The main reason giants like Meta were able to accumulate tens of billions of dollars over the years and continue to do so is because of its users and their data. User data is their gold mine. At the same time, Meta and similar tech giants don't give anything back to their users. As a result of years-long litigation over Facebook's illegal selling of user data to Cambridge Analytica, FB users now are entitled for the share of $775 million class action settlement.

While 87 million accounts' personal data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica, it is not clear if only these accounts qualify for the settlement. However, it seems FB users who maintained an account between May 2007 and December 2022 can submit a claim for their share of the settlement. The final amount users will receive will depend on how many users will end up submitting claims. To submit your claim visit facebookuserprivacysettlement.com.

I am not a FB user, and I don't have a claim to make. I prefer decentralized solutions. However, I am not against people using centralized platforms. Some are indeed useful and offer great services. I don't think Facebook is one of them. Yes, many use FB on daily basis and maybe even as primary social networking platform. It is good news a wrong was righted by the settlement and FB users can get something back and hope their privacy and data will be respected and protected in the future. Given that the entire business model of FB is developed around user data, I doubt anything will stop them to continue maximizing profits at the users' expense. Of course such platform need to maintain great user experience, and won't shy away from spending money on making sure users have great experience and continue clicking buttons.

Selling user data to CA by FB is only one instance of how they make money and have zero respect for users. I wouldn't be surprised if FB was involved and many similar dealings in the past. While these kind of behavior might be illegal, the continue making billions by legally monetizing users activities on their platform with ads. Many still use the platform, maybe there is no issue here. Maybe if FB and alike had models in place that would share the ads revenue with their users, it would be fair. Users give away their data for free anyway, and giants like FB wouldn't voluntarily give away any shares of massive profits that rely on user activity.

Ads are not the only reason I dislike FB. There are many more. But the primary reason is that I find decentralized solutions to be more beneficial to all parties involved. Within the similar timeframe that makes FB users qualify for the settlement, Hive participants would have built social and financial equity of much higher value. It will not be easy for people to break habits and embrace decentralized networks initially. The process will require time and may be the slow one. But eventually, people will realize one by one how centralized networks like FB offer no real benefits to its users, and decentralized networks like Hive can be a better alternative.

Open source technologies and open networks don't have the funding giants like FB have. Most of development is done on voluntary basis. It is those who are truly believe in the benefits of decentralized solutions and with altruistic character become pioneers in the space and pave the way for masses to follow. The journey is a long, but a fun one. That said, Hive is not a Facebook replacement. Hive is multipurpose blockchain that can power many different kinds of web3 implementations. Hive.blog, Ecency, LeoFinance, peakD, etc are one some of the implementations for content creation and sharing. However, none of them provide privacy features. All content is public by default.

I hope to see one day, a web3 applications that integrates privacy features. The blockchain itself is capable of privacy, it is for creative developers to figure out the implementations. For example all data initially can be stored in encrypted form on the blockchain using custom_json feature. Then account owners would set the permissions which app can display their content, which accounts can view the content, etc. The main blogging feature of Hive relies on global rewards system that come from Hive inflation. Because of this it makes sense to keep all content public. But not all apps rely on global rewards system, and they don't need to. Games and tribes already implement their own rewards systems. Many more creative system will emerge. I hope one of them will integrate privacy features as well.

Congratulations FB users! Don't forget to claim your shares. The deadline to claim is August 25, 2023. I wonder how much of this settlement will make its way into crypto and web3. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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