Re: Schneier, Data and Goliath: no hope for privacy

On Mon, 17 Feb 2025, Scott Dorsey wrote:

D  <nospam@example.net> wrote:

 This message is in MIME format.  The first part should be readable text,

It's got pretty hard to avoid some of these businesses. Google, Facebook,
Microsoft are examples of companies that are very hard to avoid.

>
? Facebook is super easy to avoid. Just don't use it. They make nothing of
value.

>
It doesn't work that way.  First of all, even if you don't use it, people
are putting your personal information up on it when they are talking to
their friends about you.

This I addressed in another post.

Secondly, if you are running a business, you may need to have a facebook
presence for advertising just because that is the first place that many
people look for some services.  You can avoid using it but not without
losing a lot of customers.

Or not. I've asked marketing to prove their claims for decades in the global IT corporation space, and zero times have they been able to do it. A lot of "I have to be on X" (pun intended!) is just FOMO.
If you're a small local shop, and do a good job, your customers will do your marketing job for you. Actually not having a FB page, could be more powerful than having one, since it adds a bit of mystique, artisanship and secrecy.