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Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

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Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#61

Post by harry8 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #38
belltaco wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Google and Facebook have two of the best security teams in the world and spend an amazing amount of money to protect customer data Are you serious? Wasn't Google found to be sending data between their data centers in plain text? https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/30/5046958/nsa-secretly-tap...

I think one can excuse them from not securing themselves against their own government physically tapping their internal network.

Their own government is just what we know about. You really think foreign governments weren't doing something similar? Why would you think that?

We most certainly cannot excuse them.

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#62

Post by orthecreedence »

Gracana wrote: post #59
bogomipz wrote: post #55

As a natural-born American you still have the choice to not sign up for a Google account or a Facebook account. You do not however have the option of refusing to apply for a social security number when your child is born. This piece looks likes little more than propaganda from the credit reporting agencies. Shame on you Bloomberg.

> you still have the choice to not sign up for a Google account or a Facebook account Unless you're careful to guard against it, you're loading up Facebook and Google's trackers on just about every site you visit. Registering for an account is not a prerequisite for them to build a profile on you.

Can someone open a bank account in my name or take out a loan based on data google/facebook have on my browsing history? I kind of doubt it.

I saw this post and immediately thought "propaganda" as well.

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#63

Post by 659087 »

ggggtez wrote: post #16
21 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 mil US accounts on FB were scraped using Mechanical Turk in an ingenious way. No hacking was required. I don't think that for many it matters if their data was obtained through hacking or through legal means. https://theintercept.com/2017/03/30/facebook-failed-to-prote...

You don't have your social security number and loans on your Facebook profile (or maybe you do). However whatever you put on Facebook was your choice. Nobody "posts" to Equifax.

I'm sure some do.

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

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb fucks

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#64

Post by MrZongle2 »

arkem wrote: post #8

I'm not particularly worried, Google and Facebook have two of the best security teams in the world and spend an amazing amount of money to protect customer data. The amount of convenience I get from Facebook and Google outweigh the risk I'm exposed to in my opinion. If Governments want to create data protection regulations I'll save my opinion until I see whatever regulation is proposed but I think it'll be difficult…

"...Google and Facebook have two of the best security teams in the world..."

Accepting that statement at face value, I would still caution: today they do.

What happens in 10 years when the bloom is off of the rose, and either cannot attract top talent or have ignored the need to stay on top of their game?

That data's still there.

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#65

Post by revmoo »

bogomipz wrote: post #55

As a natural-born American you still have the choice to not sign up for a Google account or a Facebook account. You do not however have the option of refusing to apply for a social security number when your child is born. This piece looks likes little more than propaganda from the credit reporting agencies. Shame on you Bloomberg.

This is not at all accurate. Facebook keeps shadow profiles on millions of people who have never opened an account. I'm sure Google does much the same.

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#66

Post by s73ver_ »

SilasX wrote: post #54
s73ver_ wrote: post #47

Do they? Cause Equifax has my financial info. Facebook and Google know that I like cat videos.

Google knows everything you searched for. Hope you never looked up an AIDS test.

That's still not on the level of what Equifax has. Honestly, no one else is going to care if I did do that. Evil hackers aren't going to be able to use that info. Stuff in my credit report, however...

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#67

Post by Jimmie_Rustle »

I don't know about the author, but FB and Google do not have my SSN. I don't even think FB has my exact address. How is this the same or worse than the Equifax breach?

The point about "private messages, photographs, and most of our secrets" being vulnerable is laughable, unless you are some prime-time celebrity that may be targeted individually. Please tell me how attackers are going to sift through terabytes of completely innocuous or boring communications to find that you were cheating on your S/O or whatever. How would a criminal even monetize such information? They are after personally identifiable information in a reasonable format that is ready to be used for fraud, ie in a table, not sprinkled throughout millions of individual messages.

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#68

Post by javajosh »

bogomipz wrote: post #55

As a natural-born American you still have the choice to not sign up for a Google account or a Facebook account. You do not however have the option of refusing to apply for a social security number when your child is born. This piece looks likes little more than propaganda from the credit reporting agencies. Shame on you Bloomberg.

As the world around us becomes more and more saturated with sensors (not least of which the ones we carry around with us), and the more the transactions of our lives require submitting to these sensors, the less compelling is the "well, you don't have to sign up" argument.

Technology today is more like language than product. There is no law requiring that you speak, or even learn how to speak; but if you choose not to speak you consign yourself to an underclass of mutes.

Re: Forget Equifax. Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You

#69

Post by avn2109 »

arkem wrote: post #11
mcast wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a little foolish to believe that some sensitive data within Google/Facebook/XYZ does not get shared outside with FVEY countries and intelligence agencies.

As someone who has worked for a five eyes intelligence agency and at Google I can tell you that Google does not share sensitive data with the Government unless compelled to do so by law.

>> "...that Google does not share sensitive data with the Government..."

It's possibly true that Google doesn't intentionally share data. But a nonzero fraction of Google's employees are actually working for the intelligence services of various countries.

The fraction is debatable but it's naive/misleading to pretend that the big tech Co's aren't thoroughly penetrated by every halfway respectable intelligence outfit.

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