Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Why have costly government regulation when users can just quit?

Plenty of other online and offline ways to connect with the people in your life.



Users cannot "just quit". Facebook probably has a profile for my grandma who never touched a PC in her whole life.


Many people can't quit because they are addicted, but there is an option to permanently delete your account and it takes about 5min. I'm not aware of Facebook creating profiles for people that haven't signed up for their service. If so, that should definitely be illegal.

The government should have bigger fish to fry than trying to regulate the distribution of information that you have and continue to willingly provide to a company. If you don't like it, sure government could jump in and make Facebook just how you like it, or you could delete the info you don't want them to have. The later sounds easier on everyone.


Why have costly government regulation when people can just not breathe polluted air?

There are some things users/people did not sign up for and cannot (reasonably) opt out of that still harm them. This is what regulations are for.


Air is a necessity, Facebook is not. I don't use Facebook and personally don't want my tax dollars spent overseeing a non-essential service. I'd rather send our tax dollars towards environmental pollution and areas that actually affect us all much more seriously.


The point wasn't that Facebook is a necessity. It's that Facebook is unavoidable.

Unfortunately, whether you created a profile or not, you can't just "not use Facebook" with their whole shadow profiles.

Sure, they aren't (currently) pumping waste into the environment. I'm not saying those things aren't important, but I do think we're going to look back 10 years from now and wonder how we let Facebook even get this bad.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: