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Facebook is terrifying

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Re: Facebook is terrifying

#142

What is the proposed recourse? Ban Facebook from analyzing data that users give it? I use Facebook's automatic tagging because I find it useful. Should it be illegal for me to use this feature because someone might unintentionally be identified in a photo that I took? Is the argument that Facebook--or any other company--should never be allowed to develop software that could process data that could identify folks, eve…

Not saying I agree, but an argument could be made that other people need to be blurred before it is shared with a third party, if they have a legal right to control images of themselves. If you accept that people do have this right the logical conclusion is then you are infringing and causing harm to them by taking their photo and sharing it with Facebook. If you don't think people should have that right, I am not co…

Symmetric key encrypt the image, upload the encrypted image with the symmetric key encrypted by your friends' pubkeys.

When you add a friend just append new pubkey encrypted symmetric key for each asset. Friend removal is even more expensive and requires the client side to reencrypt everything :(

I'm sure there are better cryptographic constructs out there with multi key encryption that can alleviate some of the insertion and removal costs.

You could do it with decent trade-offs for the content provider as well. You could obfuscate everyone else's face but yours and allow them to get access to that image and then just encrypt the map for your friends. Of course then it's all about just creating enough mock accounts to recover the full images throughout the graph. Or just take custody of a user's keys in exchange for features.

Still though, it's marginally more expensive to build a mass surveillance app!

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#143

I deleted my Facebook account in 2010 after appearing in the Times regarding technology addiction. It was my most time consuming social media application at the time. For the article, they had me install an application tracker to see how much time I spent in focus on a particular app. I was alarmed at how often I checked Facebook chat. Today, after much investigation, I've come to a hypothesis that technology's purpo…

Very well said. One would think of the information age as a way to start better communicating which should break down barriers. But it seems we can just more easily flock to the people who think like we do. So we have more strongly cemented factions. I find myself getting mildly angry at friends who post things I disagree with. If we were seated together having a beer and he said the same thing we'd keep talking for an hour and I would have no negative feelings. I find if I try to engage online it just goes nowhere. I avoid posting anything other than the most banal things because I don't want to be judged/attacked. I just don't have the time or energy to go in depth to defend my positions. And at this point I could care less if anyone knows what I feel.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#144
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ok so when will you be zipping up all your personal data and uploading it for me to examine? And please also post your passwords to Facebook and bank accounts. On a more serious note, are you potentially related to anybody Muslim or Jewish? Have you ever posted political comments or links? Are any of your acquaintances hardline left or right wingers? All sorts of seemingly harmless things today will get you on a list…

> Ok so when will you be zipping up all your personal data and uploading it for me to examine?

Why would I give it to you? I don't understand that argument. If I say "I don't really care if a bird poops on me", does it mean I want birds to poop on me? Just as I won't stop going outside due to the risk of being pooped on, I won't stop using Facebook just because there's a risk of someone obtaining my data.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the sheer number of people involved in Facebook's decision-making, I would believe it if they told me there was an internal consensus that differed from Zuckerberg's earlier college-age views. So I want to know if there is such a consensus, because if there is, then to my mind it would override that chat snapshot. Also, yes, you can generally trust people to tell you what their real policies are. They might not…

But there are very few people in the world who make it their business to lie and cheat every day. Actually there are quite a lot of them.

Well said. Just look at conservative estimates of the number of psychopaths and sociopaths (2%) still gives you 140 million people that lie and cheat because they have no conscience and want to manipulate people.

Add some plain greed on top of that, and you'll end up with a lot of people. Grandparent is very naive.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#146
Every claims to not use facebook anymore (in no small part due to posts like this), but at every quarterly earnings report the daily and monthly active users continue to grow.

So where's the disconnect?

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#147
post #104
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wrote an essay in 2003, saying that all of this was 100% inevitable. No matter how many people thought it was creepy, didn't want it, raised privacy concerns, it was imminent all the same. Digital sense organs would continue to multiply all over the planet, and the digital nervous system would become ever more sophisticated and scary-smart all the time. I argued that the one thing we had some limited hope of shapin…

Is there a link to your essay? I would be interested to read it.

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#148
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are very few people in the world who make it their business to lie and cheat every day. Actually there are quite a lot of them.

Well said. Just look at conservative estimates of the number of psychopaths and sociopaths (2%) still gives you 140 million people that lie and cheat because they have no conscience and want to manipulate people. Add some plain greed on top of that, and you'll end up with a lot of people. Grandparent is very naive.

Indeed, there's a whole host of reasons why sociopathic / psychopathic traits (such as the ability to lie credibly and manipulate others generally) enable people to ascend to positions of leadership in businesses (and hence, are represented in these ranks in higher numbers). See e.g.:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/04/25/the-dist...

Re: Facebook is terrifying

#150
post #70
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably never lived under communism. Often people got in trouble not because they were dissenting, but merely being associated with somebody that was a political dissenter. The usual term of accusation was called: "Agitation and propaganda" for the imperialist/capitalist regimes. So, why you might have been squeak clean, if your friend, or your cousin was not, then you were considered a problem just by associati…

If I start living in a dictatorship all of a sudden I feel my Facebook data will the least of my problems. It's such a minor issue in my mind that it's like worrying about whether the earth will be hit by a meteor.

United States IS ALREADY using this data to deny people's entry and interrogate them on the border. FBI and other agencies are ALREADY using those kind of connections to bring in suspects for crimes and suspected terrorism. Being flagged on several systems can mean that your ability to fly will be denied without explanation - in USA, RIGHT NOW.

This isn't something that went away with fall of the Wall, it came back with a vengeance in western world under the guise of Patriot Acts, Anti-Terorrism acts and it's in many ways significantly worse than it was under KGB and STASI.

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