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Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

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Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#221

Post by ams6110 »

r3bl wrote: post #206
baalimago wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many look to Twitter as their new social media platform, that together with IG (which is owned by facebook sure, but it's "harder" to be political there, which it all comes down to in the end) and Snapchat as a messenger. Google plus failed, so why wouldn't Facebook eventually do so also? The youth don't have Facebook, it's mostly the 20-40 year olds who do. This 20-40 generation follow the mainstream media news and…

Google+ had all the necessary requirements to be successful, but it failed at creating the network effect. Facebook does have the network effect, so killing its network effect will be much more difficult.

If Google+ were launching today, they might have a better chance. More people are interested in Facebook alternatives. At the time, Facebook had already supplanted MySpace and Google+ didn't offer anything attractive enough to switch again.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#222

Post by Fiahil »

OliverJones wrote: post #194
akuji1993 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still completely convinced that this whole scandal will not damage Facebook a bit, in the long term. Yeah, the stock is going to be a bit lower for some weeks, some people will leave, but the largest part of the Facebook users has not even realised the scandal in full scale. They're not going anywhere, they're going to continue as is, since there really is not alternative for Facebook right now and tbh they would…

> the largest part of the Facebook users has not even > realized the scandal in full scale. Exactly. That's why they must be regulated. Pharma companies, food companies, and airlines, to mention three, have the same sorts of characteristics in their businesses. Examples: Airlines have regulations because the typical user has no way to evaluate maintenance regimes or navigation procedures. The big information-hooverin…

Regulation come in many forms, and I believe the first step will be GDPR.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#223

Post by jsjohnst »

HenryBemis wrote: post #168
adventured wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter. They have the money, people and time to throw at compliance. GDPR won't dent Facebook in the least. They'll bend where they have to, and no further. They'll pay occasional fines and that won't matter either. If you take it to an extreme and the only thing they can do is show non-personalized advertising and do zero tracking, they'll still print billions in profit in the EU market. That's what ownin…

"occasional fines"? Living in EU, and I am thrilled at the party we will have, when 1-2 million people/facebook users will send this letter to FB [1]. I strongly believe that this will hurt them financially (where it actually matters/hurts). I (try to) sinkhole every tracker, advertiser etc. on my PC and jailbroken iphone. I am sure that I don't block every one, but 90% is better than 0%. It may keep me busy, but whe…

> and jailbroken iphone

As someone who’s Jailbroken dozens of iPhones, I understand the appeal. That said, you seem to prefer privacy/security, and I can unequivocally state having a jail broken iphone is a huge step backwards on both.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#224

Post by rsync »

mercer wrote: post #108
orbifold wrote: post #57

Ok, well this is just great. So Facebook has all my contacts from their aquisition of WhatsApp and even though I've never used any of their Apps or had an account with them, I'm pretty sure everyone I typically communicate with has the App and did not opt-out of this collection. So they get data on me for free that the police would need a court order to get. This kind of data retention has been highly controversial i…

My knowledge in this area is limited, so maybe others can pipe in, but assuming massive amounts of data on millions (or most?) Facebook users is out in the wild, which cannot be 'put back': 1. how well can this be actually used currently to create a proper psychosocial(?) profile of an individual? What's the current state of the art? Any suggestions for books or papers to read on the matter? 2. do we have any idea of…

"how well can this be actually used currently to create a proper psychosocial(?) profile of an individual? What's the current state of the art? Any suggestions for books or papers to read on the matter?"

I suspect quite poorly.

It's 2018 and I've been hearing pitches and narratives to do with fancy targeting of advertisements and user profiling now for 22 years.

And what do we have ? If I search for something obscure related to an (product), I will see unbelievably blunt and almost comically generic (product) ads for a week. Even if my search makes it obvious that I am not a prospective customer.

