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

Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 302 posts

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#71

Post by orangecat »

freeflight wrote: post #38

Google does some pretty scary stuff too. I made a point of never giving them my mobile number or any "real information" about me. When a friend of mine added me to his contacts, on his Android phone, he also added one of email addresses to the contact, which is the same one I used to register my Google account. The phone automatically connected the mail address to my Google account and now every time I call him the (…

The phone automatically connected the mail address to my Google account and now every time I call him the (anonymous) picture of my Google profile shows up on his phone.

That behavior doesn't require Google to have associated your phone number with your account; the mapping could be happening entirely on your friend's phone.

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#72

Post by makecheck »

In computer security, every time machines become fast enough to breach the limits of an algorithm we invent something new so that “hard” problems remain “hard” and therefore encryption is still secure.

There has been no corresponding increase in the difficulty of invading privacy. 30 years ago, even though you probably “could” observe somebody for a long time and eventually connect some dots about them, it would not really have been worth your while (and you certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it for thousands or millions of people). Now, it is ridiculously easy for computers to dredge up information and instantly transmit it, slog through it and basically connect every imaginable dot. There needs to be a new standard for privacy: just like you want a 2048-bit key, you want the equivalent of a “make life a pain in the ass for Facebook” key on EVERY DETAIL of your life.

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#73

Post by ReverseCold »

jacquesm wrote: post #39
martey wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

G Suite has different privacy practices than GMail. https://support.google.com/googlecloud/answer/6056650 > Does Google use my organization’s data in G Suite services or Cloud Platform for advertising purposes? > No. There are no ads in G Suite Services or Google Cloud Platform, and we have no plans to change this in the future. We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other G Suite services. Google does n…

> We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other G Suite services. Google does not collect or use data in G Suite services for advertising purposes. You could drive several trucks sideways through the holes in that statement.

> for advertising purposes

What other purposes would they use it for? Can anyone think of one?

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#74

Post by c3534l »

I signed up for facebook two years ago, didn't put any real information on there, then haven't touched it since. I still get emails about "people you might know" that they have absolutely no business knowing about and aren't in any way connected to my immediate family. It's creepy and I don't want them storing that information about me, but there's nothing I can do. I've been cautious about putting my information on the internet since I got my first computer in 1995. But that information got out there somehow anyway.

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#75

Post by Applejinx »

jacquesm wrote: post #39
martey wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

G Suite has different privacy practices than GMail. https://support.google.com/googlecloud/answer/6056650 > Does Google use my organization’s data in G Suite services or Cloud Platform for advertising purposes? > No. There are no ads in G Suite Services or Google Cloud Platform, and we have no plans to change this in the future. We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other G Suite services. Google does n…

> We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other G Suite services. Google does not collect or use data in G Suite services for advertising purposes. You could drive several trucks sideways through the holes in that statement.

On the other hand, training neural networks and teaching computers to have general intelligence is not inherently an advertising purpose ;)

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#76

Post by Bakary »

jaskerr wrote: post #53
killjoywashere wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The law will not crack down on this. The politicians stand to gain too much. See The Dictator's Handbook (which is as relevant to democrats as autocrats).

Which "Dictator's Handbook"? There are two on Amazon. [1] The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Almost-Po... [2] The Dictator's Handbook: A Practical Manual for the Aspiring Tyrant https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Practical-Manual-A...

They're referring to the one by Mesquita because it was popularized by a recent CGP grey video

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#78

Post by [deleted] »

makecheck wrote: post #72

In computer security, every time machines become fast enough to breach the limits of an algorithm we invent something new so that “hard” problems remain “hard” and therefore encryption is still secure. There has been no corresponding increase in the difficulty of invading privacy. 30 years ago, even though you probably “could” observe somebody for a long time and eventually connect some dots about them, it would not…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#79

Post by tuna-piano »

Facebook's dominance is even more pronounced in parts of the developing world. I've met people in Asia (Myanmar and Nepal) who have just accessed the internet for the first time in the past 12-24 months (through their Android smartphones).

But they don't know the true internet - they only know the internet through the Facebook app. They use it like we use Google and web browsers.

To them, Facebook is the internet. They don't have email accounts. They don't use the browser. They don't search. I met someone in a small town who never even used the maps feature. I tried to think of what value the true internet might bring them, but when I suggested that "you can search for news and read other things", the response was that they already did that with the Facebook App.

One guy handed me his phone, so I could add myself as a friend on his Facebook. While I started typing my name, I noticed his search history... and to him, Facebook was even a substitute for what people in the USA might use Incognito mode for!

I would call Facebook their internet portal, but it's not really a portal to anything - Facebook is just the entire internet to them.

Buzzfeed (yes, Buzzfeed) did an excellent writeup of Myanmar, that mirrors what I saw there:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/fake-news-spreads-tru...

“Nobody asks, they don’t care about the email,” he said, explaining that most don’t know that creating an email address is free, and easy. “No one is using that. They have Facebook.”

Re: Facebook's tentacles reach further than people think

#80

Post by chrischen »

tuna-piano wrote: post #79

Facebook's dominance is even more pronounced in parts of the developing world. I've met people in Asia (Myanmar and Nepal) who have just accessed the internet for the first time in the past 12-24 months (through their Android smartphones). But they don't know the true internet - they only know the internet through the Facebook app. They use it like we use Google and web browsers. To them, Facebook is the internet. Th…

Email also isn't very popular in China. I'd surmise it has something to do with the popularity of instant messaging in the new generation internet users.
Post reply on HN