Reddit is removing ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform
https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/28/reddit-is-removing-ability-to-opt-out-of-ad-personalization-based-on-your-activity-on-the-platform/?guccounter=1Open linkView original on lemmy.sdf.org1683
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Which is illegal in the EU and about to be illegal in Australia
¯\_(ツ)_/¯Maybe I'll "move to Europe" lol
fires up VPN
Or maybe I'll just stop visiting reddit entirely?
That would probably be for the best.
No :(
I really should though.
I live in europe! On the internet!
Opt-out is still illegal in many cases… a lot must be opt-in based. Typically consent must be freely given.
Will they become liable if I don't opt-out?
In the EU, they certainly aren't allowed to "assume consent".
It depends if someone bothers to sue them or not. In the EU court decisions until now point that profiling for advertising should be opt-in not opt-out but companies keep trying to find loopholes or at least hoping to not attract too much attention with their defaults.
In EU no one individual needs to sue them. The what-ever-the-office-might-be-responsible at EU burecracy will just send them an nicely worded letter that says "play by the book or we'll give you fine big enough to bankrupt you no matter how much money you think you have". The fine is based on company revenue (or sales, I don't remember what it spesifically was) and there's no way you'll weasel yourself out of that no matter how many american lawyers you can hire. The same folks forced Apple to adapt usb-c, so good luck Spez if you try to challenge that.
One small correction: There is no EU office responsible for GDPR enforcement, the EU member states are responsible for handling GDPR breaches within their jurisdiction (Art. 51 GDPR). As an individual you can also file a complaint against offenders (Art. 77 GDPR).
Countries where they're legally required to.
OK but next year it will be illegal in the EU under thr DMA. It's illegal regardless of opt-in or opt-out.
I'll be very surprised if our govt does anything positive when it comes to digital rights. The current shower of arseholes in government supported the previous even bigger shower of arseholes to pass diabolical legislation like data retention and assistance and access bills.
https://sopuli.xyz/post/4017115
The EU just does so many things right.
America: "SoCiALisM"
I am actually not even sure that is true. Some News sites like golem.de and heise.de are doing this for years. It is basically agree to this or leave the site.
This may or may not be illegal, depending on what the “this” is you’re agreeing to. As a simple example, if it is “you agree to functional cookies by continuing to use the site”, that’s fine. If it is “you agree to us scraping your computer and selling everything we find to China”, that is most definitely not legal, nor is refusing service if you don’t agree.
Oh nooooo who could have seen this coming... anyway continues using Lemmy
Consider redacting your data and deleting your account
https://old.reddit.com/r/redditseppuku/comments/14frr4u/reddit_seppuku_how_to/
Didn't these all stop working when they shutdown the public API?
I thought it would too, but some replies indicate it still works!
Your mileage may vary.
No, redact your data, get banned and still request your data every 30 days under GDPR (just submitted my 3rd).
Meh. I pondered this but leaving it helps users still using the platform.
Is reddit owned and operated by a malicious entity? I used to be addicted to that platform, but now I can't stand it.
From https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
This is going to be the most quoted literary work of the 21st century
Do you think maybe it'll be different with a federated and thus less centralized platform like Lemmy? Or do you think it will just delay this process? Cause right now lemmy and kbin seem to be pretty good.
I think that the FOSS Fediverse platforms are significantly resistant to enshittification.
That same article explores what enables enshittification and what precludes it:
Fediverse platforms:
Hmm yeah that's what I was thinking... May kbin and lemmy live long and prosper 🖖
There's no business platform here. So it will go a different path. Buy eventually the mods and instance admins who are volunteering their time and money to keep this going will wish to spend their time and money elsewhere. What happens after the first round of people who really work to make a free platform like this succeed go away? If there's not a good deal of planning and acculturation for new people, there's a high likelihood that a second generation of mods takes over who have different motives and reasons for running the place and the platform sees noticeable changes. Or nobody steps up at all and individual sections just end.
I honestly think the only way this could work is like email. So you either take the gmail like privacy destruction and ads, or you pay for a service. Back in the day it was bundled by the ISP, but now I think it's way more likely to end up being some bundled 'online service' company that for a monthly fee provided a swath of federated content and services. But that it hasn't sprung up implies that it's not a workable model.
I mean the mods and admins won't all go away at once, right? It's probably gonna be gradual, so maybe the existing mods can keep any new/replacing mods in check? I dunno...
Plus, do you think maybe a donation model could be viable for platforms like this? It's split over multiple instances so surely at least the smaller ones could be ran off of donation money?
Hard to say. My experience with people in general is that they'll keep going even if things aren't great, but they'll get upset. And eventually things will come to a head and there's a major change in a short period of time. This being a somewhat democratic platform, I would bet that we'll have that sort of trajectory.
