells something so they know what we liked and clicked and maybe even if cookies allow what we buy too, so all in all they have some sort of idea of what we like or do not like thanks to their ads. Why do you think they show adds that are more inclined for our interests and not stuff we never think about before, why does it never show me any soccer or jersey type of commercial but shows me pc game ads? Well they do have those datas already.

Globalcoin can't be because of that, what we spend on it will give them a better understanding of course but not really worth that much time and money to get it a bit clearer when they already have a slightly worse version of the same data. I think this must be for some other reason.

[Cnut237]

Honestly facebook is already getting all the data that is required

Globalcoin can't be because of that

I understand, but I disagree. These companies are insatiable, and Facebook and Google lead the way. The ultimate aim is to gather all data from the real world and develop perfect prediction and, beyond that, powerful means of influencing us. It's a phenomenally lucrative industry. I believe they will exploit any opportunity available to gather more and more data on us. Whether its purchasing and browsing data, whether its biometric data from wearable tech, whether its pinpoint location data from your phone... the list is almost endless, and they will stop at nothing. More data leads to better predictions which leads to increased revenue.

[ricardobs]

That has always been there aim all this while, to be able to have access to know every of our activities. I will invest in the Facebook coin but that doesn't mean I'm going to make use of it. I'm only going to invest in it and wait for the price to increase and once the price has increased enough and I've made enough money, I will just withdraw everything back and then use my money the way I want. I don't like giving Facebook every information about myself, there are things that are meant to be kept a secret. So using Facebook coin is not an option for me. If you have a Facebook account they are going to quickly link the account to your cryptocurrency wallet and be able to trace everything and grab every single move you make online using their crypto coin.

[Barbut]

Before bitcoin we actually didnt have a choice, we were forced to use what they throw at us. Now we have a choice, who forces you to use facebook, now we have some nice crypto social networks, my favorite is steemit. Who forces you to do kyc, you can always find some good exchange, decentralized where you can trade without kyc, casinos without kyc.
We have many privacy coins now, most of them are undervalued at the moment. Most people dont know nothing about them, but their time is coming.

[BitcoinGuruOne]

I have deleted FaceBook from my phone, I use it only on webbrowser. I am considering deleting myself completely.
The data collection is off the charts, regularly new information arises that they are breaking all of the privacy rules of normal persons.

Fb coin could be a good boost to crypto market but i certainly will not use it.

[Ryan Dugan]

I felt sad when I read your post. Facebook coin - I personally would not trust this company. Facebook already had a challenger when they merged user data.

I also felt sad. Facebook needs to stay the hell away from crypto. Noone wants them there. They like to ruin things and get everyones personal info. Twitter too, needs a phone number and they suspend accounts often.

Tin foil hats on, people, I'm going in...

Big news recently has been Facebook's announcement that it will be launching its own cryptocurrency, 'GlobalCoin'. I think this has implications for the direction of travel of crypto as a whole.

Facebook, along with other major internet companies such as Google, offers its services 'for free'. Obviously 'free' is not really free, as these companies harvest all of the personal data that you provide and use increasingly sophisticated behavioural analytics programs to predict your future behaviour, and sell this on for big profit.

So the Facebook coin - they can harvest data on your personality, age, gender, politics and preferences, but the ultimate aim is to acquire everything, all data, including the most valuable one, which is what you buy and when (and under what circumstances) you buy it. This is surely the real purpose of Facebook's move into crypto. All of your purchase activity with this Facebook coin will be tracked and incorporated into the 'digital you' that Facebook sell on.

Is the rest of crypto heading the same way? I know there are privacy coins, but the overall trend is towards KYC - including on exchanges, and this will doubtless increase as mainstream adoption draws closer and governments become more hands-on in devising legislation. And then couple this with the privacy trade-offs that we are likely to concede in order to make use of the convenience of IoT and connected devices.

Are we heading inevitably into a future where crypto is used as a means for big companies to harvest your data for profit?

It's possible that could happen Facebook has been known to harvest data from its users, we already have KYC in various cryptocurrency companies and now that Facebook is creating their own coin, they can use it to harvest data and they can do it because they have known to do it in the past.

