The problem with a facebook alternative, in my opinion, is that any publicly available info on a social network can still be scraped by a third party with enough effort. The best alternative is no social network if you're really looking for privacy. That said, diaspora exists as a facebook alternative and GNUSocial is a twitter-style social network.
It really fucking blows, but it's genuinely the way it is now. If you have a social life on the internet, there's probably at least one database that's recorded your info to sell. Facebook's settings aren't exactly "placebo," but they're designed to protect you from other users snooping, having next to no impact on what Facebook collects and sells themselves. I'd bet Diaspora has ways to limit who can see your profile unless you add them like Facebook does, and it probably means more, but then you face the problem where none of the people you know are on Diaspora. It's next to impossible to get laymen to value privacy over convenience.
Honestly, it's easier to just do away with the social networks. Facebook free since 2010!
[–] RJKH 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
The problem with a facebook alternative, in my opinion, is that any publicly available info on a social network can still be scraped by a third party with enough effort. The best alternative is no social network if you're really looking for privacy. That said, diaspora exists as a facebook alternative and GNUSocial is a twitter-style social network.
[–] [deleted] 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
[–] RJKH ago
It really fucking blows, but it's genuinely the way it is now. If you have a social life on the internet, there's probably at least one database that's recorded your info to sell. Facebook's settings aren't exactly "placebo," but they're designed to protect you from other users snooping, having next to no impact on what Facebook collects and sells themselves. I'd bet Diaspora has ways to limit who can see your profile unless you add them like Facebook does, and it probably means more, but then you face the problem where none of the people you know are on Diaspora. It's next to impossible to get laymen to value privacy over convenience.
Honestly, it's easier to just do away with the social networks. Facebook free since 2010!