Ofcourse they do. On one hand it’s absolutely surprising that such a piece is considered “news” but on the other hand at least the general public (not just people in CS) are paying more attention to their privacy. But in this case I think it’s 100% fine, even expected in order to stop bad content (porn, abuse etc) from going through
stopping "Bad content" is a slippery slope, especially on a network, where most only talk to people they actually know and who are usually using real identities. Keep in mind it's private messaging we're talking about.
Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
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Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#42Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#43Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#44When our daughter was born, and I sent an announcement via GMail, I started seeing ads for diapers. After that, I assume anything I'm doing on the internet is being data mined for advertising or some other source of revenue.
The reason for this question is that even though you don't have a cat lots of people do! It's absolutely not a false dichotomy. Either people who have no cats must see cat food advertisements (bad choice), or cat food advertisements must be shown to people who probably have a cat (better choice). There's really nothing in between.
This is the world we live in, and you should prefer to see baby diaper ads vs cat food ads, when you do have a baby but don't have a cat. The statistical number of cats or babies is irrelevant. As you may know, Google is pretty good (not perfect) about not allowing keyword targeting that gets down to individual people so the privacy implications really are pretty limited.
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That said, I have a funny story to share. (About adapting to this world.) I am learning a foreign language and I decided to watch baby cartoons in that language. But before I did, I thought to myself, "Okay if I start searching YouTube for cartoons for 1 year olds, pretty soon Google is going to decide that I'm a new mother and I'll see nothing but baby cartoons in my feed for the next 5 years."
I was sure enough in my reasoning that I went ahead and created a brand new Google account for the express purpose of being able to pollute its YouTube feed. I only watch stuff related to that language learning on that account.
This had the exact effect that I wanted. That youtube became absolutely awesome for spending focused time on my language learning, using all sorts of related videos. It includes people documenting what life in that country is like for tourists and foreigners, it includes foreign-language teachers' channels, it includes related cartoons and films at a good level for me, it includes political speeches from that country subtitled in English. I couldn't be happier with the result.
You know those acknowledgments we've been clicking through for the past few years by Google saying "Hey!! We're doing this. READ THIS"? I think it makes what they do pretty above-board.
As a consumer we're able to adapt to this, but it's not something I have any problem with.
(Disclaimer: I indirectly contributed to Google in the past but not now, I would definitely list it as a disclaimer if it were happening now but I remember that it changed how I wrote about Google especially when I was the most critical of them, so I think it's worth mentioning still. I am a bit nicer when I'm really pissed off at them as a consumer - but this is not the case in this instance.)
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EDIT: I carefully edited this as it is falling to -1. I stand by the sentiments in this comment: they are correct. Downvoters are wrong.
Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#45When our daughter was born, and I sent an announcement via GMail, I started seeing ads for diapers. After that, I assume anything I'm doing on the internet is being data mined for advertising or some other source of revenue.
I think most people, at some level, know this and accept it. I think the shock comes when you think how long this information is kept for, and what that means. i.e. each year they can advertise age appropriate birthday presents, a few years from now they might get adverts for children party suppliers. As they grow up college saving funds, colleges, trips to Disney land, first cars can all be targeted to you at just t…
Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#46When our daughter was born, and I sent an announcement via GMail, I started seeing ads for diapers. After that, I assume anything I'm doing on the internet is being data mined for advertising or some other source of revenue.
Would you rather see ads for cat food? (Even though you don't have a cat.) This is not a rhetorical question: please answer it. The reason for this question is that even though you don't have a cat lots of people do! It's absolutely not a false dichotomy. Either people who have no cats must see cat food advertisements (bad choice), or cat food advertisements must be shown to people who probably have a cat (better cho…
Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#47> "For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our automated systems scan it using photo matching technology to detect known child exploitation imagery or when you send a link, we scan it for malware or viruses," a Facebook Messenger spokeswoman said in a statement. "A Facebook Messenger spokeswoman" who wouldn't put her name to the statement? Ugh. Child porn is terrible, but very few people produce it or want…
If they didn't scan and detect child porn, there would be articles about how they're letting people get away with sharing child porn on Messenger. It seems there's no way for Facebook to win here, given that people want both complete privacy and also no illicit activity on the platform.
No there wouldn’t be. Do you hear that about iMessage, SMS, email or the numerous other services?
Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#48Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you rather see ads for cat food? (Even though you don't have a cat.) This is not a rhetorical question: please answer it. The reason for this question is that even though you don't have a cat lots of people do! It's absolutely not a false dichotomy. Either people who have no cats must see cat food advertisements (bad choice), or cat food advertisements must be shown to people who probably have a cat (better cho…
You’re ok with someone reading your mail then spamming you after learning something from it? Does that only apply to email, or physical mail too (with your permission in a vast TOS document of course). What if someone looked in your windows then sent you advertising based on what they saw? I’m always a bit startled at what people are ok with.
Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App
#50> "For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our automated systems scan it using photo matching technology to detect known child exploitation imagery or when you send a link, we scan it for malware or viruses," a Facebook Messenger spokeswoman said in a statement. "A Facebook Messenger spokeswoman" who wouldn't put her name to the statement? Ugh. Child porn is terrible, but very few people produce it or want…
If they didn't scan and detect child porn, there would be articles about how they're letting people get away with sharing child porn on Messenger. It seems there's no way for Facebook to win here, given that people want both complete privacy and also no illicit activity on the platform.
[0]: https://www.onmsft.com/news/microsoft-updates-photodna-softw...