Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#141

Post by StanislavPetrov » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:21 AM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #133

feelin_googley wrote: post #33

"You can't watch your kids 24/7," reads one poster, which has a picture of Schumer, Zuckerberg, and a shirtless Anthony Wiener outside Facebook's New York offices. "BUT WE CAN." ... Schumer - who in 2016 railed that "a person's cellphone should not become a James Bond-like personal tracking device for a corporation to gather information" - has stayed relatively silent since Facebook's user data scandal with Cambridge…

The post reports on generic graffiti now? Are they that desperate to find their daily DeBlasio/Schumer/Cumo 2 min hate? Can they not just call random Democrats Communist to satisfy their readership? Could Sabo possibly find a more tenuous link between Schumer and Facebook? The fact that Sabo admits to having an unnamed financial backer coupled with the fact that this non-news is reported on in the Murdoch press makes…

>Are they that desperate to find their daily DeBlasio/Schumer/Cumo 2 min hate?

Anyone who lives in New York doesn't need the Post for that.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#142

Post by StanislavPetrov » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:28 AM UTC

drngdds wrote: post #41

pmlnr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's really not a dangerous slippery slope. If Facebook starts moderating messages too harshly, people will just move to another platform.

Except of course that Google and Facebook manipulate the data you see so that it becomes much, much harder (if not impossible) for any competitor to gain traction because they are blocked or buried on page 50 of search results.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#143

Post by StanislavPetrov » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:29 AM UTC

drngdds wrote: post #41

pmlnr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's really not a dangerous slippery slope. If Facebook starts moderating messages too harshly, people will just move to another platform.

Except of course that Google and Facebook are also the places that people go to search for information. They manipulate the data you see so that it becomes much, much harder (if not impossible) for any competitor to gain traction because they are blocked or buried on page 50 of search results.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#144

Post by lz400 » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:42 AM UTC

Is the recent attack on Facebook a coordinated effort to kill Zuck's office run?

Don't get me wrong, I think all the flak Facebook is getting is deserved but there's little in the revelations coming lately after Cambridge Analytica that is really new. However the media backlash is a lot, a lot bigger and more sustained that I thought it'd be, even here in HN. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but could it be partially orchestrated by some political powers that be to kill his political aspirations? Or even if it didn't start that way, I guess it could have been helped by this.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#145

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:44 AM UTC

logicallee wrote: post #44

TYPE_FASTER wrote: post #23

When 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…

Honestly don't know why you're being downvoted, other than people having a different preference from you.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#146

Post by rock_hard » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:44 AM UTC

lz400 wrote: post #144

Is the recent attack on Facebook a coordinated effort to kill Zuck's office run? Don't get me wrong, I think all the flak Facebook is getting is deserved but there's little in the revelations coming lately after Cambridge Analytica that is really new. However the media backlash is a lot, a lot bigger and more sustained that I thought it'd be, even here in HN. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but could it be partia…

On top of that news outlets essentially lost almost all their web traffic after FB started focusing on meaningful connections in January.

They are probably beyond pissed because of the ad revenue loses...wonder how many of them will fold soon?

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#147

Post by lz400 » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:50 AM UTC

rock_hard wrote: post #146

lz400 wrote: post #144

Is the recent attack on Facebook a coordinated effort to kill Zuck's office run? Don't get me wrong, I think all the flak Facebook is getting is deserved but there's little in the revelations coming lately after Cambridge Analytica that is really new. However the media backlash is a lot, a lot bigger and more sustained that I thought it'd be, even here in HN. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but could it be partia…

On top of that news outlets essentially lost almost all their web traffic after FB started focusing on meaningful connections in January. They are probably beyond pissed because of the ad revenue loses...wonder how many of them will fold soon?

Can you elaborate on how that change affected news outlets? I can understand they losing traffic to fb in general but I guess I'm unaware of that specific change.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#148

Post by tyingq » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:54 AM UTC

lz400 wrote: post #144

Is the recent attack on Facebook a coordinated effort to kill Zuck's office run? Don't get me wrong, I think all the flak Facebook is getting is deserved but there's little in the revelations coming lately after Cambridge Analytica that is really new. However the media backlash is a lot, a lot bigger and more sustained that I thought it'd be, even here in HN. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but could it be partia…

I think his sort of awkward introvert style already marked him as not much of a threat politically. How would he do in a debate? Thus, not buying a conspiracy to keep him out of politics. It shouldn't be this way, but charisma is a base requirement in politics.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#149

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 12:59 AM UTC

TYPE_FASTER wrote: post #23

When 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.

>When our daughter was born, and I sent an announcement via GMail, I started seeing ads for diapers.

Your comment is making me feel really, really old. Have people forgotten Gmail's history?

Gmail is not that old. When it was new, what you are pointing out was in the news. It was all over the news. To the point of members of Congress commenting on it. It was heavily debated. Google was very open about the fact that they were doing it. Google was the first (major) email provider to offer 1 GB of mail (well over the usual paltry 50MB that was the norm). Everyone asked "How can they afford it?" And it was very much in the open that it was being paid for ads, and that Google will mine your emails and provide you with targeted ads.

I remember while reading an email on Gmail back in 2004/2005 there was a very obvious targeted ad based on the content of that email.

I honestly do not mean this as a criticism, but I am really, really surprised that a HN poster was surprised by this. That Gmail scans (or scanned) emails and uses them for ads is almost part of their identity. It's like being surprised that there are ads in a newspaper.

Re: Facebook Scans What You Send Other People on Messenger App

#150

Post by BeetleB » Thu, Apr 05, 2018, 1:05 AM UTC

Shank wrote: post #52

rco8786 wrote: post #39

Why is this newsworthy? Did people think Facebook somehow didn't have access to what was being sent across its own platform?

Yes, they have access. The point is more that they have an automated system scanning and flagging messages, specifically so that they're reviewed by humans, for content they don't want on their platform. My landlord has access to my apartment, and I certainly don't expect them to just pop in and take things out that they don't like -- I at least expect some kind of notice. You can apply this to basically anything in…

>My landlord has access to my apartment, and I certainly don't expect them to just pop in and take things out that they don't like -- I at least expect some kind of notice.

That is because there are laws preventing them from doing it (both the theft and the entry without notice). And I did live in a state that allows them entry without prior notice. And they did do it. And it didn't bother me because they clearly have the right to do so.

>You can apply this to basically anything in the physical world, like mail.

Again, very clear legislation on this. I believe it is an explicit felony to open other people's (physical) mail.

>Having the capability to access does not equate to having permission to access.

Yes, but sans any legislation, doing stuff on their platform does equate to having permission to access - especially if there is no legal contract (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, etc) stating otherwise.

I honestly don't get this. In the old days people (including me) ran message boards on this web site. There was no shock when the owner of the message board deleted posts or put filters, etc.