Facebook has reached a tipping point for me, and not in a good way. The value I get from seeing updates from friends and family—despite the algorithm trying to show me relevant content—no longer outweighs the privacy concerns and time I’m wasting on the platform.
You Are the Product
As MetaFilter noted back in 2010: “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”
Since Facebook is a “free” service, users become the product. More specifically, our attention and engagement become the product being sold to advertisers. Facebook’s primary goal isn’t to make us happy by showing us comments from high school classmates or our spouse’s latest posts. Their goal is to capture and hold our attention on their app—attention they then sell to advertisers.
The Problem with Engagement-Driven Content
I’m tired of high-engagement, low-value content flooding my feed. I’m tired of hunting through algorithmic noise to find updates from my wife, a few close friends, and the even fewer internet personalities I actually want to follow. I have better things to do with my time and attention.
The Final Straw
I’ve been considering this move for a while, but two recent articles pushed me over the edge:
- A New York Times piece about government data collection
- An article from Legal United States about surveillance concerns
AI Summary of those articles: The current administration is reportedly using Palantir’s technology to merge personal data from multiple federal agencies into comprehensive surveillance profiles. These profiles could include Americans’ bank accounts, medical records, student debt, disability status, and social media posts and emails.
The primary concern is that data collected for specific purposes could be repurposed for political targeting—such as policing immigrants or punishing critics. Privacy advocates warn this creates unprecedented government surveillance capabilities. Even current Palantir employees have expressed alarm about concentrating so much sensitive personal information in one centralized system, with some leaving the company over these privacy concerns.
AAs a cisgender white man, I’m probably relatively safe from targeted surveillance. However, I want to contribute as little as possible to what could become a comprehensive citizen database.
My Decision
Will leaving Facebook and deleting my account prevent my data from reaching Palantir? Maybe. Who really knows at this point. But that uncertainty, combined with Facebook’s diminishing value in my daily life, gives me enough reason to make the break.
The platform just isn’t worth the privacy trade-offs anymore.