As for donations, it's just very hard to get people to donate enough and often enough to support this kind of thing. Think of the regular donation appeals on public radio, or Wikipedia, or even The Guardian. They have a whole organization and system built around soliciting donations, and even then they are always operating on a shoestring. How often do you donate? How often do your friends and family?
As long as humans are involved and we are looking at a long enough timeframe, the answer is probably always yes.
In fediverse, the data is already public. You'll just need to run an instance, start federating and the data will flow directly into your instance. Whether someone will somehow find a way to extract profit from this system is remain to be seen.
I think it's inevitable that someone will find a way to profit, even if it's just scraping the data for training LLMs, or for something like those shitty sites that just duplicate GitHub issues.
The question of enshittification isn't whether someone can find a way to profit, it's whether someone can find a way to change the platform to increase their profit.
they are preparing for IPO, the most inherently malicious owner there is!
Certainly by a greedy one. Greed and stupidity are often better explanations than outright malice, but... yeah, they're a bunch of assholes, too.
I mean, I’m not denying they’re making wrong choices, and I’ve left Reddit myself, but given that they’re losing money I don’t understand how it’s considered ”greedy” to try and change that.
The largest owners are Advance Publications and Tencent. Advance also own Condé Nasty (Reddit even used to be under the Condé Nast banner). Weirdly they also own everyone's favorite plagiarism detection service Turnitin.
I know of Tencent and the controversy about them... I don't know anything about Advance though. Are they also controversial?
how much does tencent actually own? I could swear they only bought company stocks and not direct controls over reddit.
Halon's Razor.
If you look at who Spez idolizes (Musk) and how he treated and talked about the protesters…. No. He or the board doesn’t get a pass for this. This is a move stemmed 100% from financial gain and malfeasance
The actual razor in that case; incompetent malice.
They think their platform is unique - incompetence.
They think this users are morons to be milked - malice.
Eventually the second part becomes true as the intelligent users realize the first is not l, leaving only morons who are easily milked.
Is that anything like Hanlon's Razor?
Uhm, that option was intreduced by sites and ad networks because the GDPR requires it so unless they plan to shut down buisness in the EU it's probably going to fail!
I'm guessing that's how they plan to get around that. They will leave the toggle enabled for people registered in EU countries, and disable it everywhere else. A fairly risky way to handle it in my opinion.
Well, that's certainly illegal too, the GDPR requires opt-in and while there is room for interpritation (see all the shitty cookie banners) if you enable anything by default it's not going to fly!
While that’s true, I’ve seen GDPR enforcement to be sparse, at best. Someone has a cookie banner and they aren’t questioned, but even if you “deny all” there is still spyware on the site. I will do the usual. Hope for the best, expect the worst
The method of "enforcment" for that part of the GDPR is awful but for a big and fairly hated player like Reddit it will probably actually work, some organization or competitor just has to file a formal complaint. There was some NGO a few years ago that filed cimplaints against various big players and got platforms like Twitch to fix their banners that way but idk what happened to them!
Oh yeah not saying it won’t make waves for something like Reddit, it just wish it was more actively enforced from reports
I couldn't agree more, a single look at our newspapers in Austira reveals a sad trueth, even the good ones use illegal "consent or pay" cookie banners!
About the cookie banners: I heard some time ago that EU wants to force browsers to have an option to automatically decline all non-essential cookies because those banners are pissing everyone off. What's with that plan, any updates?
The feature is actually older than any cookie banner (do not track request) but idk if the EU will overwork the law that way, it's a miracle that it passed at all and I would be surprised if the loopholes aren't made for some lobbyists in the first place!
Something that always pissed me off is that while I might not be living in the EU currently I'm still a citizen but companies get to just fuck me over anyways?
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I haven't used reddit in months
I still read some niche subs from time to time, but I don't post or vote on anything any more. It could just be confirmation bias, but the comments do seem to be more full of assholes than before the API change.
Not that it's not confirmation bias but I can confirm what you're seeing.
They lost a lot of active, enthusiastic, altruistic friendly people. I don't think they've drawn in worse people, but there are less nice voices to balance out the vitriol. Under the circumstances there's also less downvoting toxicity.
I'm pretty sure it's a real thing but how much it's felt probably varies community by community.
I also wonder if the combination of losing modding tools and mods being treated like garbage by reddit made them less enthusiastic about doing their (unpaid) job, too.
Same. I left once the Apollo app stopped working and haven’t looked back.
I still check in to certain niche subreddits that don't exist on lemmy. Those feel pretty close to how they used to. The other day I took a look at /r/all and.... ooof. It's very apparent quality has completely nosedived. Lemmy /c/all is a much better representation of pre-blackout reddit /r/all right now.
Every time I see any news of Reddit, I'm glad I left
Sometimes I'll check in to see if anyone's asking me a question and it always just ends up being some random groyped up nazi posting vitriol on a comment that's like, 3 years old. Now I don't even get that because everyone's either lost interest or jumped ship.
They're gonna remove old reddit aren't they?
