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Ask HN: Would you pay for privacy in a social network like Facebook?

7 points| zeit_geist | 14 years ago | reply

Social Networks like G+ or Facebook are based upon either selling your data or co-selling it as in advertisement. This of course has implications on visibility and privacy of _your_ data.

I believe, this has to change. For this I'd like to learn, would you pay for a Facebook-like service in order to keep your data private and safe?

8 comments

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[+] damoncali|14 years ago|reply
No, but I will (and do) limit my social media activity without it.

And it has nothing to do with advertising. I like that companies know what to show me. I do not like that facebook seems intent on telling everyone I know (and presumably many I don't) what I am doing all the time. Open is not the default for me.

Aggregating likes, interests, and behaviors is not the same as saying "Damon is looking at an article about how bad the Colorado Buffaloes football team is at 12:30 PM". The former actually helps me (at least that's my personal take - others may disagree). The latter does not, and could conceivably harm me.

[+] DanBC|14 years ago|reply
Yes. I would definitely pay Google for some features. (I'd really like an option to "de-bubble" me; I'd really like an option to go back to 2004 style searching; etc.)

Facebook's reach is pretty scary / annoying. I'd gladly pay them to have some of the functionality but with better privacy options.

I'd always consider paying a site to not show adverts. I'd much rather pay a news-site for quality reporting than have to put up with link-bait trolling and ads and [1][2][3] pages of chopped up articles.

[+] tobylane|14 years ago|reply
It depends how critical it is to you. Very few people I know use it more than face to face, or msn/gmail/other digital contact to keep up with people.

It's not really an invasion of privacy if your information is shared to your friends based on your privacy settings, and never seen by the advertisers.

[+] gyardley|14 years ago|reply
Not unless my friends and family were also on the service, since that's the whole point of a social network - and since they're not willing to pay for a Facebook-like service, I'm not likely to either.
[+] poissonpie|14 years ago|reply
No. I would simply not give them my data in the first instance. I don't believe you should have to pay for privacy - especially if you are simply an average citizen.