LEAKED VIDEO: Google Leadership's Dismayed Reaction to Trump Election |

[ZMystiCat]

I’m sure that Google and Facebook don’t see humans as mere clicks, but their advertisers have no other way to measure an ad’s effectiveness

That doesn’t make the person the product. Google is not giving me to the advertiser. They are giving information to the ad owner that was triggered by, or contributed to by, my action, but I have not been owned by or sold to the advertiser. Clicking on an Uber ad on YouTube makes me no more a product of Google than me being a product of Kroger because whoever supplies their oranges is pleased that I contributed to a demand by buying oranges.

But when we start getting into “person is product” language, we are getting down into language used to describe slavery and sex trafficking, where people literally are bought and sold like products. Google and Facebook are more like salespeople who have a very good way of tracking their effectiveness and offer more than just a sales pitch. They are not, in any way, like salvers or sex traffickers.

Advertisers—the real customers, are paying for our attention.

They are paying Google and Facebook something more equivalent to a commission, which again makes those companies more like salespeople. They are not paying for us as people.

I wonder what a Google business model would look like if people using the search engine were the real customers paying or the service. If the search engine is really useful, is it worth paying for?

Subscription models are not just a matter of whether or not someone is willing to pay. It is a matter of whether or not someone can pay. By requiring a subscription, you are effectively cutting off those who lack ability to pay. And especially in the case of Google, given how critical it is to accessing information, cutting off the underprivileged from that information just because they can’t pay seems deplorable. (And in general, it is just against Google’s entire philosophy.)

Not to mention, it comes down to what consumers want. Sure, you can charge a subscription fee, but will anyone choose that over a comparable and free product?

 

[ZMystiCat]

I can’t even discuss Facebook, because Facebook drives me crazy, and I can only tolerate it for limited periods.

Also, to be clear, I don’t agree with everything Google and Facebook do. This is just one area where I think people bought into Tim Cook’s rhetoric without considering how dehumanizing his sale’s pitch was.