I'm actually surprised it's still running, but it seems inevitable especially when they aren't milking that sweet sweet af revenue.
With old reddit you can block ads on the side and ads that pretend to be posts have a blueish hue, so it's easy to scroll past without paying attention.
"New" reddit the images/videos are already open so I'm sure eventually they'll look at the decrease in ad impressions and make up an excuse to get rid of it.
Assuming none of that has changed in the couple months since I left.
All moderation tools were not available on new design last time I was there. It is still not on par with old design
That's not gonna stop them
According to Reddit last year, while only 4% of users are on old.reddit, 60% of all mod actions are carried out on it. They can't get rid of it for now, but they are working on bringing updates to modding on new.reddit or newnew.reddit (nickname given by me).
Early 2024 is the estimated rollout for this, so I'd say mid-to-late 2024 is when old.reddit is kicked to the curb.
If those users are just dead weight to them, it makes business sense to even convert 10% them to their main ad filled product, and let the 90% go away. They want to go public and sell, they are definitely last stage of pulling a cash grab.
HAHAHAHAHHA oh man that's funny
Lol what ads. Old.reddit with Reddit enhancement suite and Ublock Origin. That's the only way I ever browse Reddit anymore. I have never seen an ad on Reddit. If they ever get rid of old Reddit I'll never go back there. As it is my Reddit usage has decreased by 95% since using Lemmy and never browsing Reddit any other place than my pc.
Problem is not just the ads they serve you, but also that they sell this data...
So all you need to do is fill your data with LOTS of porn
So we come to Lemmy where anyone can spin up an instance, collect our data, and sell it.
Or you can spin up your own and control your own data
Now we just need to figure out how to actually sell our data ourselves!
Sure, but because of federation other instances can collect your posts and vote data. Federation is the antithesis of privacy.
I'll bet cash that it's only a short matter of time before old.reddit is shutdown and within 6 months of that happening Reddit access will be locked behind account login.
I guarantee you the C-suite at reddit regularly kick themselves for giving into public backlash and keeping old.reddit. People weren't happy with the redesign, but they would have definitely gotten used to it fairly quickly. Now, removing it will be another nail in the coffin they're so desperate to build.
I suspect you're correct, although I doubt removing old.reddit will cause much of a stir.
Notice how Reddit is releasing 1 shitty update every few weeks rather than all at once? By the time one shit update is released the vast majority of users have forgotten the previous one. Remember the API change? I reckon most of Reddits existing users don't anymore. I suspect old.reddit will go the same way.
The only thing keeping the main community that I still visit reddit for (not nearly often enough, since I only look at it on old Reddit) on Reddit is discoverability. People search Google and the Reddit community is in the results, so I don't think they'll make it log in to view
That same community will probably leave the platform when old.reddit (with Reddit Enhancement Suite) is closed, unless Reddit actually adds comparable mod tools
A lot of sites show up in Google results and then force you to log in to actually see the content. I think most of them just get away with hiding the content a second after loading it in, that way the crawler bot still is able to see all the page but the user isn't
Similar to twitter.
If I go to twitter mainpage I can't see anything without logging in.
If I go direct to a profile I see can't see anything without logging and;
If I go to a specific post, I can read the initial post but nothing else.
That's what I expect will happen to Reddit
I wouldnt take that bet because I 100% agree.
Do you also get redirected to some random post with 2 up votes when you click on any i.reddit url/picture. I use the same setup and was wondering if I messed up some settings or if it reddit messing up the old interface.
But old reddit has changed a lot. Bringing it close to the newer interface.
Old. Reddit still looks the exact same as it always has for me. I use Reddit enhancement suite so so maybe that's it. Just turn off "use subreddits style" for every subreddit. Dark mode on. Ad blocker enabled. I don't have the new tab issue. I can see that this won't last forever though and eventually Reddit won't exist to me anymore.
Who didn't see this coming? Kill all good third party apps and funnel everyone into their dogshit, undercooked app and then leverage every metric and interaction for advertising
The speed at which they are destroying Reddit is just impressive. Spez saw Musk taking a shit on Twitter on the daily and became inspired.
As much as I want to hate Reddit's management, this is not a move that will affect the average user too much. It's really bad from a privacy standpoint, but a huge percentage of people don't care too much about privacy (until it bites them). So this does (unfortunately) make ton of sense from a business standpoint.
Sure, why not? As the user base narrows, those who are left are the ones willing to put up with the most shit, so that is what they get.
Does it narrow? Let's be realistic, Reddit isn't the wasteland you want it to be.
Most of the subs I used to care about are more of a wasteland than I could've imagined. And come to think of it I'm starting to suspect that the demographics of social media participation in general are beginning to get narrower as well. After starting with a select few early adopters in the 1980s and then taking 30-some years to gradually broaden out to include basically "everyone" (in the anglosphere at least), people who are tired of the whole affair are perhaps starting to drop out or at least reduce their participation in significant numbers. I wonder how many of the people perceptive enough to leave reddit for one reason or another simply didn't find anything worthy of replacing it.
