this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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You mean like they moved away from Reddit when they killed 3rd party clients and openly began selling user data to data brokers?
Or how they left Twitter when it was bought by an egomaniac who killed 3rd party clients, fired the entirety of the moderation staff, then required users to log in to view posts?
Or maybe how they left Facebook after any of the many times they've been caught collecting user data against their will, promoted genocide, never allowed 3rd party apps, and willingly manipulated elections?
Nevermind the fact that those platforms have had ads for decades.
Yeah sorry, ain't gonna happen.
Hey I am here
Facebook used to allow third party apps (e.g. Snaptu started as a third-party app before the acquisition) and exposed most of the functionality via their API, but it's not really a thing any more after Cambridge Analytica - the API was locked down significantly. You can't really have it both ways... Allowing third-party apps also allows those apps to scrape and store user info, which is what Cambridge Analytica did.
I don't want it both ways.
Accessing an API is not scraping. Scraping is still possible without an API. All CA did was access public information. The problem in that case is not access to public information, it is intentional paid disinformation.
I probably used the wrong words... What I meant is that given API access, a malicious third-party can gather a large amount of data and store it in a way that goes against the service's terms of service, without the proper privacy guarantees (e.g. user data being deleted if they delete their account). Obviously that's a problem for a social network where people can post a lot of friends-only posts.