The data accuracy is terrifying, really. Also, I visited shopping centre last week and in the next morning, I got Facebook Notif asking me if I would like to review the visit. I felt very annoying.
The problem is real.
Facebook is terrifying
81–90 of 300 posts
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
On Facebook and other social media websites, people regularly volunteer to identify their friends in photos. That does not happen with ordinary street surveillance footage, as far as I know. So you might have pictures of you taken by street surveillance cameras as you walk around in big cities, but your face isn't ordinarily going to be recognized by anyone.
These days, I'd be willing to bet that "ordinary street surveillance" uses facial recognition algorithms. It wouldn't be as effective as FB's, because FB has an enormous stream of training data coming in all the time. However, that could change if law enforcement got access to FB's data - hence this article.
Facial recognition software can only recognize you if your face is already in the database and identified as you. It's not going to magically know your identity otherwise, no matter how sophisticated it is.
On the other hand, I guess it could do some inference, such as: person X seen at location Y is also seen going in to residence Z every evening and coming out of the same residence every morning for the last 6 months, therefore there's a high probability that this person's address is residence Z, and since John Doe is the only person registered as living in that residence, person X is probably John Doe, etc.
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#83I am not on Facebook.
But that doesn't mean that I believe I am not on Facebook.
I am pretty sure that Facebook are able to construct most of the shell of me from fragments provided by less careful friends or just strangers.
I imagine, and do not believe I am wrong, that Facebook have a ghost profile already with photographs of me already associated, some preferences and interests already in place.
A montage almost indistinguishable from the whole, or perhaps in some respects better... have they got to 3d models for their Oculus universe yet?
They probably know my name, am I even a necessary part of that picture? What's missing?
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
That age old "I have nothing to hide" argument. AKA "they're nice people, what could go wrong". This is not the point. The point is: Information in the wrong hands can become dangerous , period. People change. Companies change. You have no guarantee Facebook will preserve the vision they have right now. You have no guarantee their new CEO won't have a different opinion... (wont be a "Trump"). Also you have to realize…
Not OP but even if the next Hitler would get all my Facebook data I still don't care personally. Am I naive? I do understand why people have a problem with it though.
Then you surely have no problem in giving me all your data now. Bank accounts access included, pics of your mom and all conversations you ever had online say for the last 5 years. I'll take care of it, also you can trust me, i'm a cool guy and no intentions of becoming a leader or govern any country ;)
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isnt this just location based matching?
But I didn't touch my phone that night... I'm not sure what happened exactly, the fact is - it made me super uncomfortable.
It looks like Facebook asks for Location: Always on iOS. (I've got mine set to Never.) I wonder if they feed this back to the servers.
I presume you didn't post anything about the "event" to facebook (I've seen "Person is going to attend Blah" posts before) or "check in".
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem isn't a system in which Jews or Muslims or Armenians are targeted for discrimination. The problem is a system with the power and legal authority to target any group whatsoever.
What you're missing is what security people call defense in depth. The primary goal is to prevent a system that can target anyone, but it is a historical fact that we have not always been able to achieve that goal. What happens then?
> What you're missing is what security people call defense in depth.
I didn't miss it, I deplore it. True "defense in depth" puts all civil rights aside. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin.
> What happens then?
Citizens fight back. The outcome that tyrants dearly wish for is a population that simply doesn't care, or that can be frightened into submission. It's my hope that we're not that population.
Even token resistance is better than none at all.
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#87Its not just faces .. me and a friend had a little jam session recently and posted a picture of our cool little setup, consisting of a few pocket-sized machines (synthesizers and controllers) on our table in front of us. Just an innocent little picture of our jam setup. Within seconds of posting this picture of the machines, my friend was getting targeted ads from the manufacturers of those devices - within seconds!…
For the sake of discussion, why is that scary rather than kind of nice? Unless you take the AdBlock route, aren't well targeted ads better than irrelevant ones?
I understand the responses to this, but my take is we're so far past the Rubicon we might as well be in the Atlantic.
For example, I have a friend who has never been on any social media. If he wanted to opt out of the surveillance apparatus, he still would have to address: collection of phone metadata, browsing history, traffic cams, other CCTV, financial paper trail, probably more I'm missing.
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Or it could be $20,000 cheaper if you're actually low-risk and their algorithms are better than the status quo... I'm sorry, are we now living on bizarro-earth where companies work with each other to develop new, exciting opportunities to make less money?
Yes, it's one of the tenets of capitalism. Competition results in lower prices.
Most of the US banking sector is owned by a small number of companies[1]. Now I don't live in the USA so I can't speak for the USA in particular.
However, I have lived in Australia, where the banking competition is so bad that the consumer protection agency is having to explain in baby words to the national banks why they can't gang up on apple pay[2].
I have also lived in Iceland, a nation in which essentially all industries exist in tiny vertical monopolies, and the banks are no exception. It's hard to link citations here because fólk lesa ekki Íslensku[6][7], but go ask an Icelander if they think the national banks are in vigorous competition, they'll laugh in your face. Landsbankinn was genuinely shocked and puzzled when I moved all my accounts to Arion because they wouldn't give me a visa electron card so I could buy things off the internet.
That having been said, some quick[3] googling[4] suggests[5] that the USA isn't in great shape when it comes to competition either. In general, consumer competition is poor among banks, and they like it that way.
[1] https://hbr.org/2016/06/one-big-reason-theres-so-little-comp...
[2] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-30/accc-rejects-the-banks...
[3] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-major-banks-agree-parent...
[4] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-banks-rigging-lawsuit-idUS...
[5] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-05/banks-sai...
[6] no one reads Icelandic
[7] please critique my grammar, I'm guessing here :(
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fact, I would wish Facebook to contract with and take over identity management systems (ie. social security, drivers license) away from local and federal government - not to dictate policy but just to dictate infrastructure. Is it "fear-mongering" to bring up this episode again? Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuck: Just ask Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Reda…
Is there a newer interview with Zuckerberg where he expresses his views at length? Given how big Facebook is now as a company, it's possible that that "policy" was supplanted by a later more reasonable policy. What is their current view, have they explained it in any detail?
I'd suggest a better question to ask would be: could you ever trust Zuckerberg to honestly tell you what his real policies will be -- as opposed to what he might say they are, in statements to the public -- when the government comes by to twist his arm?
Re: Facebook is terrifying
#90I've been using Facebook since college (circa 2005). Never "hidden" my profile from anyone or the public. Never deactivated anything or deleted a post. Recruiters and acquaintances look up my profile all the time. Still, I have never had the data I've given them come back to haunt me. I still trust Facebook leadership very much in this regard. Maybe it's because I trust myself and how I utilize the technology. Or may…
>In fact, I would wish Facebook to contract with and take over identity management systems (ie. social security, drivers license) away from local and federal government
Thank Christ you only get one vote.