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Facebook Blamed For Driving Up Cellphone Bills, But It's Not Alone
colinneagle writes "Consumer site MoneySavingExpert.com reported today that it has seen "many complaints" from users who believe a recent increase in data-related charges on their cellphone bills are the result of Facebook's auto-play feature. The default setting for the auto-play feature launches and continues to play videos silently until the user either scrolls past it or clicks on it; if the user does the latter, the video then goes full-screen and activates audio. The silent auto-play occurs regardless of whether users are connected to Wi-Fi, LTE, or 3G.
However, it's likely that Facebook isn't entirely to blame for this kind of trend, but rather, with the debut of its auto-play feature, threw gas on an already growing fire of video-sharing services. Auto-play for video is a default setting on Instagram's app, although the company refers to it as "preload." Instagram only introduced video last summer, after the Vine app, a Twitter-backed app that auto-plays and loops six-second videos, started to see significant growth.
However, it's likely that Facebook isn't entirely to blame for this kind of trend, but rather, with the debut of its auto-play feature, threw gas on an already growing fire of video-sharing services. Auto-play for video is a default setting on Instagram's app, although the company refers to it as "preload." Instagram only introduced video last summer, after the Vine app, a Twitter-backed app that auto-plays and loops six-second videos, started to see significant growth.
Security whining about Facebook aside, there's a plethora of countries where your 3g/4g data limit per month is quite low. I've just come off a 600mb per month plan to 1gb. I only use about 300mb per month but I have on holiday gone up to about 800+mb in a month.
The cost however, when you exceed your limit is _insane_ auto playing videos which you can't damn well stop is idiocy. They should have either a wifi only option or a play button. (I had the same issue with vice videos in twitter for a while too)
Too many companies continue to take their product, fiddle / fuck with it for the sake of change (keeping UI designers in a job I suspect) and then antagonise their users. Google maps is a prime example, the new google maps is AWFUL compared to the existing one, lacking several key features. Please, stop fiddling and changing things.
I use Chrome and Firefox and autoplay is driving me nuts. Is there an auto-play killer out there?
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
Have you ever seen documentaries where poor people have to spend hours every day getting clean water, and it just makes you step back and realize how fucking easy you have it to have clean water on tap at all times? That's how I feel looking at the cellphone data situation in the US. I'm paying for the single cheapest cellphone plan I can get here in Taiwan, and I get 1.5gb of data with that. And that limit only kicks in after the first six months of free unlimited data expires.
Sure, the facebook design is absolutely retarded, but I don't come close to my limit despite using facebook as a primary means of communication with most of my friends and family. Point your anger in the right direction.
people with smartphones take responsibility for how THEY use them.
What the article is referring to as "autoplay" is actually preloading. The video is not playing on its own, it's just being cached in case you want to click on it. This could certainly be a problem for people on limited data plans. It is not nearly the same kind of awfulness as genuine autoplay, where the video starts up without asking permission.
And fuck all the Facebook wannabes and all the fuckwits that make all that heinous shit so popular. You are fucking up my Internets and you need to fucking stop.
I have to wonder how much stock in FB etc the Cell networks have. Influencing the likes of FB do set this as a default is a win-win for both of them.
The underlying problem is the perpetual screwing that US mobile carriers inflict on customers. How they can defend the devolution of options is perplexing. No great alternatives so we must pay to play. I have lived outside the US for 6 years (while still paying for my US Verizon 5-phone family plan) and from Cyprus to Germany to South Korea the mobile plans are better priced, more robust, and reasonably fair to the consumer.
The Facebook has a setting to disable auto-play or make it wifi-only.
I love how the first comparison with Facebook is to Instagram...
I think someone needs a reminder as to who owns Instagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...
Lets face it. Wifi data plans are a big scam. Operators do not want you to use data plans because they want to screw you with the calls, and do not want 1) people giving up voice and using only voip 2) killing all the revenue on international calls 3) often they are in bed with your local cable operator, or worse, they are an arm of it. For all those that have no alternative than using mobile Internet for PC connectivity, it is quite simple to install Flash+facebook+adblocking software to save on you bill. Nevertheless, it is worth to point out that a 1GB plan wont get you nowhere, and it is really not enough on this days. Back in here, I only use wifi, but then I have wifi at home and at work, and also we have a huge FON infra-structure here, where we can pretty much find a FON hotspot nearby.
Odd... because FaceBook calls it "auto-play." Right in the obscure setting in their own app that admittedly allows it to be turned off or set to Wi-Fi only.
Odd... because the videos in the newsfeed will play without anyone clicking on them. You merely have to scroll through the newsfeed and land near a video.
