I don’t really use facebook anymore so couldn’t care less; but so happened to log in today to change my password and saw this on my front page.

    • monsterpiece42@reddthat.com
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      8 months ago

      It’s true. I work in a computer shop and we see literally thousands and thousands of dollars lost from people clicking on ads that look like normal buttons (things like “Download”, “Next”, etc). And not just the elderly either. Everyone has a a combination of inputs to get scared and comply. Folks that are otherwise extremely competent and savvy can get scammed too.

      The best security you can have online is adblockers, only beaten by using trusted websites.

      Edit, fair points with sites being slimy these days. I meant using legitimate versions of websites rather than copy/fake websites designed to steal credentials.

    • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      if ads were just static PNGs with a link you went to if you clicked I wouldn’t have ever bothered. but ads became a major malware and tracking risk so plugging that security hole became mandatory.

      • rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        People are gonna say I’m being hyperbolic or crazy, but I swear that the internet died the day the first line of production Javascript was ever written.

    • Ronnie@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      My Facebook is hardly even friends these days. It’s basically ads, suggested posts, and posts in groups. Maybe because none of my friends really post anymore, I dunno.

  • artaxthehappyhorse@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Reminder that Facebook hates you and pays people to develop ways to manipulate and control your behavior. Request to download your account data, delete your account, and go outside. It’s less scary than you’re making it and you’ll feel better in the end.

  • sculd@beehaw.org
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    8 months ago

    This will not end well. YouTube is very difficult to replace while Facebook has plenty of competitors.

      • moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Like it backfired for YouTube, it will be the case for Facebook. People become aware of them through the news it generates.

        • java@beehaw.org
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          8 months ago

          How did it backfire for YouTube? According to this source, YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users. Let’s assume that a significant portion of this user base is around 10%, as a substantial loss in ad revenues would be necessary for this situation to backfire. That would amount to 200,000,000 users.

          Do we have data confirming that ad-blockers gained approximately 200,000,000 new installations over the past month, or is there any other evidence to support this claim?

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            8 months ago

            The argument I heard is that all of the chatter about adblockers is causing normal people who don’t realize that adblockers exist to realize that they exist and try them out. I don’t know if there’s any evidence that this is actually happening, and I don’t know how much I can believe that argument at this stage