Air conditioners using Freon cooled far more quickly than air conditioners using modern hydrofluorocarbons.

Leaded gas burns better than unleaded (this is why aviation gasoline is still leaded).

In both of those cases, we recognized that it was okay to accept a modest loss in efficiency in order to eliminate some pretty massive externalities. I think the same principle applies here. Yes, your team communication may have never been better prior to Slack. But is the marginal improvement in communication for you worth the externality of Slack, Facebook, Google, etc. harvesting all of our personal data and making it available to those who do not have our best interests in mind? I maintain that it is not. The world, as a whole, would be better off without Slack, Facebook and Google, even if some individual users would be worse off.

EDIT: changed "aviation fuel" to read "aviation gasoline"

> this is why aviation fuel is still leaded

Just in case anyone is alarmed, only Avgas is leaded. That's used in ICE / piston engines, generally installed on private aircraft and small regional airliners up to 10 seats or so. It is hoped that alternatives to leaded Avgas will be approved in 2018 or soon thereafter.

The vast, vast majority of passenger-kilometres flown each day use Avtur ( kerosene ) which is not leaded.

That's a very good point, and I've updated my comment to clarify that aviation gasoline is leaded, instead aviation fuel.

> Air conditioners using Freon cooled far more quickly than air conditioners using modern hydrofluorocarbons.

While we're at it, there's also no replacement material that has ever come even close to asbestos for braking or insulation.

By using either you disclose your network of friends, location, the content of your communication, and -- if you didn't take steps to counter it, essentially the majority of web pages you visit.

All voluntarily. Stasi would be jealous.

Well, to some extent they could get a good deal of this information from being in bed with the phone company and the mail service. The difference nowadays is that making things digital has drastically reduced the cost of operating a surveillance dragnet (e.g. cost of copying / storage).

Facebook has web bugs on a significant percentage of web pages, perhaps the majority by visits. They have, in effect, recruited the entire web to spy on users. For reference, the Stasi had at some point 30% of citizens filing surveillance reports on the lives of others.

The fact is merely using these services is enough to grant them a wealth of information that would have required stasi-like organisation not 30years back.

You don't even have to use Facebook to grant them that. Not using Adblock/disconnect is enough to tell them about your virtual whereabouts, and your RL friends will update geotagged pictures of you.

Oh yeah, the old age of informers. Everyone is losing their job to machines. :(

Interesting - at my work Slack is banned because everything we work on is under NDA and Slack cannot guarantee safety of data.

> Are we forced to share anything (really) personal though?

Some would argue having access to pictures of your face (that will be processed by powerful facial analysis software), your phone number, your location and your friends (which often overshare information, perhaps even data about you) is more than enough.

Liking something doesn't mean it's not part of the problem (see google).

You don't like facebook messenger, you like having all your acquaintances in one place (same could be done with federated xmpp).

You don't have to share anything personal to be profiled with a stockpile of data (see metadata), actually you have to take active counter measures to limit that. But even though you are not forced at gunpoint you are manipulated into being part of the mess (be part of the walled garden or be separated from your acquaintances, be online or lose some of your social interactions).