Yeah, this is no different from how every other social media platform operates. Unfortunately it's just the way these websites make money to stay "free for consumers".
The only (distant) solution I can see will be the fediverse, paid for by UBI and decreasing server costs (i.e. green energy and tech breakthroughs)
What years of neoliberal propaganda does to a mfer.
Okay so what I really mean by UBI is the point that humans have successfully created an autonomous supply chain that keeps everyone fed and sheltered. AI has taken the majority of necessary jobs that humans do not wanna do, creating a surplus of resources that (in a utopia) even if 1% is distributed among the population, could be more than enough to keep fediverse software running on a server farm powered by green energy.
I don't mean some fox news version of UBI that they think just means higher taxes and everyone becoming fat and lazy.
UBI is a compromise made by neoliberals to distract people from socialism. In practice, it challenges none of the contradictions of capitalism and will, given enough time, decay into neofeudalism. Does the idea of your life becoming an enclosure sound like a utopia?
This is how my love for uBlock Origin grows day by day...
I don't know how anyone lives without it.
Fuuck I run 12 adblockers at once to chew up all ads and burn them.
they're used to it. my mother forbid me from setting up ad protection on her phone, because she's used to them and didn't want to learn how to switch it off when necessary (e.g. when it breaks a site she needs)
I use Blokada 5 on my phone to block ads and trackers and the fucking banking app stops working if I have it turned on. FFS you already have my money why did you guys need to harvest more of my data (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)
Solution: only use Reddit for porn.
Lol same... and I still feel dirty whenever I do it. Not because it's porn, but because it's reddit. Eww.
The reddit experience: Scrolling through someone just absolutely caked with human feces and going "ew, transphobic slur in the title"
This is exactly how I feel. I wiped my primary account but not my porn alt, and I'm sad about it
Nsfwbrowser.com means you don't even have to use Reddit to see Reddit porn
Thanks for the tip!
That ad personalization will not be pretty.
But will it be filthy?
That's the point.
Advertisers hate porn. Anything that's not safe and broad-appeal is bad for their image.
Our society sucks because advertisers would rather be associated with far-right fascists than content that like 90% of the internet is for.
And use Revanced to patch the shit out of Reddit app.
You can also use revanced to patch your own api key into Infinity and use that instead
Or Sync, or Boost...
it says you need root to access the split apk
or locate to an apk file instead
how do I do that? do I just download an apk from apkmirror or some random website?
Apkmirror :) download APK from there.
GDPR violation.
No chance they will block out the entire EU market. They will probably just do the same as everyone else and make a specific EU policy.
Actually I think Meta Threads is still not available in EU for the same reasons.
The “selection” will all be yellow stars on a blue background. Can’t wait to see Vestager tear them a new one. Heeeere’s the EU, legislating your aaaaass!!
If we're serious about transforming the conversation around this issue, we've got to be more intentional with the words we choose. Let's call a spade a spade: labeling them as "personalized ads" is a gross understatement.
It's more than that. It's like someone constantly lurking behind you, watching every move you make, and getting into the private spaces of your mind. It isn't mere content tailoring—it's relentless stalking and a brazen assault on our psyche.
We need to call it what it is.
It's theft is what it is. Personal data has value - so much value that companies like Google and Facebook have used solely data to become some of the wealthiest businesses in the world. These companies take our data for free, tell us it's so worthless it isn't worth paying us, and then they make pure profit. We might not know how to do what they do with the data, but you can't build a car without paying for the nuts and bolts; we should be paid our fair share for every data point they collect.
And every time they sell it, every transaction it leads to.
I think a flat one time fee per access is fine, so long as it's proportional to the sales they make. Data has a value with respect to time anyway, new data is more valuable than old data, even if the data is the same, so it's not like they'll just be getting it one time.
People on sites like this really need to understand that for good or bad we are a vocal minority. People by and large understand "if you aren't paying for it you're the product". Many people have come to terms with this be it reddit, or Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc.
Does it make it right? Or course it doesn't.
But I seriously don't know, outside of a serious privacy breach involving hundreds of deaths, how do we effectively change the narrative in a way the masses can not only consume but understand?
I'm in my echo chamber here but at the same time I've come to terms that if it's online expect it to be sold and nothing is private.
I disagree with you there, what people need to understand - the masses in general - is that this is a completely new and deeply flawed way for human beings to trade value between each other. One where the things one party is giving up are poorly defined, and they don't get anything in return or have any room to negotiate. Hell, it isn't even really a transaction, they just invite you in and then rummage through your pockets.
We have a long-established set of rules for forming deals, called contract law, that we've developed over thousands of years. Mass commercial data collection flouts the core principles of this.
Just like The Police.
