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Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

cnbc.com

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Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#91

Post by philipodonnell »

tjoff wrote: post #73
Joeboy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the result of having HN filled with these Facebook non-stories is that I'm going to stop taking an interest in them. As far as I can tell the situation with Facebook is substantially the same as it's been since it started. Users willfully broadcast information using Facebook, and sometimes Facebook uses that information in ways its users didn't intend or expect. Among the recent slew of dramatic stories I hav…

What makes you think this is a non-story? It is yet another example of a culture that feeds on lack of empathy and respect of peoples lives. Yes, it is boring, yes it is repetitive. And it will continue to be that way until facebook gains a shred of decency. But I guess that we should just forgive and ignore because there are too may of them? Maybe you are not the target of these stories, the public at large do feel…

> the result of having HN filled with these Facebook non-stories is that I'm going to stop taking an interest in them.

> the public at large do feel that they are surprising and shocking.

Not OP, but I don't think the point is that its a non-story to the public at large, I think the point is that its a non-story to anyone reading HN, which is decidedly not the public at large.

I get where they're coming from. If I go to reddit or local news and see a bunch of Facebook non-stories I would tend to discount that as the public finally waking up to this. When I come here and see a Facebook article I immediately assume it is important and I need to pay attention because the audience here is so different than reddit/local news. If I can't trust HN to filter for only truly important stories then I'll start to treat it like Reddit and look for a better source for truly important news, which would be a shame.

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#92

Post by craftyguy »

ccccccccccccc wrote: post #53
craftyguy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike/disagree with facebook more than most folks, but even I can smell a dead horse being beaten.

I find it funny how we complain so often of the news moving too fast and major stories becoming irrelevant in a day or two, yet when a something stays in the news for more than a week people gripe over how much attention we give the topic.

many posts on HN about facebook are not even from within the last few months. some of them are from several years ago, but are only being reposted now for sweet internet points and bandwagoning.

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#93

Post by Slansitartop »

craftyguy wrote: post #92
ccccccccccccc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it funny how we complain so often of the news moving too fast and major stories becoming irrelevant in a day or two, yet when a something stays in the news for more than a week people gripe over how much attention we give the topic.

many posts on HN about facebook are not even from within the last few months. some of them are from several years ago, but are only being reposted now for sweet internet points and bandwagoning.

> many posts on HN about facebook are not even from within the last few months. some of them are from several years ago

HN is just for "breaking news." It has an established culture of re-posting "old" stories if they're interesting or informative in the context of more recent events.

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#94

Post by gethesmane »

marcell wrote: post #6

The pile on continues... (1) This is probably a project by a small "research" group at Facebook. The goal of that group is probably to publish papers in a Psych journal or something like that about how they were able to correlate anonymized medical data with Facebook feed updates. Tech companies have these research groups for prestige, they are not central to the company mission. (2) According to the article, the pro…

(1) This is probably a project by a small "research" group at Facebook.

With blessings from on high, no doubt.

(2) According to the article, the project was never actually started.

Oh yes it was -- the FB spokesperson said it was in the "planning stages". That's quite definitely a form of "starting" (especially for large companies).

If a local waste disposal company were to acknowledge that it was in the "planning" stages of, say, a major incineration facility on that vacant lot down the street your kids used to play in... you wouldn't say this was "a bit of a non-story", now would you?

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#96

Post by leesalminen »

LinuxBender wrote: post #86
leesalminen wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barely. I think FB engineers deserve more than “some” of the blame here. Surely they could see the negative consequences of linking health data into their graph.

The ones I know are proud of the fact they can pull in thousands of data sources. They will show off what they can do using big data, AI and other bingo terms with your data.

Scary stuff. Glad I never drank the FB Kool-Aid. Don’t think I’d even consider a job offer from them.

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#97

Post by Slansitartop »

dschuetz wrote: post #77

I don't understand. Why? What was the motivation to conduct such talks? Regarding what Facebook does, according to Facebook connecting people , how does patient's medical data contributes to that? "You've been committed to the local hospital last week, connect to people who shared that experience with you?" It doesn't make sense at all!

> Regarding what Facebook does, according to Facebook connecting people, how does patient's medical data contributes to that?

Facebook is about "connecting people" to ads and companies that want their data.

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#99

Post by telchar »

craftyguy wrote: post #8
marcell wrote: post #6

The pile on continues... (1) This is probably a project by a small "research" group at Facebook. The goal of that group is probably to publish papers in a Psych journal or something like that about how they were able to correlate anonymized medical data with Facebook feed updates. Tech companies have these research groups for prestige, they are not central to the company mission. (2) According to the article, the pro…

I dislike/disagree with facebook more than most folks, but even I can smell a dead horse being beaten.

The situation regarding Facebook and privacy is very much unresolved. How can you call it a dead horse? Facebook is very much a large, living, dangerous horse. I think we shouldn't let up until the horse changes its spots or dies.

Re: Facebook was in talks with hospitals about a proposal to share data

#100

Post by chickenfries »

philipodonnell wrote: post #91
tjoff wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think this is a non-story? It is yet another example of a culture that feeds on lack of empathy and respect of peoples lives. Yes, it is boring, yes it is repetitive. And it will continue to be that way until facebook gains a shred of decency. But I guess that we should just forgive and ignore because there are too may of them? Maybe you are not the target of these stories, the public at large do feel…

> the result of having HN filled with these Facebook non-stories is that I'm going to stop taking an interest in them. > the public at large do feel that they are surprising and shocking. Not OP, but I don't think the point is that its a non-story to the public at large, I think the point is that its a non-story to anyone reading HN, which is decidedly not the public at large. I get where they're coming from. If I go…

> If I can't trust HN to filter for only truly important stories

The HN frontpage is a pretty poor proxy for "importance." It's simply whatever the users of HN find interesting. AFAIK, there is no "only upvote truly important" stories rule.

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