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

Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

propublica.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 275 posts

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#91

Post by laxatives »

fritzw wrote: post #80

This became painfully obvious when LinkedIn's algorithm started making extremely circuitous connections that freaked people out. People in a relative manner are painfully stupid, algorithms are ridiculously capable. The result is freak out. Facebook being psychologically aware, protected its users from the truth before it could be known. It was long ago that google's Eric Schmidt said "we are on the verge of predicti…

LinkedIn's incredible algorithm was reading your contact book without your permission before those kinds of permissions existed or had any sort of granularity between none and complete access.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#92

Post by onewaystreet »

ForrestN wrote: post #86
closeparen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to forget on HN, but there is far from universal buy-in for the notion that having or collecting data on people is unethical. Some may even consider it noble to optimize and perfect the world and its institutions (including commerce, via efficient advertising) using large-scale personal data. The impulse to make something better by applying a database engine that you might feel for business processes, can j…

The problem is misleading the public about the nature of the information gathered and the shady ways that the information is sometimes used. If Facebook were only gathering information necessary to improve the experience of its users, and were not selling that information or lying about it, I don't think you'd see the same backlash.

> If Facebook were only gathering information necessary to improve the experience of its users, and were not selling that information or lying about it, I don't think you'd see the same backlash.

Facebook doesn't sell information, it sells ads. That's not the same thing.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#93

Post by esert »

hueving wrote: post #78
spodek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source that they don't? I'd presume that they do absent a credible source they don't.

They don't offer any services that would benefit from it.

They have ads: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/search-ads/

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#94

Post by api »

closeparen wrote: post #84
ForrestN wrote: post #39

There must be many HNers who work at Facebook. Anyone willing to make a throwaway account and tell us how it feels from the inside for Facebook to be one the wrong side of so many ethical issues? It just seems like in so many dimensions they've been caught saying wrong things or appearing to outright lie, and I'm curious how developers who work for them think about aiding a company that seems to be so compromised at…

It's easy to forget on HN, but there is far from universal buy-in for the notion that having or collecting data on people is unethical. Some may even consider it noble to optimize and perfect the world and its institutions (including commerce, via efficient advertising) using large-scale personal data. The impulse to make something better by applying a database engine that you might feel for business processes, can j…

Surveillance could indeed have many beneficial uses in a benevolent, voluntarist sort of society. Unfortunately we don't live there. The world is still largely run by warlords, narcissists, and sociopaths.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#95

Post by Chronic2h »

maglavaitss wrote: post #38
soared wrote: post #2

You can replace "Facebook" with thousands of other companies. Everyone is doing this because the cost is low, its easy, and the return is massive. The sole service my roommate's company does is match your customer with data about them from countless other sources. If you want a peek into a small section of this type of data, go build a facebook ad. You can see all the targeting options. You can upload a list of email…

"Everyone is doing it" sounds wrong on so many levels.

Go ahead and take the moral high ground here. No one is stopping you. But you'll be broke as hell if you do (or run out of funding).

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#96

Post by user5994461 »

Fiahil wrote: post #42
user5994461 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm with 100% certainty that the Facebook android app will scan all your contacts. If you got a guy's number (and maybe that guy got yours), he'll be suggested.

Yup. Same if you visit someone's page, if you're not friends, both of you'll get suggestions. It's annoying when you repetitively missclicked on an homonym. Some people working there are too proud of these features to remove them.

The more I stalk someone, the more I'm suggested to stalk someone. That is creepy.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#97

Post by nommm-nommm »

deadringerr wrote: post #8
dublinben wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most common source of those suggestions is phone contacts. Anyone using the Facebook (or Instagram) app is sending them a copy of their entire address book to be used for network mapping purposes.

Instagram, you say? Go on...

Instagram is owned by Facebook.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#98

Post by nommm-nommm »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #29
kminehart wrote: post #3

That might explain a pretty creepy thing Facebook did the other day to me. I just created a new Facebook account after maybe 4 years of radio silence. Two years ago, I had a job doing IT contracting; often I would go to businesses and repair laptops or run cable to a COM room. We had very very few residential clients since they weren't worth our time; the few that we did have were really just courtesy for doing busin…

I suspect they do this if that client has your email address (even a previous one using the same first / last name) and gave Facebook access to their address book. LinkedIn did this. Registered, also after years of silence on any kind of social media website other than email: "Would you like to connect with your ex-girlfriend who only emailed you one time at a different address?"

I never even had a LinkedIn account and I get those emails from LinkedIn.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#99

Post by billjings »

closeparen wrote: post #84
ForrestN wrote: post #39

There must be many HNers who work at Facebook. Anyone willing to make a throwaway account and tell us how it feels from the inside for Facebook to be one the wrong side of so many ethical issues? It just seems like in so many dimensions they've been caught saying wrong things or appearing to outright lie, and I'm curious how developers who work for them think about aiding a company that seems to be so compromised at…

It's easy to forget on HN, but there is far from universal buy-in for the notion that having or collecting data on people is unethical. Some may even consider it noble to optimize and perfect the world and its institutions (including commerce, via efficient advertising) using large-scale personal data. The impulse to make something better by applying a database engine that you might feel for business processes, can j…

It may be good, but it's not democratic.

Re: Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them

#100

Post by Hydraulix989 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #65
deepsun wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend at Facebook. Yes, they do understand that some data they collect is pretty ... private. But since it's good for Facebook -- it's good for them. In all personal discussions they defend the company to the point that I started feeling like there is some mind-washing going on. Of course it's just a feeling, but my point is -- they don't think it is bad.

There is no personal gain or advantage to dwelling on the bad things your company could be doing. So if you work at company X and company X does some bad things but you're working on something you consider not bad, you focus on what you're working on. Sure you'd do things differently if you ran the company but you don't, so you just ignore that stuff. Mental self defense at its finest.

You also don't want to rock the boat and bite the hand that feeds you (and your wife, children, etc.).
Post reply on HN