Most of these ICO should not be asking for KYC anyway. I don't even know why they do. They are not capable of protecting our info either. They have proven it over and over, just look at all the exchange hacks.

[Pab]

Facebook Libra remind me Big Data begin
But we have to notice is not cryptocurrency. Libra is centralized coin or rather will be.Libra will be owned and issued by institution institution what had big problem with respecting privacy policy
Exchanges KYC if crypto is consider like a money then there is KYC if crypto is traded to fiat then there is KYC

[Cnut237]

I can't even understand why any blockchain related company do request KYC just to start this talk.. were not these transactions supposed to be 100% anonymous? Where did our privacy go?

It's a consequence of the success of crypto. When it was a tiny niche area, no country was bothered about it, and so there was no legislation. But now that the market cap is measured in $billions, governments are sitting up and taking notice, and starting to either implement legislation or else make threatening noises about it. This is all part of the road to mass adoption. Many new coins ask for KYC to cover themselves and make best efforts to ensure they are legally compliant.

As for Facebook though, they have a history of just moving ahead of governments into unlegislated space and then establishing their activities there as the new normal. In the past they haven't cared about laws. It will be interesting to see whether governments react now that FB is moving into finance via crypto.

[beerlover]

I don't even mind us getting watched by facebook for actually good reasons at all, I mean for example if I am a person that likes
basketball and NBA and when I go to facebook or instagram and check out those type of things and after that I get an advertisement about some NBA jerseys or stuff related to basketball that is just good business, I would totally understand that and I would accept it. They can get my information about what type of person I am and then give me advertisements according to that.

However, they are just giving away political information now as well and they are giving away personal information along with just "likes and dislikes" type of stuff, like even your pictures as well. That is why I think there should be a limit, yeah they should have some info because that is how they make money but they should not have excess amount of info.

[hatshepsut93]

People are just confused on what they really want, human wants are insatiable, and there is no way you can really satisfy them no matter the system you create. With their crave for privacy coin, MONERO community ought to have grown more than it is now, so let us forget that eye service that people do a lot. When Facebook coin is released, believe me that it will gain more attention of thousands of people than Monero, people on face whatever benefits them and do not care about privacy that much.

Libra won't get any big attention if it won't offer people something extraordinary - majority of the population is happy with banks and payment services like PayPal, why would they even want to try Libra? Credit card companies and banks compete with each other by offering cashback, miles and other beneficial terms, if Libra won't do something like that, it won't get attention of millions. In that case all it can hope for is short-term interest from crypto fans, but since it's a stablecoin, there's no room for speculation.

[FanEagle]

There is no need for privacy coins, there is no need for surveillance capitalism, there needs to be a middle ground and we have it ; bitcoin. Right now stuff like monero or xspectrecoin and so forth are good at what they are doing but do we really need that much security? Are we sure that its just enough and should be that much? I feel like I would work way too much for security and privacy too much, I think bitcoin is just enough for me.

Obviously, Libra is way too much centralized and its risky to use it because they will be following every single money you spent and just like they use your information to sell ads they will use your spending behavior to also sell it for ads and that is not acceptable neither. So thats why people use bitcoin and say both libra and monero are both too sides radical.

[shoreno]

Libra won't get any big attention if it won't offer people something extraordinary

libra isnt releasead yet but why they are already gaining massive attention ? some says that libra coins announcement did have an impact on the btc price and btc price went up  . facebook is a good platform with lots of features compare to other social media sites so their coin wont also be ordinary  .

majority of the population is happy with banks and payment services like PayPal, why would they even want to try Libra?

ask your self first on why there is a masive demand on cryptocurencies especially bitcoin if there are banks and paypals  .

[farwellbit]

The name of the coin is Libra coin and not global coin. What you said is true, they are going to use it as means of harvesting more data from their users and then sell it to advertisers. Another thing is that the coin is going to be a stable coin, pegged 1:1 with the USD, it’s not going to be like Bitcoin that is always fluctuating heavily up and down. So anyone who is going to be making use of it should just have it mind that it is just another payment method and not for investment. If you’re looking for investment, then that Libra is not meant for you. Though one thing about it is that lots of companies are going to be accepting it.