What advertisers receive for their money on these platforms is laughable and I am sure there's a complicated sales pitch with graphs and fancy terms of art and mentions of "AI" ... and it's all just bullshit, just like it has always been.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#225

Post by lotsofpulp »

r3bl wrote: post #206
baalimago wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many look to Twitter as their new social media platform, that together with IG (which is owned by facebook sure, but it's "harder" to be political there, which it all comes down to in the end) and Snapchat as a messenger. Google plus failed, so why wouldn't Facebook eventually do so also? The youth don't have Facebook, it's mostly the 20-40 year olds who do. This 20-40 generation follow the mainstream media news and…

Google+ had all the necessary requirements to be successful, but it failed at creating the network effect. Facebook does have the network effect, so killing its network effect will be much more difficult.

Google could not be more confusing. I spend 10 hours a day on the computer, and I will avoid Google stuff because it’s just not worth the time it takes to educate yourself about their nonsense, so I wouldn’t expect anyone less tech savvy to want to bother with them either.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#226

Post by lotsofpulp »

a012 wrote: post #208
JepZ wrote: post #201

Everybody is talking about Facebook these days, but is anybody considering to delete his Whatsapp and Instragram accounts too? I mean, aren't they part of Facebook nowadays? Wouldn't it be consistent to abandon all Facebook services?

I do, abandoned Instagram, Whatsapp, and FB for a year and I don't miss a thing. Keep in touch with real friends instead of checking the virtual ones.

If you have international family/friends, WhatsApp is the most ubiquitous and easy to use option I’ve come across.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#227

Post by bogomipz »

shanghaiaway wrote: post #193
akuji1993 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still completely convinced that this whole scandal will not damage Facebook a bit, in the long term. Yeah, the stock is going to be a bit lower for some weeks, some people will leave, but the largest part of the Facebook users has not even realised the scandal in full scale. They're not going anywhere, they're going to continue as is, since there really is not alternative for Facebook right now and tbh they would…

Every company's destiny is decided by revenue and profit. Facebook will be fine as long as the advertising money keeps coming in. Will it? I don't see why not. Companies don't care about user privacy.

>"Will it? I don't see why not. Companies don't care about user privacy."

Except they do care about their associations and brand management:

'At least three companies -- Sonos, Commerzbank (CRZBF) and Mozilla -- have pulled advertisements off Facebook after a data scandal engulfed the social network. Others are asking tough questions.

Unilever, which owns brands including Dove, Lipton, and Ben & Jerry's, issued a forceful warning to the platforms in February, saying they had become a "swamp" of fake news, racism, sexism and extremism.

"We cannot continue to prop up a digital supply chain which at times is little better than a swamp in terms of its transparency," said Unilever marketing boss Keith Weed'[1]

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/23/technology/advertisers-faceb...

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#228

Post by lotsofpulp »

realusername wrote: post #211
JepZ wrote: post #201

Everybody is talking about Facebook these days, but is anybody considering to delete his Whatsapp and Instragram accounts too? I mean, aren't they part of Facebook nowadays? Wouldn't it be consistent to abandon all Facebook services?

Whatsapp still sends (for now) way less data than Facebook and also has much better security. I wonder how long it will continue.

WhatsApp sends the most important one, your social graph aka contact list and how often and when you interact with whom. I also assume the content of the messages you send and receive can be read and monitored.

Re: Facebook denies it collects call and SMS data from phones without permission

#229

Post by randomsearch »

ams6110 wrote: post #221
r3bl wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google+ had all the necessary requirements to be successful, but it failed at creating the network effect. Facebook does have the network effect, so killing its network effect will be much more difficult.

If Google+ were launching today, they might have a better chance. More people are interested in Facebook alternatives. At the time, Facebook had already supplanted MySpace and Google+ didn't offer anything attractive enough to switch again.

No point swapping Facebook for another advertising-driven social network in the same vein. If a company like Apple were running it and people were paying for it, that would be a different matter.

Google have contributed to privacy issues, e.g. with poor permission management.

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