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https://bsky.app/profile/robin.berjon.com/post/3lx5mxu2lvk2n
"Data Gains Value in Volume"
The fundamental principle you need to understand to what makes today's SaaS offerings work. If you have just a little bit of data, say one or two peoples, it's nearly worthless. Have data on a 100M? Wow you could sure do a lot with that. Doesn't even matter what kind of data it is. A collected set of data, especially one with provenance, ongoing "updates", and a reasonable growth rate, is incredibly valuable. It is the raw materials both manufactured and refined by tech companies from which all industry profits flow. The free app they let you use, all the engineering and psychology that goes into building, deploying and maintaining the software is in pursuit of data. It's the special sauce that juices the valuation of all the tech companies you know and love. It's the defining characteristic of anything labelled "tech" or "smart".
You cannot fight those who harvest data, by generating it. That's plain fact. But the ramifications are important to understand. Everytime you use a platform, you generate data for it. Little logs in their web servers record your footprint. It shows them you were here. It shows them where you went and where you came from. And if they've been watching you a long time, even who you are. Mmmm, fresh data straight from the source. You don't need to post anything for them to generate data. Every incremental DAU adds up to a billion dollars. Not one by one, but all at once.
If you're serious about fighting corporations with shitty practices, step out of their data generating fields. The only winning move is not to play (on their fields). Go to places where the data isn't harvested like that. Where the data is shared with those who manufacture it (ie You!). Where control of the feeds is given to those that use them.
Enshittification is an avoidable problem. It's a coordination problem, I feel. Nobody wants to use an enshittified service, nobody knows how to stop them from happening. It's starts by understanding how these companies turn a profit, and refusing to participate in streams of data that inevitably turn malicious. You contribute to the value of every data stream you interact with. Think about that. Every page view, every comment, every review. Is this the place you wish to contribute your attention to? Are the values aligned with mine? What are they doing with all the data they collect?
It's not going to be convenient, glamorous and polished like the corpos but it might just be worth it.
One of the first posts I wrote here was about this. I still stand by it. This isn't about YOU.