I agree with you but let's cut the hyperbole please? It is not "a brazen assault on our psyche". Ain't no one of sound mind seeking out a therapist for trauma because reddit changes it TOS.
I think they are an assault on free will. Ads aren't well reasoned arguments for the purchase of a product or service; they're whatever they need to be to get you to change your behavior. If they have to scare, shame, trick, etc. they'll do it.
Just out of curiosity how old are you? My sense is your opinion is probably shared by those younger people who came of age during the beginning of the death throws of cable.
I'm not saying your opinion is wrong for you. But I'm 46 now. I grew up inundated by commercials. They have always done all those things you mention. We were raised in an environment where media literacy included commercials allowing us to better see and smell the bullshit. Maybe that is what is lacking?
They are definitely not an "assault on free will" as you put it. Advertising is one of the oldest industries known to man and it will continue to exist and evolve.
That said, you are very correct in that it has gotten worse in recent years. This is predominantly (I feel) because government has stopped regulating specifically what is marketed to kids (thanks 1980's!). There is also an angle that we stopped teaching media literacy like we used to.
I'm in my late thirties, actually. I think the difference in the ads we were exposed to compared to young people today is that nearly all of ours were broadly targeted. ie there was no micro targeting or anything really tailored to the individual outside of direct mail. We all watched the same commercials, you know?
Modern ad tech is much less "spray and pray" but as to what difference that makes vis-a-vis people's ability to see BS, idk. I'd imagine the proportion of young people who are skeptical of advertising hasn't changed much but the effectiveness of ads on those who are susceptible to it has increased. But again, I'm just talking out my ass here haha.
But all ads share the goal of altering your behavior to their own ends. Isn't that in and of itself a reduction of your free will? An idea or thought you might have had is supplanted by one placed there by an advertiser, right?
Maybe this is where we differ then. I agree with everything you're saying but at the same time in no way do I feel like my choice to choose is being taken away. I am not being forced to buy anything.
No, you're not being forced of course. But advertisers are absolutely trying to bend your decision making process towards their products. That's how ads work, right? They ultimately want you to spend money on something. Not saying you're like Homer Simpson driving down the road stopping to obey all the billboards, I'm just saying it's the inherent nature of ads. I didn't mean to imply anything else
My intention wasn't to equate ads with psychological trauma, but rather to emphasize the profound impact such invasive practices can have on our sense of privacy and autonomy. The terminology of 'personalized ads' can often obscure the magnitude of surveillance behind it. I understand that this might come across as hyperbolic to some, but it's essential to articulate the depth of concern many feel.
are we ever going to do shit about it or are we going to continue to sit and talk about the same thing over and over uselessly
some of us ARE doing something about it
lol I have yet to see barely a finger lifted by suburb libs to do anything for the rest of us
dude, don't just assume my political beliefs based on nothing more than a comment...
sis if you have the ideology of a suburb liberal while not being one, you are an even sadder motherfucker than I thought you were
if caring about privacy and not wanting companies and governments to watch everything you do is "the ideology of a suburb liberal", then fine, I'm a "suburb liberal" lol
EDIT: reading your profile you're (in your words) a "Firm believers in Marxism Leninism, cartoons, and the need for Gulags" so I don't think I will continue this discussion. have a nice day ^^
strawman, love to see it. How is any of what you said relevant?
Im unapologetic about my love of Marxist freedom, I wonder why you feel the need to hide your ideology...
Isn't that illegal under GDPR or something?
It will be illegal under the DMA, which becomes enforceable next year.
I thought spez was gonna calm down with his bs, but it seems he can't stop dragging himself through the shit.
Assholes generally don't stop with their assholery when they keep getting away with it.
But he actually can not. He must have promised the world to shareholders, so now he has to deliver.
So they're preparing to get sued tens of millions of dollors by the EU in March of next year?
They're not gonna go against EU.
People in "select countries" will still have a toggle.
I urge everyone to install Adnauseum. You know what's better than trying to starve advertisers of info? Filling their ad profile for you with total garbage.
Glad I'm reading this on Lemmy. Well, "glad" isn't the right word, but you know....
I am actually glad about it. Lemmy represents a fundamentally different model for how to organize and pay for an online social network. It turns out that you don't have to monetize socializing if you don't want to. The worse Reddit becomes the more people will look for an alternative and the more people will be exposed to the concept of "maybe we can just chip in for server costs when we can" as a way of running social media.
In German we have a great proverb: "better a terrible end than unending terror" (rhymes in German, no good equivalent in English).
It's sad that things "ended" the way they did, but it's great that we're finally in an actual open ecosystem which can't be milked and changed the way Reddit did.
Huh. Those Germans. Always have a positive outlook on everything.
That's what we're known for!
