Facebook’s Surveillance Machine • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#11

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:32 AM UTC

kaybe wrote: post #3

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #2

when talking about Cambridge Analytica we should also discuss Palantir from 5 years ago: https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-06/mysterious... Palantir ‘wields as much real-world power as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, but unlike them, Palantir operates so far under the radar, it is special ops.’ https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/is-pal... Yes, that's the same Thiel who i…

Wow, sentiance is super creepy.

Holy fuck. After watching the video on their site, I agree.

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#12

Post by DyslexicAtheist » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:34 AM UTC

ccozan wrote: post #8

ensiferum wrote: post #5

I think it's time to finally close the FB account, move on to Firefox and disable 3rd party trackers and start using VPN routinely.

But careful with the VPNs. They are leaking and selling data too. Can't find the article at this moment, but there was on HN not long ago.

yepp, VPNs are really just shifting the trust from ISP to the VPN.

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#13

Post by mattbierner » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:35 AM UTC

Seeking advice: how do I tell friends and family about the negative aspects of Facebook without coming across as all “I don’t even own a TV” or “meat is murder”? Is that even possible?

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#14

Post by jakeogh » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:36 AM UTC

ccozan wrote: post #7

kaybe wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, sentiance is super creepy.

wow+1. Truly creepy. But this is possible because we let them use this data. Thankfully, in EU the GDRP makes this almost impossible. On a side note, working on a platform that is similar to sentiance in data aquisition, but for totally other purpose and zero effect on privacy, due to a transparent anonymization.

Are you going to invade a foreign power when one of their sovereigns ignores your demand to forget?

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#15

Post by zby » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:36 AM UTC

Physicists became aware about the ethical implications of their work after the A bomb - with information science there will not be any such sharp censure - but the implications might be even more profound.

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#16

Post by kaybe » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:38 AM UTC

mattbierner wrote: post #13

Seeking advice: how do I tell friends and family about the negative aspects of Facebook without coming across as all “I don’t even own a TV” or “meat is murder”? Is that even possible?

Right now I'm considering to just show them the video on sentiance's homepage.. (https://www.sentiance.com as linked above)

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#17

Post by g09980 » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:38 AM UTC

Am I understanding correctly is that the primary blame on Facebook is in enabling apps (via API) to collect data?

This stuff has unfortunately existed for years, no different from an Android "beautiful waterfall wallpapers" app that also happens to ask for permission to access your contacts/messages. People consent to their data being public (sometimes in second-degree through their friends), data gets collected. And what about all those helpful Chrome extensions that want access to all of your browsing tabs?

I never authorize third-party apps on my accounts (or even install non-local Chrome extensions), but I'm likely in the minority.

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#18

Post by hendler » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:38 AM UTC

gerbal wrote: post #6

It's worth looking through Zenyep Tufekci's other op-eds [1] and her fantastic book "Twitter and Teargass" [2]. A lot of her analysis borders on prescient. She's someone to pay attention to. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/column/zeynep-tufekci [2] https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300215120/twitter-and-te...

Agreed. TED talk was good too. https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dy...

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#19

Post by mirimir » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:42 AM UTC

ccozan wrote: post #8

ensiferum wrote: post #5

I think it's time to finally close the FB account, move on to Firefox and disable 3rd party trackers and start using VPN routinely.

But careful with the VPNs. They are leaking and selling data too. Can't find the article at this moment, but there was on HN not long ago.

Sure, there's no way to know.

But it is possible to distribute trust across multiple VPN services, such that none of them alone can compromise you. You just nest one VPN inside another. It's easy using VMs. Most simply, connect to one VPN provider in the host machine, and to another in a VM. Using pfSense VMs as VPN gateways, you can chain more deeply. It's the same idea that's behind Tor using three-relay circuits. But less anonymous, because routes are static.

Re: Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

#20

Post by mfrommil » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 8:47 AM UTC

In many cases, industry self-regulation can be a good solution to protecting customers from being wronged. PCI is a great example- there can be huge fines on merchants that don't meet strict regulations for handling customer financial transactions according to the strict standards set by PCI.

What has become extremely clear from this situation is that we are far past the point of self-regulation being the answer for protecting personal data. Facebook knowingly enabled a 3rd party to pay $1-$2 to 300k people to acquire facebook data that may have been marked private/don't share for 50 million users. Roughly $500k for 50 million people's personal data, or in other words, a penny per person. This data is connected to influencing the election of the POTUS. There needs to be significant overhaul of how personal data is protected or this will continue to happen.