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

Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 99 posts

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#41

Post by test6554 »

Vinnl wrote: post #25
yodsanklai wrote: post #10

I'm interested in the answers. I'm having upcoming interviews with Facebook, and I wonder if the recent events should be addressed in the "culture fit" interview. My personal opinion is that the problem is not so much with Facebook but with the legislation. Corporations like Facebook are there to make profit within the rules defined by society. I hope there will be stronger laws to protect our privacy and data, and g…

> My personal opinion is that the problem is not so much with Facebook but with the legislation. Corporations like Facebook are there to make profit within the rules defined by society. This holds true as long as those corporations do not influence what the law looks like (i.e. they are the results of a democratic process). The question is whether that is the case for Facebook.

It is also important for industry to inform the public about how certain legislation impacts them, their products and the quality/quantity of jobs.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#42

Post by SFjulie1 »

Pretty sure they have a NDA on the back with an abrupt termination of contract and a potential civil action if ever "the revelations harm the company".

Plus they probably have the HR doing meetings on the topic and news from time to time of such cases happening.

It is totally illegal, but a coder hardly is ready to fight for his/her constitutional rights when violating others.

PS economical revolution and disruption (like raildroads and mechanization) are just synonyms of finding a clever way to circumvent the laws.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#43

Post by matte_black »

I went out with a girl who works at Facebook (she does software development) and asked her this very question.

Basically her response was that the whole incident really isn’t even Facebook’s fault but rather the third party developers. Even though Facebook could have done a better job of protecting data, it’s a waste of time to do so as these companies will always find a way to violate the TOS. It’s a bit like fighting software piracy or ad-blocking, hackers are always getting a step ahead. No company is perfect, despite everything Facebook still does a lot of good in the world, and as a company it’s going to keep doing more of it. There’s a lot of people who hate Facebook for personal or business reasons, but in the end there’s no fundamental reason why Facebook is a bad company that shouldn’t exist, it’s only going to get better anyway.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#44

Post by knowThySelfx »

adav wrote: post #36
qwerty456127 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong in telling what do you feel about something when you are asked. And there is no problem in expressing an unpopular opinion on HN as you can sign-up anonymously at any time and just share whatever thoughts you want.

To play devil's advocate, in an arena where all comments are ordered by votes, the unpopular opinion would simply be downvoted to oblivion and not seen anyway. Why would someone with a contentious opinion go to the bother?

Indeed. I had the same thoughts in mind.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#45

Post by jacques_chester »

drjesusphd wrote: post #40
jacques_chester wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two wrongs don't make a right. "Aw, but everyone else is doing it!" has never been the basis of a respectable system of morality. It's playground ethics.

Well, many people seem to excuse luminaries of the past for things like slavery saying things like "It was a different time. They should only be judged through the lens of their own culture." It might not be a respectable system of morality, but it's a popular one.

I hardly think 10 years ago qualifies for this point of view.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#46

Post by lordfoom »

matte_black wrote: post #43

I went out with a girl who works at Facebook (she does software development) and asked her this very question. Basically her response was that the whole incident really isn’t even Facebook’s fault but rather the third party developers. Even though Facebook could have done a better job of protecting data, it’s a waste of time to do so as these companies will always find a way to violate the TOS. It’s a bit like fighti…

Sounds like a lot of ego protection going on. "We're the real victims!"

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#47

Post by colinb »

matte_black wrote: post #43

I went out with a girl who works at Facebook (she does software development) and asked her this very question. Basically her response was that the whole incident really isn’t even Facebook’s fault but rather the third party developers. Even though Facebook could have done a better job of protecting data, it’s a waste of time to do so as these companies will always find a way to violate the TOS. It’s a bit like fighti…

to paraphrase the immortal words [1] of Mandy Rice-Davies, well she would say that wouldn't she.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_Rice-Davies

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#48

Post by danpalmer »

Facebook used to have a little book that they gave out to employees that was almost like a manifesto for what Facebook was, and should strive to be.

The book claims strongly that Facebook is a communications company, who want to help (not force) people be more social, and that advertising is purely a side effect intended to enable them to achieve that mission. It was quite cliche, but overall I got the impression that it was honest, I really do think that Facebook the company, and by extension, many of their employees do see themselves like that.

I personally find that to be a little naive, but then I am more sensitive to privacy issues than the average person.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#49

Post by danpalmer »

matte_black wrote: post #43

I went out with a girl who works at Facebook (she does software development) and asked her this very question. Basically her response was that the whole incident really isn’t even Facebook’s fault but rather the third party developers. Even though Facebook could have done a better job of protecting data, it’s a waste of time to do so as these companies will always find a way to violate the TOS. It’s a bit like fighti…

I roughly agree with this in terms of the recent events, but Facebook has been doing creepy stuff that I think many people disagree with for a long time, and that seems to be getting worse.

Advertisers being able to target so effectively, by salary, by socio-economic status, and by hundreds or even thousands of metrics. I think that's still bad, and I don't think I could work on a product like that.

Re: Ask HN: What do Facebook employees think about their company?

#50

Post by threepipeproblm »

donquichotte wrote: post #33
cornholio wrote: post #11

I think the way this problem is framed succumbs to an outdated world view, an image of the samurai computer hackers that put themselves in the service of the corporate lords - but are ultimately responsible for their actions against society and can choose to rebel. They are rare and prized and thus their collaboration is valued by the lords. This is a romantic vision that the companies themselves like to perpetuate,…

"will no longer redistribute the wealth to the workers, as capitalism has done for the last few hundred years" It appears that we have vastly different opinions on how capitalism works. Capitalism needs to be coerced by laws into giving back to the workers (taxes on companies etc.) and more often than not, companies try to circumnavigate these laws.

Right, that's why no one ever gets a raise without coercion. Companies would never compete to establish the price of labor without coercion. Similarly, this is why no basketball players make more than $100,000... after all, why would any company ever pay someone more than unless they were being forced?
Post reply on HN