There's a regional saying I like even more: "Et kütt wie et kütt, un et hätt noch immer jot jejange". Roughly: things come as they come, but so far everything turned out well :)
Glad to have escaped, with gladness tempered by the awareness of the suffering of those who have not escaped
All those religious ads for people "interested in religion" by their participation in /r/atheism
All those political ads for those participating in /r/worldpolitics
Sports ads for members of /r/SuperbOwl
Why don't I expect Reddit to do this well?
Distantly appreciative?
Now's a good time to advertise the fediverse, if you're still on reddit. Just pick your favorite instance, and tell people to check it out and to click "login/register" if they like it.
Okay. I stopped using reddit (and cancelled my premium membership) when Apollo stopped working, so hope it works out for them.
Reddit had a premium membership?
It's just now called "Delete Profile". 😅
That is alright I opted out of ads by installing uBlock Origin.
Honestly never been so happy to move off Reddit, every other week I’m hearing Reddit just shoot itself in the foot and then double down even harder to lose users
same here. and as sad as I am about Apollo, Voyager is exactly the same for the rare times I use Lemmy on Mobile. so I really haven't had any use for reddit at all anymore... outside of adding it to my searches maybe.
Apollo is the reason I left Reddit too and I was gonna go back on android for sync pro but then they said they’re leaving Reddit too, so I moved over to lemmy.ml then I lost my account then I went to lemmy.world
I’m really glad I’ve stopped actively using Reddit. The day Apollo shut down was my last day on the platform. Sure if a search result leads to a Reddit post I’ll still go, but long gone are the days of mindless scrolling through r/all. Probably has significantly improved my mental health too.
Same here
I used Apollo for BARELY under a year and I loved it. Still Reddit has great search results for games I play like no man’s sky, gta, planetside to a lesser degree. But ask a question in your search engine of choice and slap Reddit on the end you’ll probably get exactly what your looking for
I really hope lemmy gets that far someday
I used Apollo from the very first day it hit the App Store.
I started a Lemmy instance when they announced Apollo was going under, I hope Lemmy gets there too.
I’m excited to see Christians next big thing (tm)
Porn ads incoming.
I respect Pornhub etc. much more than other companies. I think that's at least partially because I don't get swarmed by ads from them.
They were knowingly profiting from the rape of women, you know…
Ah yes, porn is rape. That's why they are called actresses an are paid.
No, I’m being quite literal, women were forced into having sex that they didn’t want to, were lied to about what they were going to be doing (many were told they were going to be doing modelling photo shoots), weren’t paid what they were promised, and were physically forced into doing things they said they didn’t want to do. You can look it up
ah yes, im going to act smug to pretend I have a point
redditor, leave your lingo at the door
Just because people are paid to do a job doesn't mean it isn't still coercion. Wages aren't consent. I know you don't believe the lie that people can just choose their job or have unlimited choices and just choose to be poorer people for the kicks.
You've never been on pornhub if you think they don't swarm you with ads.
The only really long term viable model is a donation model. Ad tracking is abusive and the legality is waning, and subscription models for what's basically a public good are fucked.
If it's a public good the government should run it, but I seriously doubt most people think of it like roads. We don't even think of internet access as a utility.
Government financed and government run aren't necessary the same thing. I wouldn't want a government agency running social media for obvious reasons but a government giving out grants or the equivalent of a crown corp.
I think the fediverse could actually act as a very effective system of checks and balances. Each country could finance an instance that their citizens use while allowing the free flow of information from country to country that gives these platforms value in the first place. federation would mean the only truly effective censorship would be defederation which would at least be highly public.
But I agree, even in countries with effective governments it would be very hard to implement. But one can dream!
It just seems kind of weird to me the instinctive distrust of government for social media but complete acceptance of them for roads, physical mail, and other public services. Or maybe I'm just missing something. I mean, it's not like the companies are showing amazing efficiency and results here.
This happened with our ambulance service - the volunteers dried up, and so we had to put it in our taxes. There was a donation push to get us to the next tax year, but then it's something we all pay for to have an ambulance available.
propaganda. If I becomes A political dissonant they can't really stop be using the roads. Physical mail is a crown corp where I am, they are funded by the government but the government can't effect their day to day function, same with our state funded news org. It would be pretty bad if a rogue politician could give out an order to restrict the viability or content of the mail, like what happened with the CDC in America during the pandemic. In order for the same to happen to a crown corp you'd have to have a parliamentary vote, which would take months and involve a lot of public oversight. You'd need the same institutional checks on a new social media service too, lest they randomly or silently start censoring things.
The problem in the US is that the mail is kind of special, I just wish it wasn't. If our government paid a company, it'd just be the same as us paying a company, and we'd still get ads, just Facebook or whoever would also get a huge government check. Not what I'd say a success or improvement.
Of course, that just says more about how bad the government is really. I just think charity (donations) is a horrible and unreliable way to run any sort of "needed service" (for a given definition of needed).
