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Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

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Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#211

Post by markyuckerberg »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #192
bobsgame wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this.

I keep seeing HN users who clearly have an irrational hatred of Zuckerburg trot out this stupid quote as if it proves anything , let alone that he's some kind of megalomaniac. Just really annoys me. It always reeks of jealousy and sour grapes to me :)

This is like saying people who are defending FB have some agenda where they don't like seeing criticism against it. For example, you could be someone who coaches freelancers who might hang out on HN and also be coaching them on using FB ads. Remember that when you point out that others may have agendas, there is always the issue that you could be subject to the very same suspicion.

In any case, the real issue isn't that Zuckerberg thought his users were "dumb fucks" when he was young. The issue is that he keeps acting as if he believes it, till today. Take the example of the WhatsApp acquisition. A lot of people, even here on HN, rooted for the WhatApp mantra of "no ads, ever". Now they have clearly been cheated. Interestingly, the usual response to those who complain about this spectacular bait and switch is - "it isn't FB's fault if WhatsApp users were 'too dumb' to trust the words of the company's founder". The lack of ethics amongst these founder types has somehow now become a burden to be borne by the "dumb fucks" who pay for these services with a lack of privacy.

Someone once asked here what is wrong with shadow profiles - that is, why are they actually illegal. The answer was prompt and quite clear - "because those who don't have accounts on FB but have shadow profiles have never explicitly agreed to the ToS". I think if anyone is willing to dig deeper into this issue, it will lead to the same conclusion at a much larger scale - there was nothing "legally wrong" going on, except a large mass of people acting like "dumb fucks" by say, not reading the ToS carefully. Hey, what do you know, supply people with mass quantities of undecipherable garbage called the ToS, and most people are too "dumb" to understand its implications. The assumption of dumbness amongst your users, it turns out, can take you very far - even towards trillion dollar valuations.

Recently, there was this story about the EU fine of 1% of turnover if FB was found guilty of misleading claims. "Those dumb fucks", Zuckerberg probably thought,"the price of providing misleading information is just 1% of the turnover? Who put these dumb fucks in charge?"

I would be very happy to supply more examples if you ask for it.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#213

Post by noitsnot »

smokeyj wrote: post #12

Didn't Zuck assist Pakistan in enforcing blasphemy laws resulting in a mans death sentence? Here's a prediction. Zuck will be the face of the Democratic party in the next 12 years.

He speaks very well compared to a few years back where it was awkward to watch. Also, that's a nice prediction from news a day or two ago.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#214

Post by thelittleone »

Deimorz wrote: post #9

Personally, I think Google is just as terrifying, possibly more. As an example, just take a fairly normal life situation like going out for dinner with some friends, and think about how much of it goes "through" Google: --- One of your friends sends an email to 6 others, to ask if everyone's free for dinner on Friday. 5 of the 7 people involved use gmail or a google apps address. You've never heard of the restaurant…

I suspect many Internet users are unaware that Google also owns reCAPTCHA.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#215

Post by machineman44 »

kristianc wrote: post #154

> By running its platform on top of blockchain technology, Nexus integrates social networking, crowdfunding, and even e-commerce features embedded. Nexus is aiming to “eliminate all invasion of privacy that large corporation are currently performing” according to its founder, Jade Mulholland. So the big plan to avoid Facebook's privacy creep is to put everything on an immutable, publicly accessible record which you d…

I know right... Everywhere I turn, I hear people preaching about "blockchain technology" and it's ability to "increase privacy" ... I die a little inside every time...

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#216

Post by dorfsmay »

mattmanser wrote: post #163
mattlondon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can go a long way to blocking a lot of these by using some alternatives: * Using DuckDuckGo ( https://duckduckgo.com/ ). It is really decent and has good desktop and mobile integration. * Using a browser like Brave ( https://www.brave.com/ ) that blocks trackers etc. Android app is superb. * Using a Maps replacement like OSM ( https://www.openstreetmap.org ) on desktop and OsmAnd on mobile ( https://play.google.c…

I've been trying to use DDG for the last 6 months. Ultimately I'd say 40% of my queries I now just force google with '!g' instead. I was quite bullish on it 6 months ago, but must admit that after 6 months, anything complex I !g straightaway.

What about using google in an incognito tab?

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#217

Post by icelancer »

dTal wrote: post #90
aphextron wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no evil overlord at the top of either company (I hope) We'll have to disagree here. I think Zuckerberg is an evil, amoral person to his core. This hardly needs reposting, but I can't recall Brin or Page ever going on the record calling their users "dumb fucks".[0] [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zuc...

Sure. And former Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously remarked on the subject of privacy, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Whatever you think of the people, corporations are not people and their behaviour is only partially directed by them. The most reliable predictor of their direction is their bottom line, and the intelligence of the people…

>Sure. And former Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously remarked on the subject of privacy, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

This is constantly posted out of context.

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it's important, for example that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities."

He is talking about not using their services because they are subject to US law, which specifically violates privacy by its very nature.

Schmidt also said:

"You have to fight for your privacy, or you will lose it. Whenever there’s a conflict, the logic of security will trump the right to privacy."

There's more nuance to him than that quote.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#218

Post by sonnhy »

I've read nothing new from this article, but I've never heard of that app RYL and the concept that you can occupy the mic with one app at the time.

Apart from the fact that that app will be listening all your day and that will make your phone containing sensible information anyway, I could be leaked as easily as that information is also stored as compressed as possible, for easy and non noticeable way in your internet footprint. Yet you can trust an app who's not open source, if your read their manifesto.

I wonder if this article was all about RYL anyway.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#219

Post by kuschku »

giosch wrote: post #185
kuschku wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here Maps is a serious competitor to Google maps, in many regiona being far superior. For Google calendar, almost any self hosted calendar service can easily compete with that. Email is also easy to run yourself, as is Google Photos. "Easy" meaning a task a CompSci student can accomplish during a summer or two of coding.

You don't want to run your own mail/web server. At least, you do not want a lot of people doing it. Because most of the will get the security part wrong. Horribly wrong.

Well, some ISPs have in their contracts a free custom mail and webserver for every customer (for example, mine does).

This obviously diversifies the options quite a bit.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#220

Post by jhasse »

aabaker99 wrote: post #205
mattmanser wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that hard to believe if you're a programmer, as any complex programming question !g is almost always better. As well as anything local. If you search for a fairly common venue name, google will always get you a much better result.

It's given that Google will give better search results. They track you. I have the opposite experience regarding programming questions though. I thought that part of the initial appeal of DDG was that it handled queries that involved syntax or symbols better. I suppose these types of queries may not be that "complex" though. I admit I often query just to verify the API or to check how to do a common task in a languag…

> It's given that Google will give better search results. They track you.

IIRC they won't if you search via !g on ddg.

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