[koura_cc]

Tin foil hats on, people, I'm going in...

Big news recently has been Facebook's announcement that it will be launching its own cryptocurrency, 'GlobalCoin'. I think this has implications for the direction of travel of crypto as a whole.

Facebook, along with other major internet companies such as Google, offers its services 'for free'. Obviously 'free' is not really free, as these companies harvest all of the personal data that you provide and use increasingly sophisticated behavioural analytics programs to predict your future behaviour, and sell this on for big profit.

So the Facebook coin - they can harvest data on your personality, age, gender, politics and preferences, but the ultimate aim is to acquire everything, all data, including the most valuable one, which is what you buy and when (and under what circumstances) you buy it. This is surely the real purpose of Facebook's move into crypto. All of your purchase activity with this Facebook coin will be tracked and incorporated into the 'digital you' that Facebook sell on.

Is the rest of crypto heading the same way? I know there are privacy coins, but the overall trend is towards KYC - including on exchanges, and this will doubtless increase as mainstream adoption draws closer and governments become more hands-on in devising legislation. And then couple this with the privacy trade-offs that we are likely to concede in order to make use of the convenience of IoT and connected devices.

Are we heading inevitably into a future where crypto is used as a means for big companies to harvest your data for profit?

The direction cryptocurrency will adopt we'll be decided by the majority of its users. It’s understandable to feel apprehension regarding Libra's characteristics as general representation of the crypto future, and even more so as it is such a centralized, regulated and closed system that can’t be called blockchain anymore. But that’s just it, it doesn’t represent crypto and its trends any more than PayPal or any other current digital remittance service. Now, whether its going to be massively adopted or not its an uncertainty at this point, but what’s tangible now is that the diversity of the cryptocurrency environment allows the freedom to choose where we’ll operate.

In regards to this supposedly globalized and unified currency that Facebook wants to impose, there are visions and projects emerging that are truer to the blockchain principles without sacrificing the same scope and reach.

[TheCoinGrabber]

It is now called Libra and yes, I believe that collecting ALL possible info is what Facebook is after. Just to put it in perspective, Target can correctly predict that a woman is pregnant simply coz of their purchase history https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#1c0692b26668

Now imagine Facebook getting a hold of this (you're using Libra to purchase stuff online) as well as all the other info you are providing in your profile through your activity. Heck even Youtube surprise me with recommendations appearing just as I'm thinking of something - and many people are saying the same thing happening to them. And Google only have our search history from Chrome and watched history from Youtube.

"Curator of digital identities" is the endgame.

I personally don't care about a Facebook coin, I don't see any interest in it. But in another sense, I would like the idea to go through with it because it could finally help the adoption of cryptocurrencies. After that, if their coin end as a shitcoin, I don't care.

I just hope this wouldn't put people at risk simply coz people in their social circle are using it.

[iv4n]

Are we heading inevitably into a future where crypto is used as a means for big companies to harvest your data for profit?

Big companies are doing that since mid 80`s? And since internet is invented we voluntarily give our privacy, they have an easy job in harvesting our personal informations. Internet privacy is a big issue, and while some people know how to stay safe and protected, majority is very naive.
What can crypto do about it? Crypto can be used for many things, it`s a fact. If someone want`s to use crypto for data harvesting it`s definitely possible, but in the same way there are crypto projects that offer privacy and anonymity. Internet and crypto, together, offer many possibilities, for people who are smart enough to use them, whether to stay hidden or you want to be exposed, people do both things willingly.

[Janation]

I have deleted FaceBook from my phone, I use it only on webbrowser. I am considering deleting myself completely.
The data collection is off the charts, regularly new information arises that they are breaking all of the privacy rules of normal persons.

Fb coin could be a good boost to crypto market but i certainly will not use it.

I am fan of socializing and looking at other's shared photos and posts online though it is true that I don't like sharing stuffs especially personal stuffs.

The thing here is that I use cryptocurrencies because of the fact that I can pay my bills without getting out of my house or seeing those people at the front desk, dealing with some of those people are so annoying. Another thing is that if someone is accepting my payment as Bitcoin, that would be so efficient making more time to do other things.