They also promise to help you, then send a squad of goons to your house to kidnap you and confine you indefinitely in a mental institution (read: torture chamber).
Suicide prevention organizations have been inhumanly cruel for many years, so there’s nothing surprising about their cooperation with Facebook.
Does that include the line behind the US’ new 988 number?
Reason 10000 why facebook is a fucking cancer on society.
“Are you feeling depressed? Here are some extremist organizations we recommend you to join!”
-Facebook
Given how modern suggestion algorithms seem to be poorly moderated, unregulated black boxes aimed at keeping users engaged on site above all else… I won’t be surprised if/when we learn that this has literally happened.
This reminds me on why I turned off personalised ads on Google many years ago.
I work as a psychiatrist, and regularly have to search for literature surrounding the medications I prescribe (like antidepressants). After a few months of practice, Google started having ads that start with “if you’re depressed, have you tried… ?” Or the more click-baity “so-and-so have tried … and you won’t believe what happens next! ”
It was funny the first few times, thinking that Google must have profiled me as depressed.
they send data to a lot more than just facebook.
The true extent is chilling. https://robwipond.com/your-consent-is-not-required
It sounds like the organization might not have been aware that this fundraising tool was doing this, that’s even worse. They think they’re providing a service to people and raising money meanwhile the people they’re helping are unwittingly being tracked - who knows how this information could be misused by insurers/employers/etc etc.
I wonder what recourse the organizations could take? A lawsuit? Going to the media?
I wonder what recourse the organizations could take? A lawsuit? Going to the media?
it seems very unlikely, at face, that they’d have legal standing to sue here (for a variety of reasons but the biggest one is probably lack of a law being violated due to US privacy law being so poor) so probably bad PR at most to be honest
Oh, I read that headline and growled out loud. Yet another reason not to trust those places nor expect anything good out of them. Maybe they’ll call the cops, maybe they’ll just call Facebook. Maybe they didn’t mean to, maybe it doesn’t matter. sigh