I was about to write something in my comment to the effect of, "but let's not even talk about the government running it". Could end up like PBS, could just as easily end up like USSR/North Korean/Chinese media. Imagine Reddit but, instead of spez, it's Joseph McCarthy, or Donald Trump, with the power to identify and criminally sanction users.
I think in so far as people are in the jurisdiction of a given government, they generally can identify social media users already, and if they choose criminally sanction these people. In the US I'd argue the government would be far more bound by First Ammendment issues than any corporation. And you have far more redress against the government when they screw up than the current "you agree to binding arbitration" from companies. Which... honestly... says something crappy about our tort law and T&Cs allowed. My main point is that I don't actually think social media or discussion boards are a public good. I think it should be federated like e-mail (and the fediverse) but otherwise you can choose the provider you like. This seems like the best option IMO.
Well, there's having to put an unconstitutional demand violating the 1st/4th amendments on paper and sending it out to a company, and then there's just being able to log in as the admin and look for the information directly. Anyway, when I say "public good", I mean in a pretty loose sense, I prefer to see actual maintenance/management done by something like a non-profit rather than a gov agency.
Yea, except doesn't Facebook etc often make it pretty easy - no demand, just pay us some fee and we'll give you data? I mean, Google and Facebook are just selling the data. From what I recall hearing, the phone companies give away location data pretty similarly too. It's not a constitutional issue if you "voluntarily" give data to a third party and they're just willingly selling that - whether it's to another company, individual or the government.
Which activity?
From the way your mouse hand twitched when you saw the word "activity" we have deduced that you want to see ads for inflatable kayaks and adult diapers.
Lets give it to him, he is really good at it!
Fuck Reddit.
I actually enjoyed ad personalization when it first started. I got shown ads for things that were actually interesting to me, video games hardware etc, but at this point it resembles what cable TV ads were when I stopped watching TV: car commercials, prescription drugs, baby and feminine products (am not parent, am not female). So now they just spying your behavior to learn the best way to trick you into buying crap you don't need and don't supply any sort of reach around.
The reason I hate ad personalization is because they flat out lie about what you're into. I hate crypo with a passion and shortly after I joined shitter they sold a package which said that I just looooved cryptocurrency and got nothing but the most cancerous crypo ads for the next year.
Like if you're going to be building a profile around me and selling it to fucking everyone at least have the courtesy not to fucking lie.
Thank God. I love seeing that place die
the people still on reddit are those with an unhealthy love of reddit. Its not dying, too many people are terminally online for them to care that reddit is vile.
Yeah that was definitely me until I got permabaned. Not being able to use Boost was the last drop.
honestly same, got banned with other leftists groups, they never gave a reason for banning me. Honestly one of the best things to happen to me.
I got this message too. I’m torn between just deleting the accounts and be done with it and leaving them to sit with no activity and no ad impressions.
Or set your location to a European country?
A better idea. I already tried to change my email to a European provider, though, and Reddit refused.
True. And I’ve done that. I’m just wondering if it’s time to clean up an unused social media account.
Wouldn’t you have to avoid viewing anything too?
I’m not planning on viewing Reddit in the foreseeable future. But I rather like the idea of taking up space in their database while giving them nothing in return.
Woah big shocker, anyway
If you wanna keep your bookmarks and the subreddits (communities) that you're subscribed to before deleting your account, I made a free tool to help you store and offload that data.
It's called Reddit Account Manager, and it's 100% free.
You can also use it to manage your Lemmy account(s), of course.
Why do you require my email?
Can't you just put it on GitHub or something?
I would if I could, but I built it without writing code. So there's nothing to upload to GitHub/GitLab.
The page asking for your email simply serves as the delivery mechanism since I can't put it on GitHub/GitLab.
Other shocking news at 11
Is Reddit still alive? I have been away for months 😂
I opted out by deleting every trace of my account and never returning. it was easy.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent.
Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity—what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals—to get an idea of what you might be interested in,” Reddit said.
Reddit is seemingly removing toggles for getting post recommendations based on “general location” and activity on partner sites and apps.
The social network said it will also roll out controls to limit certain advertising categories such as alcohol, weight loss, dating, gambling pregnancy, and parenting.
It infamously made changes to its data API terms that led to many third-party clients shutting down and subreddits protesting in retaliation.
In an interview with The Verge in June, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman responded to IPO rumors and said “Getting to breakeven is a priority for us in any climate.”
The original article contains 415 words, the summary contains 147 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Reddit Revanced says no!
I guess anyone who is still there don't care. :)
I care but also don't use the reddit mobile app, am only using old reddit, and have been using an adblocker for as long as I've used reddit so...
Same. My reddit consumption and engagement has dropped drastically when they fucked over their power users. I believe that has hurt them immeasurably but at the same time they're massive.
Anecdotally I was on a thread yesterday reading the comments and my god it's not disgusting but it's a weird uncanny valley. Methinks they have internally masked the impact by building out bots using LLMs.
I got 4 posts to a reply on my cake day. That to me is abnormal behaviour.
I saw a comment get a reply linking the exact same YouTube link not as a quote but in the reply with very generated language. That was then followed with very much "this is a reply my fellow good human" type replies.
I honestly think they're fucked. I think they're just hiding they're fucked.
Ok so it isn't just me? I can't tell if it's just maybe people from fledgling online countries all trying to simulate what they think the Internet is like cause they are excited to finally be part of it or just literal bots trained to sound like humans to pad numbers.
Upvotes still seem like bot controlled with massive variances in the same subreddit from the ones that feel like ads to posts that are clearly human generated.
There is a weird vibe over there. Like a city full of plastic people.
Perfect summary.
To be clear as well I've been on reddit 10+ years. It's "different" now. Uncanny valley. I'm trying to be objective. I don't have near the vitreol of many people here on lemmy. I'm actually fairly indifferent outside of them running their site into the ground.
Also worth mentioning it's more visible in large subs. My city sub is real ppl. I got the weird vibe from a top 10 sub.
Yes normal subs are fine even 1M subscriber subreddits
That describes what Reddit feels like currently pretty accurately. Was it like this since that api shutdown or before then? Because as a long time user it’s definitely gone downhill in terms of healthy engagement.
Sooner or later they will shut down old.reddit as well. But yeah, I don't think there was ever a time I used the internet without an ad blocker. It's a very frustrating experience.
Maybe I'll stop getting those "He Gets Us" ads if I cruise the atheist subreddits.
It won't. Thing about these kind of campaigns is they intend to antagonize.
The new pinned sponsor add at the top is so distracting. Used it to figure out a sports stream, awful experience.
This is the message they are sending to users:
Hey u/username,
We will soon begin rolling out changes to Reddit's User settings. It is getting a refresh that includes changes to ad personalization, privacy preferences, and location settings.
As part of these changes, we are retiring a setting that you have previously turned on that limited how we used your activity from the Reddit platform to personalize ads. We have replaced the setting with a new option to select categories of ads that you may not wish to see.
More details are available in our announcement and help center.
These changes are rolling out starting today and you may see the changes over the next few days.
What if you select every category because ads are a stupid timewaste?
Regardless how many times they are telling me that Diablo 4 is "the fastest-selling ARPG ever" and flaunt the phoney 10/10 "review scores", it's not gonna change my opinion that the game is dog poop and thoroughly unimpressive. So why inconvenience me by making me load that shitty picture, it won't make me buy that shit.
I honestly don't get the point of ads.
Unless it's direct-response targeted, the point of adds isn't to make you buy shit instantly, it's to plant a seed and make you aware of a product so that one day you do spend money in it.
That shit is beyond broken. I‘m glad I left.
I almost exclusively used reddit on my phone and RIF showed an ad once in a blue moon.
I do have RES installed on my computron's browser, but RIF was just better.
Just use Revanced app to remove adds from Reddit
Well it doesn't opt you out from the tracking across the whole site
Thats where tools like NextDNS or TrackerControl come into play.
Does that require rooting? I used revanced manager to sort YouTube out but saw some stuff required rooting
I use it without root the only thing I have to do is make sure to download the apk and patch that since it can't just override your currently installed one from the store.
No it does not
I still go to Reddit subs when something interesting appears in my RSS feed.
As soon as they kill RSS (and honestly I'm pretty surprised they haven't yet), I'll never go there again.
It feels like we’re hitting a point similar to politics in America. 30% will hold on no matter what, and the company is going to take them for all their worth because they know they’re die hard loyalists and aren’t leaving.
That’s fine I guess. I only use Reddit from a uBlock’d browser behind a pihole. I’ve yet to see a single Reddit ad in 14 years.
Ublock is awesome, but it can't block first party from analyze, sell and use your data for anything out of your control. Use a fake account, a VPN and/or tor browser to isolate your identities. Stopping ads isn't enough to stop exploitation of your data
Yep, I use a VPN just in general, and wipe my Reddit history every 30 days or so. I would make new accounts, but the ones I have are from before they demanded an email address, so they haven’t got one attached.
That just means you're blind to the level of tracking they're doing on you.
Not blind at all - that’s just what I do for the ads. 😉
how is this news, all social media is doing this. Its an inevitable consequence of capitalist internet ownership.
Aaand....reddit account, gone. Finally....
I love my adblocker and tracking blocking.
have to go to their pages to see any ads. meh. be glad they haven't installed ads at the router level.
Lemmy users still having reddit rent free lmao
Eh, I use it for movie/tv discussions because there isn’t a viable alternative yet and I can’t cope with the responsibility of creating it myself.
In other news, services that cost money to operate seek to make money in the process. More at 7
Aaron Swartz is dead :(
Which Aaron are you referring to?
Those are all certainly words.
Bad bot.
Why are you even here?
you can't really believe reddit, a gigantic media megacorp, is somehow strapped for cash?