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Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

theguardian.com

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Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#71

Post by bob_theslob646 »

tmalsburg2 wrote: post #13
malikNF wrote: post #3

What's utterly horrifying about this whole thing is how the media is acting as if this is some sort of surprise. Like what did you think was happening at a company collecting data about billions of people? Especially at a company that has a CEO who is famous for calling its own users dumb fu * * s? A company that experimented on at risk teens. Like come on. --edit--- Or lordy, didn't expect this comment to blow up th…

As a matter of fact, this is news and surprising for most users of Facebook even if it's not for you. By saying that no one should be surprised, are you not taking the same condescending attitude that you're pointing out in Zuckerberg?

This is not news.

(2010)[http://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-feds-collect-facebook-socia...]

(2010)[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/418971/facebook-personal-...]

(2012)[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/facebook-is...]

(2011)[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...]

(2011)[https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/01/researchers-flood-facebook...]

(2012)[money.cnn.com/2012/03/22/technology/facebook-privacy-changes/index.htm]

(2011)[https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/09/26/facebook-defends-get...]

The real discussion to be had is how do you know that the person is actually aware of giving consent, similar to how a recaptcha verifies whether or not you are a human. I see in the future, some sort of test for users, that verifies that they read the terms of service, as a form of consent for the user agreement.

Edit: Fixed all urls. All work except, cnn where you have to copy paste.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#72

Post by mtgx »

malikNF wrote: post #3

What's utterly horrifying about this whole thing is how the media is acting as if this is some sort of surprise. Like what did you think was happening at a company collecting data about billions of people? Especially at a company that has a CEO who is famous for calling its own users dumb fu * * s? A company that experimented on at risk teens. Like come on. --edit--- Or lordy, didn't expect this comment to blow up th…

Well, for the past few years, the media has been a "partner" of Facebook. Now it's not any longer. Seems like a wrong move for Facebook to dump the media like old clothes. Whoops.

I even remember such articles from TheGuardian before decrying that people are "going dark" - no, it wasn't about using Tor or VPNs. It was simply about using tracking protection.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#73

Post by zinckiwi »

peterwwillis wrote: post #63
txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, "this is bad"? This is normal. I can give you an entire list of F500 companies I've worked at that have the same mindset. I've sat in meetings with F100 CIOs where they were given the same warning and shrugged it off. I've been asked before to turn off security monitoring systems because executives prefer to not know about vulnerabilities rather than know about them and not be able to fix them. The only thing sh…

People love to pretend to be horrified by things they've assumed to be true. "What? A politician is corrupt? Outrage!!" "What? They're tracking me to build profiles on my use of all their advertising driven free services? Outrage!!" I'm sure there's a word for it in German.

zückerfreude

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#74

Post by notheguyouthink »

ccozan wrote: post #68
notheguyouthink wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More specifically, I think many people are naive about how it can be applied to their lives. Every company tracks you. From what you purchase at target, to broad pattern behavior tracking on the web via ad companies, I think most people know their being tracked at various stages for various reasons. However, is it bad that target knows I like to buy grass fed beef? Probably not. It reveals some things about me, but I…

You must probably don't know how powerfull this analytics are. Is it possible to correlate and infer all kind of data, based on other signals, what kind of person are you. For example if you drive a bicycle and eat beef, most likely you have a certain income, have a certain family type ( you use same IP!! ) , which means you might have a certain political view and concerns. And this is where targeted manipulation is…

Agree completely. Does it say much more than my job though? My car? my public travel patterns? etc. There's a reasonable about of information about me that I expect cameras on every corner to know.

Giving my information to FB/etc though? That's another story.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#75

Post by merpnderp »

malikNF wrote: post #3

What's utterly horrifying about this whole thing is how the media is acting as if this is some sort of surprise. Like what did you think was happening at a company collecting data about billions of people? Especially at a company that has a CEO who is famous for calling its own users dumb fu * * s? A company that experimented on at risk teens. Like come on. --edit--- Or lordy, didn't expect this comment to blow up th…

This exact same scandal broke in 2012 only it was with Obama’s campaign. It is humorous to see the media much more outraged when Republicans do it, as if it wasn’t that big of a deal when Obama did it.

https://twitter.com/cld276/status/975564499297226752

Edit for interesting link to the 2012 Facebook election data story.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#76

Post by freyir »

tmalsburg2 wrote: post #13
malikNF wrote: post #3

What's utterly horrifying about this whole thing is how the media is acting as if this is some sort of surprise. Like what did you think was happening at a company collecting data about billions of people? Especially at a company that has a CEO who is famous for calling its own users dumb fu * * s? A company that experimented on at risk teens. Like come on. --edit--- Or lordy, didn't expect this comment to blow up th…

As a matter of fact, this is news and surprising for most users of Facebook even if it's not for you. By saying that no one should be surprised, are you not taking the same condescending attitude that you're pointing out in Zuckerberg?

> and surprising for most users of Facebook

Yeah, but let's be honest, they're dumb fu * * s.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#77

Post by koboll »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #8

Can we not let this become framed as a "breach"? No systems were compromised. Nothing of Facebook's was accessed that wasn't supposed to be accessed. This was data intentionally exposed by Facebook , just exfiltrated and given to an entity whom Facebook hadn't authorized. This is simply the extent to which we've permitted these Internet giants to collect information about us. It's business as usual. Edit: To clarify,…

Even "exfiltrated" is not really accurate since it was freely handed over.

The problem is that Facebook just made its partners pinky swear to only use the data for research, which is obviously not an adequate data security measure.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#78

Post by kingkongjaffa »

freyir wrote: post #76
tmalsburg2 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a matter of fact, this is news and surprising for most users of Facebook even if it's not for you. By saying that no one should be surprised, are you not taking the same condescending attitude that you're pointing out in Zuckerberg?

> and surprising for most users of Facebook Yeah, but let's be honest, they're dumb fu * * s.

I mean on average the readership of HN are vastly more likely to be aware and care about their data and identity privacy than the average facebook user. so in this sense you're not wrong.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#79

Post by SCHiM »

1337biz wrote: post #53
jerf wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook's current problem is that they've now created a lot of enemies and they're running short on friends. This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, because creating enemies when you reach this scale is inevitable, so the mere fact that Facebook isn't everybody bestest bud ever is not intrinsically a problem. However, one of the fundamental ways to defend yourself when you reach this scale is to act with a certain amo…

You have a point there. Genereally speaking I agree that Facebook itself is on it's path down. Do they have enough money to just hang in there and buy the next thing 'what the kids like'?

They already have. There's massive migration towards instragram, owned by FB, and whatsapp has always been huge (owned by FB).

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#80

Post by faizshah »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #8

Can we not let this become framed as a "breach"? No systems were compromised. Nothing of Facebook's was accessed that wasn't supposed to be accessed. This was data intentionally exposed by Facebook , just exfiltrated and given to an entity whom Facebook hadn't authorized. This is simply the extent to which we've permitted these Internet giants to collect information about us. It's business as usual. Edit: To clarify,…

The real point is that companies like facebook and equifax have such large caches of personal data and have no legal obligation to protect it. This is a point most people outside of tech don't understand. You might not even be a user of facebook but these companies still have data on you that is highly personal and invasive.

An academic who has done some great work on this is Evgeny Morozov. Highly recommend his books, articles and lectures.

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