this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Threads Monetization Fears (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/fediverse
 

Has anybody considered the idea that boosts from non-Meta properties to Threads could legally be used to build ad profiles? We already know they do that sort of account association with non-fedi accounts.

EDIT: Looks like that's absolutely the plan. From the privacy policy

"Information From Third Party Services and Users: We collect information about the Third Party Services and Third Party Users who interact with Threads. If you interact with Threads through a Third Party Service (such as by following Threads users, interacting with Threads content, or by allowing Threads users to follow you or interact with your content), we collect information about your third-party account and profile (such as your username, profile picture, IP address, and the name of the Third Party Service on which you are registered), your content (such as when you allow Threads users to follow, like, reshare, or have mentions in your posts), and your interactions (such as when you follow, like, reshare, or have mentions in Threads posts).

We use the information we collect for Threads for the purposes described in the Meta Privacy Policy, including to provide, personalize, and improve Threads and other Meta Products (including seamless personalization of your experience across Threads and Instagram), to provide measurement, analytics and other business services (including ads), to promote safety, integrity and security, to communicate with you, and to research and innovate for social good."

https://help.instagram.com/515230437301944?helpref=faq_content

EDIT 2: After doing a little more thinking, I've come to the conclusion that the general narrative about Threads plan to steal users from similar federated services ignore the fact that it's certainly cheaper to let the volunteers of the fediverse take on the moderation costs while they monetize the data. Though the two certainly are not mutually exclusive.

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[–] SwallowsDick 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Doesn't all social media have this, unfortunately?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There's absolutely no reason it has to or should.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Technically, no, but then they need another source of revenue, because servers at that scale aren't cheap.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The issue is that they can legally monetize users that never signed up to Threads. That's what makes this set of circumstances unique.

[–] faltuuser 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Isn't Google or every other company doing the same thing by training their AI on publicly posted information.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Training AI and selling information directly are very different in the eyes of the law.

[–] faltuuser 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But doesn't Meta build shadow profile on non users alredy?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

They do but primarily through SSO services and platform partnerships. This is their bridge into monetizing the broader fediverse.