"Leaving" Facebook is close to impossible. They track you and keep a profile on you no matter what.
Other than that, there's no competitor to Facebook that exists in the same market. My favorite stores and restaurants downtown have events and sales and information that is only on Facebook. Saying "just quit Facebook" is like saying "just stop making phone calls" or "just get rid of your mailbox" or "just stop reading emails". Entirely possible, sure. But depending on your life situation, you might be giving up more than you're getting back.
Like it or not, for some people there are things on Facebook that are only on Facebook, can only exist on Facebook, and have only been enabled by Facebook. Anything else can replace it, but currently nothing like that even remotely exists.
>Saying "just quit Facebook" is like saying "just stop making phone calls" or "just get rid of your mailbox" or "just stop reading emails"
I don't agree with this analogy. Phone calls and physical/electronic mail are a technology, not a corporation. While I'm sure Facebook would like to be there, as it stands a Facebook account is nowhere near the importance of phones/mail to function in a modern society. In fact, I truly hope it does not reach that point, as a central authority like Facebook can choose to blacklist your accounts entirely. (https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/facebook-has-suspended-the...)
>"Leaving" Facebook is close to impossible. They track you and keep a profile on you no matter what.
This is mostly dependent on data being fed by your friends and family. Unfortunately, you enjoying events and sales is contributing to this "shadow profiling".
Facebook may as well be considered a technology in and of itself. Nothing else compares. Everything else in the sector is either successful in its niche or wildly unsuccessful. In the 70s and 80s, there were phone companies other than Bell... but you probably didn't have one. You probably had a Bell phone with Bell service. It took government regulation to change it from a company to a technology because everyone was happy enough to keep it as a company.
We're not talking about search engines where all the information is the same and the only competition is who can display them best. With Facebook, much of the information is only available on Facebook, only accessed through Facebook, and in some cases, only enabled by Facebook. Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, Mastadon, Twitter, none of these social networks are half of what Facebook is, yet Facebook is all of them combined. It's not interchangeable, there are tradeoffs to switching.
>Unfortunately, you enjoying events and sales is contributing to this "shadow profiling".
Which is exactly what I always argue when people say you don't have to give up any social interaction by giving up Facebook. If that information is only on Facebook, you have to use Facebook no matter what, or you have to give up some amount of understanding of the world around you. I'm not going to stop enjoying local bands or community social events, and the only source for that right now in my community is Facebook.
I'd love an American GDPR because as far as my life is concerned, Facebook isn't going anywhere.
> They track you and keep a profile on you no matter what.
This is only true because the voting US public believes it to be true.
Meanwhile, the EU simply wrote a law against it. Now any EU citizen can simply withhold consent, and if FB continues to process datasets with their PII they will be brought to court.
>This is only true because the voting US public believes it to be true.
It's true because it's true. Full stop.
You may argue that there are ways to stop it, and sure there are. Like you said, the EU did it, and it's a great law. But GDPR doesn't make it less true in areas not impacted by GDPR, which is everywhere because it doesn't go into effect until May.
I didn't say "there's no way to stop it", which is a statement that is only true because the voting US public believes it to be true. I said "they track you and keep a profile on you no matter what", which is true because it's exactly true.
Not believing it to be true won't make it less true.
Other than that, there's no competitor to Facebook that exists in the same market. My favorite stores and restaurants downtown have events and sales and information that is only on Facebook. Saying "just quit Facebook" is like saying "just stop making phone calls" or "just get rid of your mailbox" or "just stop reading emails". Entirely possible, sure. But depending on your life situation, you might be giving up more than you're getting back.
Like it or not, for some people there are things on Facebook that are only on Facebook, can only exist on Facebook, and have only been enabled by Facebook. Anything else can replace it, but currently nothing like that even remotely exists.