Which are the majority... it's well known that you have to have truly worked to keep a grandfathered unlimited data plan since the 3G-4G transition.
Since you appear to have no actual experience with the FaceBook mobile app, you'll forgive me for telling you to STFU concerning the relative awfulness of your fictional app versus the actual app. I mean really... you were so certain of how the current app functions that you thought nobody who actually used it would call you out on these 'minor' discrepancies?
Farcebook is a worthless application that has no inherent value other than wasting time and advertising how we live our daily activities. Who cares that I went to the mall, who cares that I hiked 10 miles, geez, and better yet let me advertise when I am not going to be home for the thieves to come ransack my home. This is an application that need to go away.
How does someone hang himself with a belt? I can see one end, but the other? I heard this was a hit.
This is the kind of thing that conveniently makes the case for anti-neutrality by making products like Facebook Zero look like a good deal.
I doubt that anyone at facebook or any other company explicitly designed their apps this way in order to promote "zero" services, but at the same time I think their interest in pushing facebook zero is a disincentive to correcting the problem.
I started a shared data pool plan for my family and my brother's usage was estimated at about 2GB per month. A couple weeks into the billing cycle I checked usage and my brother had used MORE data than the other FIVE of us combined, and was on track to use over 5GB! We talked about it and it turned out he had the new facebook app installed and complained that the videos had started autoplaying. He found it annoying. We did a quick search and found that the DEFAULT setting is to autoplay videos as you scroll past them, regardless of the connection type.
We changed the setting to "Wi-Fi Only" (or never) and nothing else about his usage. His average daily bandwidh went from 150MB to 50MB.
Facebook's new, annoying, default setting was on track to add 3GB PER MONTH of data usage! (30 days * 100MB)
We were lucky to be on a new plan with 6 people that I was monitoring to make sure we had the right data plan. An extra 3GB of data sent to a casual users ought to earn Facebook some kickbacks from cellphone providers!
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
Too many companies continue to take their product, fiddle / fuck with it for the sake of change (keeping UI designers in a job I suspect) and then antagonise their users. Google maps is a prime example, the new google maps is AWFUL compared to the existing one, lacking several key features. Please, stop fiddling and changing things.
In this case, I believe that it was a deliberate change forced on their users because it will directly benefit Facebook. Auto-play artificially increases the click-thru rate (or whatever method they are using to measure user interaction with ads these days). Facebook can then show these inflated numbers to advertisers to justify their premium rates.
"Hey, you pay more to place video ads on Facebook but its worth it because most (all) of the viewers will see it/click on it!"
This again drives home that to Facebook, we are not its customers, we are it's product.
I'd like to pin the blame for this, not on Facebook, but on the people who write the browsers. You can assume that there'll be some stupid site on the internet which will try to waste your bandwidth - but a browser shouldn't permit it to do so. Browsers should never auto-play videos.
If you read TFA:-
Nothing to do with browsers.
Unlimited 4G data for 34,50 euros / month.
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
Idiots who use Facebook are having their idiot wallets emptied. No change there.
Anyone who uses Facebook is retarded. Slashdot articles on Facebook are retarded.
Pro tip for the utterly clueless: Stop using Farcebook.
One of Google Chrome's options is: Predict network actions to improve page load performance.
I've long believed this type of thing (autoplay, etc) was being done intentionally as a means of driving up the cell phone bills. With data caps arbitrarily low, it makes for a potential extra revenue stream for the carrier. A little hush-hush kickback to the developers, and cigars and brandy for all!
Have you ever seen documentaries where poor people have to spend hours every day getting clean water, and it just makes you step back and realize how fucking easy you have it to have clean water on tap at all times?
FUCK YOU WITH A BRICK.
Families get bankrupted. Basics like food, education and medical care which families in "developed" countries struggle to budget for end up lost to this kind of shit. Not everyone is tech savvy or aware enough of the situation in advance to disable their autoplay. This is a ploy by multiple large companies to SCREW people.
MoneySavingExpert is like an offshoot of the Daily Mail, where the dullard nouveau riche can flock to learn the rudiments of finance and pass judgment on everyone not as "savvy" as them - IOW, a place where people find out how big businesses try to trick them, then blame the ignorant rather than the companies which actually choose to misrepresent.
Once again, the point is missed, isn't it? Facebook's not "to blame". Your browser makes a request for the images. It doesn't have to. The problem is YOU, the user, relying on a complex machine which does all sorts of things you don't understand in order to deliver you your daily fix of distraction.
tumblr app autoplays gifs, so to speak (previously it just showed a preview and you clicked on it to see it) thus making it useless for two reasons.
