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Statement by FTC Regarding Reported Concerns about Facebook Privacy Practices

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

#131

Post by bogomipz »

habosa wrote: post #98
bogomipz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on exactly how "big four banks" built a regulatory moat that no one can breach?

The regulatory costs of running a bank are much higher now than before the financial crisis. This means that the chance of an upstart challenging the big players has actually gone down, even though some of the regulation was meant to address concerns of "too big to fail".

Oh but that regulation is on the chopping block right now:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/10-years-aft...

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

#132

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

fortythirteen wrote: post #88
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…

If I had a nickel for every time someone called me paranoid or a conspiracy theorist for mentioning this before last week, I'd have a ton of nickels. I should feel better now that people of aware of the nefariousness of this type of data collection, but I feel worse. The general public is being fed this as "Russia" and "Trump", and not getting the real, horrifying, surveillance state truth of what's going on. I'm les…

But... don't you remember how cool Obama was? He loved his blackberry!

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

#133

Post by joering2 »

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…

That's a good example, +1. But I have bigger issue with their cookie abuse.

Initially cookie was designed to help website track you around THEIR website; it wasn't design to track you around the WHOLE internet. While it may be in Facebook spirit of "hacking things" and "breaking things", I'm surprised EU and US have not come up with strict rules and regulations on how cookies can be utilized.

I remember in EU Facebook tried to argue that they track you around web for your safety and security but I'm unsure how much water it hold.

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

#134

Post by icantdrive55 »

CaptSpify wrote: post #99
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree with you, but FB has been pretty blatant about how they misuse their user's data. If you are the biggest and most obvious, then you will probably be the first one targeted.

I imagine Google is much worse.

I was hoping they would be caught, by the SEC, looking at certain peoples data, and do what privileged boys do best; trade stocks/bonds well.

But, I guess, they are making enough on advertising.

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

#135

Post by random_rr »

myth_buster wrote: post #126

> [FTC] has an open non-public investigation into these practices Not familiar with open non-public legalese but it sounds like an oxymoron.

Open - the status of the case is "open", meaning it is under active investigation.

Non-public - you already know this :)

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

#136

Post by j2bax »

hodder wrote: post #72
bitumen wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the top comment here a weak version of, “come on in, the water is fine” when Facebook keeps dripping scandal? A lot of armchair investors and professionally apathetic people the last couple of days, and they’re all making the same claim, “nobody cares.” Meanwhile it’s still being drilled in the media, keeps hitting the front page here, dropped tens of billions, and so on. “Nobody cares” feels more like despera…

I'm not an "armchair investor". I'm a real investor. My money is where my mouth is. I am simply trying to rationally assess the outcome on users, and I don't think this will matter to the vast majority of them. Nobody cares. Do I care? Sure I do. But will a tiny minority of tech users matter to the stock in the long term? Unlikely.

I would think the negative sentiment in the tech sphere would hurt them more on inability to continue hiring the best talent... Granted, that is assuming that most people can't be bought, which is unfortunately probably not the case.

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

#137

Post by samlevine »

There are a number of ways of paying for a social network. Among them:

- Ads

- Subscriptions

- Loss leader for another product

- Microtransactions

Facebook does ads.

Subscriptions hurt network effects.

Google+ ran into a brick wall of network effects.

Nobody uses Flattr, and it's hard to imagine people paying a buck for video filters or other premium features.

It'd be great to solve the problem without building another Facebook, but my best guess is that if Facebook goes down someone else builds another system basically identical to Facebook and we all have this conversation again 10 years in the future.

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

#138

Post by Lionsion »

_tulpa wrote: post #107
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,…

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

I like to see how much revenue Facebook gets from those countries vs. the US and Western Europe.

> Competing with something this deeply entrenched would be difficult

I don't think anything you listed makes FB so entrenched that's it's invulnerable. Facebook's big strengths are network effects and its pile of cash, but its weakness is that it's a leisure item in a somewhat trend-driven market. All the money in the world can't keep something fashionable forever.

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

#139

Post by joering2 »

hodder wrote: post #3

Remember the delete Uber campaign, the Equifax breach, the WFC accounts, the Bank of America suits, the Intel chip vulnerability? The market doesn't. The market has a short memory, and FB is not going anywhere. However, there may be some welcomed changes in data abuse. With that said, I think the stock is a bargain today.

> With that said, I think the stock is a bargain today.

That's very disingenuous for you to say. If you are in it, you should disclaim it so that others know why you paddle it. If you know anything on TA (technical analyst) you know it broke uptrend and major barriers and will temporarily stop around 140-150 before it decides what to do next. In mere you should warn its your personal opinion.

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

#140

Post by kirillseva »

LifeLiverTransp wrote: post #127
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…

How about a diffrent form of punnishment for privacy violating companys? Just insert NN generated Noise into there databases. Instant devaluation of there most treasured asset. That has to hurt.

The biggest names in AI technology are the very same advertisement companies. General public can't win in this arms race
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