Facebook’s Onavo Gives Social-Media Firm Inside Peek at Rivals’ Users

Post by gaius » Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 3:31 PM UTC

teej wrote: post #15

irpapakons wrote: post #2

It's ethically dubious that the advertised function of the app is a VPN to "keep you and your data safe", while the reason it exists is so that all phone traffic goes to Facebook. This is not clear from the app description -- there is only a generic message about monitored app use, to which users are so used as to not pay any attention. > "The app's privacy policy says it may share information with "affiliates" that…

I once sat in on a pitch from an antivirus software company who was selling the ability to look at the full browsing history of people who had visited your website. You could see all of their searches, if they visited competitors, and more. Most of the time I get annoyed of the FUD of "they're selling my data!" but this was different. It was true and it was scary.

Post by simonw » Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 3:34 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #52

teej wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once sat in on a pitch from an antivirus software company who was selling the ability to look at the full browsing history of people who had visited your website. You could see all of their searches, if they visited competitors, and more. Most of the time I get annoyed of the FUD of "they're selling my data!" but this was different. It was true and it was scary.

Google can do this for anyone using 8.8.8.8 for DNS. You don't think they run it out of pure altruism do you?

Post by softawre » Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 3:42 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #51

teej wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not anonymous. You can identify me by going to my profile if you'd like. To be completely honest, I don't remember. It was 2 years ago and I sit on lots of these pitches. I remember pushing back on them about the methodology, hearing how the sausage was made, and noping right out. I want my team to be able to spend marketing dollars efficiently but I would never compromise my ethics to do so. Luckily I work somew…

> Luckily I work somewhere that I can give a justified 'no' and keep my job. That is lucky! Where do you work?

Post by OJFord » Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 3:43 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #51

teej wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not anonymous. You can identify me by going to my profile if you'd like. To be completely honest, I don't remember. It was 2 years ago and I sit on lots of these pitches. I remember pushing back on them about the methodology, hearing how the sausage was made, and noping right out. I want my team to be able to spend marketing dollars efficiently but I would never compromise my ethics to do so. Luckily I work somew…

> Luckily I work somewhere that I can give a justified 'no' and keep my job. That is lucky! Where do you work?

Post by pdkl95 » Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 3:50 PM UTC

devrandomguy wrote: post #42

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #28

This was a bad idea when the app was standalone—a no-name Israeli startup snooping into all your traffic—and now it's spyware. This is one major (if not THE) reason not to trust small startups with unclear privacy policies—they are often bought in order to (ab)use the data they have collected and continue abusing it from unsuspecting users. Terrible.

So, as the first tech hire/partner, what can we do to protect our users? - Expire non-critical data after 30 - 90 days, e.g. activity data, not account data. - When feasible, have the client encrypt the really private user data, only store encrypted blobs on the server (Protonmail does this). - Send out a positively worded, subtle email notice to warn the more savvy users of a pending acquisition, as soon as that new…