I think a missing element from the discussion is about trust. If I thought I could trust companies with my personal data, then I wouldn't mind sharing some of it. In the end I'm less concerned about the services they provide back to me using my data. I'm more concerned about my personal data seeping out into the hands of would-be attackers (phishing, identity theft, etc) or unsolicited profiteers. It wouldn't be hard to imagine the ease with which an executive decides to disclose your personal data for a little extra profit before the next board meeting. In fact, you don't have to imagine it since it has already happened. A recent example being FB "private" message sharing.
If I believed that I was providing my personal data to one specific service as "payment" or "training" for services rendered, that might be something I could find acceptable. But (even ignoring the risk of data breaches) that isn't what actually happens. And whoever else gets my data did not get my active consent. And rather than providing a service back to me, they may rather use that info only to their benefit or even to my detriment.
So to me it isn't as much about privacy as it is about failure to build appropriate safeguards around consent to my personal data. Most of the controls you are given is "consent theater" because the TOS/EULA lets the company do anything they want regardless of your settings.
The time savings argument is also quite suspect here. For all the time I saved because I saw more-relevant ads (which I still didn't click on), what does my FB feed really do for me? Isn't it mostly distractions that I could live without? Full disclosure: I don't have a FB account. But I can't seem to stop people from showing me the funny meme pics from theirs.
My day job is designing and developing websites, but in my off time, I like to build all kinds of things, including Ruby gems, iPhone apps, and Alexa skills.
Trust is huge... and Facebook is failing on all fronts!
Like you said, I think big tech companies definitely need to give people more control over what data is collected. I think some sort of detailed 'information profile' page would be ideal, somewhere you can go to check boxes for exactly what information the company can collect, and see exactly why they want to collect it, how they plan on using it, and in what ways it benefits you the user to give it up.
As far as the time savings argument goes, I would say social media is low on the scale of services that actually save you time. Amazon, Google, Uber, and Apple all have services and products that very clearly save you time, Facebook is a bit more of a gray area. The only real place I think Facebook speeds up my day to day life is the 'Login with Facebook' button which saves me time when signing up for new accounts, but of course Google has their own (probably more trustworthy) alternative to this. To your point about targeted ads, I guess it's not really about "saving time", but just "wasting it in a slightly more productive way."
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I think a missing element from the discussion is about trust. If I thought I could trust companies with my personal data, then I wouldn't mind sharing some of it. In the end I'm less concerned about the services they provide back to me using my data. I'm more concerned about my personal data seeping out into the hands of would-be attackers (phishing, identity theft, etc) or unsolicited profiteers. It wouldn't be hard to imagine the ease with which an executive decides to disclose your personal data for a little extra profit before the next board meeting. In fact, you don't have to imagine it since it has already happened. A recent example being FB "private" message sharing.
If I believed that I was providing my personal data to one specific service as "payment" or "training" for services rendered, that might be something I could find acceptable. But (even ignoring the risk of data breaches) that isn't what actually happens. And whoever else gets my data did not get my active consent. And rather than providing a service back to me, they may rather use that info only to their benefit or even to my detriment.
So to me it isn't as much about privacy as it is about failure to build appropriate safeguards around consent to my personal data. Most of the controls you are given is "consent theater" because the TOS/EULA lets the company do anything they want regardless of your settings.
The time savings argument is also quite suspect here. For all the time I saved because I saw more-relevant ads (which I still didn't click on), what does my FB feed really do for me? Isn't it mostly distractions that I could live without? Full disclosure: I don't have a FB account. But I can't seem to stop people from showing me the funny meme pics from theirs.
Trust is huge... and Facebook is failing on all fronts!
Like you said, I think big tech companies definitely need to give people more control over what data is collected. I think some sort of detailed 'information profile' page would be ideal, somewhere you can go to check boxes for exactly what information the company can collect, and see exactly why they want to collect it, how they plan on using it, and in what ways it benefits you the user to give it up.
As far as the time savings argument goes, I would say social media is low on the scale of services that actually save you time. Amazon, Google, Uber, and Apple all have services and products that very clearly save you time, Facebook is a bit more of a gray area. The only real place I think Facebook speeds up my day to day life is the 'Login with Facebook' button which saves me time when signing up for new accounts, but of course Google has their own (probably more trustworthy) alternative to this. To your point about targeted ads, I guess it's not really about "saving time", but just "wasting it in a slightly more productive way."