Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 181 posts

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#171

Post by ryanlol »

mehrdadn wrote: post #169
ryanlol wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know. I just don’t see anyone spending much time worrying about random store clerks vastly more reasonable fear of getting robbed. This is kinda like being scared of a plane crashing on top of you, sure it’s possible and a scary thought, but ...

No it's not. Your example is not reasonable. The fear of a plane landing on top of you is pretty generic, and the risks are well-known and well-understood to who work closer to planes. The one here is quite reasonable, entirely a result of Facebook screwing up, and not something that's supposed to come with the job the way it did. I outlined these for you and completeness's sake, but they should have been fairly obvi…

I guess we just disagree, as I see it both of these are equally reasonable.

This is pretty weird though, all kinds of people regularly make far more impactful decisions than issuing facebook bans without having to hide their names.

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#172

Post by chatmasta »

C14L wrote: post #135
mehrdadn wrote: post #60

Ask them why the exposed moderators who now live in constant fear for their lives in their own countries were not offered serious compensation that could last them a significant chunk of their lifetimes (which would be on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars). [1] Facebook will most likely respond that their threat assessments didn't warrant it. To which you'd ideally respond by asking them why a reasonable…

He worked in an anti-terrorism unit at Facebook under his real-name Facebook account? Well, I don't know what to say...

To be clear, he was required to use his real Facebook account. From the article:

> The moderator said that when he started, he was given just two weeks training and was required to use his personal Facebook account to log into the social media giant’s moderation system.

This seems like reckless endangerment to me.

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#173

Post by School-Cotton »

dlivingston wrote: post #146
School-Cotton wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a native English speaker, I have always been irritated by that usage (which I’ll be the first to admit is not really rational) and I’m pleased that it seems to be dying out.

Personally, I think it's beautiful and poetic and adds a sense of life to an inanimate or immaterial thing.

I think it irritates me for the same reason I get irritated by American English speakers calling soccer “football”, or by people using a dieresis when writing “coördinate”.

Basically, it’s rare enough that it doesn’t sound natural and therefore comes off to me as an affectation, and makes the person sound weirdly smug about being “technically correct”.

I really should get over it, but like I said, not really rational.

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#174

Post by lozenge »

I_am_tiberius wrote: post #144
unfunco wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already known, yes, and they're called shadow profiles.

Ok, good to know. But then I would like to know if these show (Whatsapp) profiles are used to match with existing Facebook profiles (based on phone number or name).

The European Commission has fined Facebook €110 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during the Commission's 2014 investigation under the EU Merger Regulation of Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp... When Facebook notified the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, it informed the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp users' accounts. It stated this both in the notification form and in a reply to a request of information from the Commission. However, in August 2016, WhatsApp announced updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, including the possibility of linking WhatsApp users' phone numbers with Facebook users' identities.

Facebook using the phone number they requested "for security purposes" to improve ad targeting and let people identify you from your phone number: https://www.forbes.com/sites/leemathews/2019/03/04/facebook-...

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#175

Post by I_am_tiberius »

lozenge wrote: post #174
I_am_tiberius wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, good to know. But then I would like to know if these show (Whatsapp) profiles are used to match with existing Facebook profiles (based on phone number or name).

The European Commission has fined Facebook €110 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during the Commission's 2014 investigation under the EU Merger Regulation of Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp... When Facebook notified the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014, it informed the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp u…

Thanks for the detailed information. However, this seems to refer to a match between your own whatsapp number and your own facebook account. What I find even more interesting is that the entire address book can be matched, also if most of your address book contact don't have a whatsapp account but a facebook account!

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#176

Post by 420codebro »

chatmasta wrote: post #172
C14L wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He worked in an anti-terrorism unit at Facebook under his real-name Facebook account? Well, I don't know what to say...

To be clear, he was required to use his real Facebook account. From the article: > The moderator said that when he started, he was given just two weeks training and was required to use his personal Facebook account to log into the social media giant’s moderation system. This seems like reckless endangerment to me.

Do you really think the people working at Facebook in a management capacity are mature, rational adults? Lol.

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#177

Post by dang »

wbronitsky wrote: post #149
ryanlol wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>First of all, Facebook's inability to keep their moderators' identities private is an issue Agreed, but it’s not an issue because they’re going to get killed by terrorists. I’m objecting to the dishonest framing, not trying to argue that this isn’t an issue. >It seems incredibly arrogant to assume that you know what terrorists will and will not do Your assumptions seem at least as arrogant. >I don't have any experie…

Why are you continuing to hammer away with the Reddit style comments? You might have a good point, but now you are acting like an argumentative ass. This isn't some sort of internet pissing contest with people you don't know and will never meet; that is literally any other online forum that I've seen. This is a forum to discuss issues with people who are interested in them. You are purposefully diluting the conversat…

Please don't cross into personal attack here. We ban accounts that do that, as you know, but we don't want to ban you.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#178

Post by bryan_w »

DSingularity wrote: post #12

What prevents them from publishing an explanation of what they do with their users private data in language understandable by their average users?

What about their current privacy policy do you find hard to understand?

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#179

Post by harianus »

ddebernardy wrote: post #55
harianus wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. That would be interesting to know. One thing; what do you mean with measure it?

Hasn't Zuckerberg answered the parent's question already in his interview with Kara Swisher? (Speaking of which, listen to that podcast before going if you haven't done so already.)

Thanks! For others, listen to it here: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/18/17575156/mark-zuckerberg-inter...

Re: Ask HN: Invited by Facebook for privacy roundtable. What questions should I ask?

#180

Post by DSingularity »

bryan_w wrote: post #178
DSingularity wrote: post #12

What prevents them from publishing an explanation of what they do with their users private data in language understandable by their average users?

What about their current privacy policy do you find hard to understand?

Bit late, but not me. The average user. I think the average user still doesn’t understand how and to what extent their data is analyzed for the ultimate purpose of discovering details about the user which the user did not reveal — for the purposes of advertisements.
Post reply on HN