from Hacker News

Facebook as Neo-Feudalism

by thatusertwo on 4/27/16, 12:22 PM with 8 comments

• by wodenokoto on 4/27/16, 1:42 PM

  Bridges are worthless if no one is crossing it. By crossing a bridge you are working for free.

  A Mozilla employee once put it a lot better: "privacy is a currency for which the user doesn't know the exchange rate". We are buying a service from Facebook, and we pay in privacy without really knowing how much we are actually paying.

• by jluk on 4/27/16, 7:33 PM

  I don't understand the point here I guess. Facebook is clearly a service to people. People need validation and they can come here to get it quickly and easily - they also come here to stay in contact with friends and family. The work being provided is you using their service - so its not unpaid feudal system work, it is you coming for a personal benefit that in turn produces profitable output for facebook. This is just an odd analogy in my opinion, one a bit too simplistic.

• by randomgyatwork on 4/27/16, 4:51 PM

  I'm glad I've chosen not to be a part of this game, Facebook has always seemed fishy to me.