posted in Technology
Australians will be able to switch off social media algorithms under planned legislation
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9wyvxn95vo
Replying to @LadyButterfly@reddthat.com
Am I the only one who thinks big tech won’t do jack shit other than nod and smile and install a user button that doesn’t actually change anything at all?
They are so NOT going to turn this off. This – the ability to manipulate users by controlling exactly what they see – is the sole reason they are in business. It gets them ad revenue, data to resell, and massive, uncontrollable political power.
And they’re just going to let a user turn that highly individualized control off and turn themselves into a less monetizable, more ad immune user one by one because some govt told them to? The same governments that have been telling them not to do this or that for decades now?
Lol, pull the other one.
Replying to @ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
Tbf they already do that. Google’s had a button to turn off ad personalization that’s never worked since like, 2014 or something
Replying to @Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
Huh, TIL. Thanks. Not even remotely surprised.
Replying to @Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
Ad personalization is hard to verify because it’s all happening on the backend. What you see in a feed is much more visible, so maybe that will make it harder to work around. I haven’t read much about how the legislation works and how it defines algorithms, but if it’s something like, “only show me people I’ve subscribed to”, then it would be pretty easy to verify whether they are showing that or not.
But in general, I agree. Big tech companies always find a way to work around this legislation. Enforcement is the issue, not the laws themselves.
Replying to @Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
It DOES work, they don’t show ads based on personalized data. What it’s not garanteed is that are not processing or selling your data on the back anyway.