The News Feed betrayal effect: the dissonance that happens where sensitive data users added in one context is now used in another context.

· Bits and Bobs 7/21/25
  • The News Feed betrayal effect: the dissonance that happens where sensitive data users added in one context is now used in another context.
    • This happened when Facebook enabled the News Feed for the first time.
      • It didn't make any new data shared; it just made previously shared data significantly more visible.
      • It felt like a betrayal.
    • The creepiness of that switch is proportional to how much data was accumulated in the earlier context.
      • The longer you've used it, the more data you've likely accumulated.
    • ChatGPT had a few months pass before it flipped the memory feature on, which led to the "you are insecure about…" embarrassing reveal to friends.
      • People forgot that their conversations that previously they'd never see again could pop back up unexpectedly in other conversations.
    • If Google were to activate Gemini over users data, with decades of your state stored in a private context, that would be catastrophic.
      • Like Buzz but 1000 times worse.
    • In some ways, Google is well positioned in the context wars.
    • In other ways, their hands are tied.

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