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Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

ftc.gov

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Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#101

Post by hanspeter »

lumberjack wrote: post #68

>Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises This is the crux of the issue. The problem is that when Facebook asks for "location information", the consequences of this are not being conveyed to the user. The user might think, "ah they want my location for the weather recommendations and event suggestions in my neighbourhood". They do not realise how som…

Interesting that you choose location information. I believe location privacy issues on Facebook pale in comparison to Apple and Google who share your exact location information with 3rd party app developers.

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#102

Post by oehpr »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #70
pknerd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why was I down voted? A little explanation could help.

I don’t know either, but it’s against the HN posting guidelines to inquire. It’s hard to know where sentiment comes from, I’d recommend not dwelling on it too long. Just keep writing comments you believe in.

The problem is with no feedback, it can be hard to adjust in the right direction.

And I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think downvotes on this platform have consequences beyond just hiding one comment.

I've noticed ordering anomalies here where people who posted newer comments and had > 0 points were ranked below people who posted older comments and had <= 0 points. There was some intrinsic ranking going on.

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#103

Post by jumpman500 »

Domenic_S wrote: post #69
jumpman500 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. Once you get your photos off of Facebook I think you can leave really easily. You can still message all your important friends through sms or your chosen chat app. Snapchat exists as an alternative for casual photo sharing. Reddit or Twitter for posting news, memes or funny videos. I think people exaggerate the importance of Facebook. Young people can adapt to new technology quickly. I know I was able t…

> Young people can adapt to new technology quickly. I know I was able to drop Facebook pretty easily. Older people can't. I think sharing photos with extended (ie, older) family is a huge use case for Facebook.

Yea but that's also a reason to leave. I know one of the main reasons I stopped using Facebook for photos was because I didn't want my Mom and extended family looking at the parties I went to at college.

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#104

Post by pelario »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #97
lumberjack wrote: post #68

>Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises This is the crux of the issue. The problem is that when Facebook asks for "location information", the consequences of this are not being conveyed to the user. The user might think, "ah they want my location for the weather recommendations and event suggestions in my neighbourhood". They do not realise how som…

The consequences of using a store loyalty card are not known to the general public either. Yet all transactional information is sold off to third party data brokers and aggregated into profiles where they keep track of you in minute detail. It isn't exactly fair that Facebook is going to be punished while the rest of the industry hides behind its fine print.

Yes indeed, and maybe this is an opportunity to do something about this too...

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#105

Post by titzer »

hanspeter wrote: post #101
lumberjack wrote: post #68

>Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises This is the crux of the issue. The problem is that when Facebook asks for "location information", the consequences of this are not being conveyed to the user. The user might think, "ah they want my location for the weather recommendations and event suggestions in my neighbourhood". They do not realise how som…

Interesting that you choose location information. I believe location privacy issues on Facebook pale in comparison to Apple and Google who share your exact location information with 3rd party app developers.

Well, there is a permissions model for 3rd party apps. What about the system software...

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#106

Post by purple-again »

eggpy wrote: post #81
mrtksn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember Digg? Unlike the companies you listed, FB is user-facing - just like Digg. If users happen to decide that a company is not "cool" anymore or dispase its public figure(Zuckerberg), it may actually go away. Remember IE(stands for Internet Explorer)? Using Firefox and later Chrome became a crusade and the almighty brand of the richest person in the world that holds the monopoly on computers platforms bled to de…

I was totally ready to call you out and that the rebranding of IE to Edge resulted in no change in adoption and Microsoft wins by default but apparently I am totally incorrect. Chrome is _by far_ dominating the browser game[0]. And while I'd rather FF take that spot, dethroning Microsoft makes my nerd heart pretty happy. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#/m...

Wow I honestly had no idea. I would of bet you $100 on the spot that Microsoft had more than 50% marketshare of browser traffic and considered you a sucker for taking the bet. I had no idea Chrome had dominated so much. I wonder what Firefox did wrong that it didn't become Chrome? It was the cool browser to use years before I ever heard of Chrome.

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#107

Post by _tulpa »

bitxbit wrote: post #96

I think people are forgetting how much easier it is to scale and build a network these days. The moat is the network for facebook but it can be replaced in a relatively short period of time if the right competition enters the market. Facebook has invested a lot of technology toward selling ads and the core product for the users has not changed much (for the better) in the past decade. Classic monopolistic behavior.

Sure, the technical barrier isn't that high anymore. Social and economic barriers though...

By subsidising otherwise prohibitively expensive mobile data connections for Facebook traffic only, Facebook has become the internet in many countries.

Facebook have their app preinstalled by pretty much every Android vendor. As a system app that you can't remove.

Other services require you to have a Facebook account to login, there aren't many services that devs trust for this.

Competing with something this deeply entrenched would be difficult, and doing that with ethical limitations that they don't have is damn near impossible.

Re: Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

#109

Post by nofinator »

Slansitartop wrote: post #34
wybiral wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Uber tried to fix things by a shake up (but I still don't use Uber). Equifax, I would force to pull my data if I could. Facebook, this kind of stuff is inherent in their business model. Our data is the only obvious thing they can turn into money.

> Equifax, I would force to pull my data if I could You could freeze your credit with Equifax, if you're not looking to take out new credit lines. It costs money, but I've heard it pretty much stops them from making money off your info. That's why the credit agencies are pushing things like "credit locks," which don't have legal mandates behind them meaning they can design the service to suit themselves.

I believe Equifax and others are offering a free credit freeze through June 30. Here's the clearest description I could find: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/equifax-credit-freez...

However, I'm not an expert and I'd like to hear more about this.

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