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Data Headlines

Sexy headline but not much of a story about so called "data poisoning".  The idea is that individual users who are hyper-vigilant about their privacy maybe taking all the right measures but it does not move the needle so collective action is needed:

What if millions of people were to coordinate to poison a tech giant’s data well, though? That might just give them some leverage to assert their demands.

There may have already been a few examples of this. In January, millions of users deleted their WhatsApp accounts and moved to competitors like Signal and Telegram after Facebook announced that it would begin sharing WhatsApp data with the rest of the company. The exodus caused Facebook to delay its policy changes.

The magic number for the exodus to work is large enough to make a dent on the ad revenue. Until then it's not likely to bring about lasting change. That's in addition to people having the same notion about the trade-offs between privacy and convenience. Finally, when the alternative to current state exceeds what people have come to expect from their technology, they will migrate to what is better on their own. I have high hopes for Neeva for example and can't wait to leave Google Search behind. Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen.



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