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Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#91

Post by mindslight »

redleggedfrog wrote: post #73

Okay, I guess I'm the contrarian here, but I'm not sure why any of this is surprising, or even a problem. Facebook users signed up for a free service that allows them to communicate with other people in an enjoyable manner. Facebook even went so far as to make it so enjoyable it's addictive. Free online crack. Facebook users, you're having your fun. What would you expect Facebook to do to finance all this? They're se…

So while your point was apt at the beginning of Faceboot's existence, at this point in time most everybody has been "gullible enough to use their free service". So the only current applicability of your point that anything Faceboot does is fine based on the idea that their users have consented in perpetuity.

Your point also does nothing to address the surveillance that Faceboot performs on people without accounts, or data they glean from sources other than explicit Faceboot usage.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#92

Post by pwinnski »

redleggedfrog wrote: post #73

Okay, I guess I'm the contrarian here, but I'm not sure why any of this is surprising, or even a problem. Facebook users signed up for a free service that allows them to communicate with other people in an enjoyable manner. Facebook even went so far as to make it so enjoyable it's addictive. Free online crack. Facebook users, you're having your fun. What would you expect Facebook to do to finance all this? They're se…

So-called "shadow profiles" are built for people who are not even Facebook users.

I do not have a Facebook account, and yet my friends and family members have been prompted to tag photos of me with my name.

I did not sign up for a free service. I am not a Facebook user, I'm not "having my fun." And yet Facebook has collected enough of a profile on me to recognize my face in photos and know who my friends and family are.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#94

Post by ameister14 »

fixermark wrote: post #74
ameister14 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what the question was. The man asking the question wasn't technically sophisticated enough to ask about using cookies, and if he were, he would not have asked that question anyway. The question was, does Facebook collect data on non-users? What that means is, if I have not signed up for facebook, are you tracking my behavior anyway through the like button and other methods?

That, I suppose, would have been a useful question for the Senator to ask. It wasn't the question asked.

Yes, the Congressman's question actually was "Facebook has detailed profiles on people who have never signed up for Facebook. Yes or no?"

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#95

Post by shmerl »

thaladred wrote: post #87
shmerl wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty much settled that exploiting lack of privacy is a bad thing. Potential of such practice misuse was clearly demonstrated in the recent history.

Can you give us the specific case in history that you are referring to? You can get back to met later if you don't have that information with you right now.

Brexit / Trump's campaign designers pretty much admitted manipulating the masses using Facebook feedback loop paired with big data analysis. Putting it more bluntly, it's a massive scale brainwashing. It's hard not to see the potential of pretty shady usage of such power.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#96

Post by mudil »

mfoy_ wrote: post #12

I think the biggest thing is the HUGE disconnect with what people think Facebook is doing, and what Facebook is actually doing. I think the whole point of this is to raise awareness about of the scope of Facebook's data collection-- It's unfathomably enormous. If more average people had a better understanding of what Facebook was tracking, they'd be outraged. Zuckerberg's goal in this was to keep the wool pulled over…

Not just Facebook but also Google. They do the same thing and they monopolized the internet.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#97

Post by boobsbr »

pwinnski wrote: post #92
redleggedfrog wrote: post #73

Okay, I guess I'm the contrarian here, but I'm not sure why any of this is surprising, or even a problem. Facebook users signed up for a free service that allows them to communicate with other people in an enjoyable manner. Facebook even went so far as to make it so enjoyable it's addictive. Free online crack. Facebook users, you're having your fun. What would you expect Facebook to do to finance all this? They're se…

So-called "shadow profiles" are built for people who are not even Facebook users. I do not have a Facebook account, and yet my friends and family members have been prompted to tag photos of me with my name. I did not sign up for a free service. I am not a Facebook user, I'm not "having my fun." And yet Facebook has collected enough of a profile on me to recognize my face in photos and know who my friends and family a…

Is it a crime to hire a PI to tail someone and log their every move?

Online tracking is basically the same thing.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#98

Post by storgendibal »

gringoDan wrote: post #34
justinzollars wrote: post #4

I think the questions were also horrible. Watching two days of testimony it seemed only Congresswoman Dingell from Michigan had any grasp of how tracking technology works. My big takeaway is that we need more engineers in congress.

One of my biggest issues with the current political system is that - with few exceptions - only lawyers go into politics. This means that you have people who have never taken Econ 101 setting fiscal policy, who don't understand technology trying to regulate tech companies, etc. I'm not sure what the solution here is, but I think we're asking for trouble when our elected representatives lack a basic comprehension of t…

This is a good point. At the same time, some of the attorneys I've worked with in tech are wicked smart. It would definitely be good for a more representative set of people to represent citizens in congress (imagine that!), but I think the existing people are smart enough to learn what they need to about the areas that they legislate. The question is whether they take the time to learn, which it looks like they don't.

EDIT: I should clarify that I mean the attorneys I've worked with are smart enough and motivated enough to learn about technical / engineering issues, despite not being engineers.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#99

Post by bogomipz »

fixermark wrote: post #14

""" Zuckerberg reluctantly acknowledged that Facebook gathers information on people who aren't signed up for Facebook for what he said were "security purposes." """ That's a pretty disingenuous way to phrase Zuckerberg's response to a question of whether Facebook uses cookie tracking for logged-out users. Which of course it does, and it's of course used for security purposes; one has to be able to unify sessions from…

>"That's a pretty disingenuous way to phrase Zuckerberg's response to a question of whether Facebook uses cookie tracking for logged-out users."

Except it wasn't a response to a "to a question of whether Facebook uses cookie tracking for logged-out users." It was a response to the question of:

"Facebook has detailed profiles on people who have never signed up for facebook, yes or no?"

See the video here:

https://mashable.com/2018/04/11/zuckerberg-testimony-shadow-...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Admit How Facebook Works

#100

Post by dboreham »

thisisit wrote: post #13
justinzollars wrote: post #4

I think the questions were also horrible. Watching two days of testimony it seemed only Congresswoman Dingell from Michigan had any grasp of how tracking technology works. My big takeaway is that we need more engineers in congress.

Or maybe more engineers becoming aides or staff to these politicians?

I suspect the problem runs deeper than this. There is no shortage of clueful people willing to advise senators for free (I have personally offered to do so, for example). Also I spent 1/2 day in the company of a staffer for one of our senators last year. Based on that experience they are not really short of technology savvy. Somehow their business model depends on appearing to not understand technology.
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