First, it eats throuh gigs of data in no time. More importantly, 4g can't keep up with it and the fast scrolling you may want to do. Some clueless ass designed that one in a vacuum.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I participate in the beta for the Android app. We've had several updates that re-enabled that feature. smdh. It boggles my mind that not only did FB think this was an important feature missing from their application, but so important that it needed to be enabled by default. smdh again.
Duuurrrrrrrrrppppppp. Don't be a tard tard.
The blame lies not with FB but with providers artificially limiting how much data your device can consume on a technically irrelevant time scale for profit.
1G of data is enough for ~1 hour of streaming video. So that means that you can easily burn through your allotment in a day or two for regular usage.
It's not like they can't provide you with the bandwidth, the bandwidth is not what's being measured after all. And they all collude with each other to provide the same crappy service.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Facebook now taps into smartphone microphones "just to get a 'fingerprint' that we don't save". This will drive up data usage as well, and is also being done clandestinely.
I come here for the love
If I am actually interested in the video, I have to go back to the beginning. And sometimes the humor or entertainment value is ruined by me seeing later parts on mute. It's so much more annoying than just starting videos I'm interested in, and has resulted in me actually viewing a lot less videos on facebook. Unless they want to kill peoples' data limit and get worthless plays to videos, I don't see the point.
You're a regular user of facebook? On your cellphone/tracking device? And you're too dumb to turn off autoplay of videos? You deserve those higher charges. Life's hard. It's harder when you're stupid.
the caps in place basically make it so you cannot even use a low bandwidth app like Facebook without going over your aggressive cap!
the cap in fact is just a way to bill users who use their cellphone for anything. they found that users who use data easily want to go over 2GB, but non users won't go over 2GBs as much, thereby not alienating non-users or "noobs" but charging the heck out of people who do use their connections for anything.
overcompression of data also enables this.
mean while, each tower has 20TB+ or more data per day to be used. and each user is restricted to 2GB..
spread out over many towers, you are really starting to see what the caps are artificial and don't have a purpose except to charge an additional cost, thereby racking in more profits for investors.
How do you switch off Facebook's auto-play feature?
I started a shared data pool plan for my family and my brother's usage was estimated at about 2GB per month. A couple weeks into the billing cycle I checked usage and my brother had used MORE data than the other FIVE of us combined, and was on track to use over 5GB!
I was a bit disappointed originally that I wouldn't get shared data when I switch my extended family over from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint (seriously, all 3 other networks!), but I soon realized this was a huge boon - because T-Mobile doesn't charge overage for data - only steps down when you reach the limit (i.e., data limit is for "fast data" - i.e., LTE or 4G, but the 2G is unlimited). So my post-grad cousin who has erratic data usage doesn't impact my bill or my speeds. My bills never change month to month - been that way for over a year now, and it's an awesome feeling (remember having to try to parse a cell-phone bill wondering why we paid $130 this month and $80 last month for the same line).
Oh, and I'm spending the same on phone bills - except now I have 5 lines where I used to have 3, and all with better data and reception than before.
Lesson: don't trust shared data - it's makes each line on your plan a liability for increased data costs on your entire plan, all possibly due to a rogue app.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Clearly it's a typo - the feature is that you automatically pay more for mobile data. I only wish I was kidding - remember, this is the same "CEO" that openly thought his users were "dumb fucks".
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
When they first introduced auto-play on the Facebook App I discovered that the "auto-play on WiFi" option didn't actually work. Whatever you set it to, the videos auto-played. This was fixed in later versions but not until you turned auto-play back on and off again. I like to think that this was merely an accident. Surely somebody must have tested the one and only configuration option for this new feature.
"...Too many companies continue to take their product, fiddle / fuck with it for the sake of change (keeping UI designers in a job I suspect) and then antagonise their users. Google maps is a prime example, the new google maps is AWFUL compared to the existing one, lacking several key features. Please, stop fiddling and changing things.
PLEASE STOP FIDDLING AND CHANGING THINGS { I second that opinion! :/
not just google maps but the entire USGS's website is now useless to me
upgrade = downgrade 99% of the time
So my phone has FB installed by default and they know exactly what
data plan I have.
There seems to be no reason to pay data overages because of
vendor installed applications. There seems to be a fundamental
conflict of interest, evidence of fraud or bait and switch.
I am not talking about an auto with a speedometer that goes to 120 mph
sold in states with maximum speed limits well below but a clear misrepresentation
of purpose in marketing.
Speaking about strange numbers. Phones are marketed with standby
times and talk times that are impossible given the default software,
default settings and most likely distance to cell tower service.
I am most likely moving my number to my old old old Nokia flip phone.
It has standby time in days not hours. I see nothing smart in the battery
support for most smart phones.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.