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Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#71

Post by PeterisP »

DSingularity wrote: post #45
discordance wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully some GDPR stick will help fix this

GDPR, the tool to prevent the disruption of Facebook from ever being economically viable! Yay. Let’s celebrate.

If disruption of Facebook is economically viable because the new whatever-book is doing the same things to user privacy, then that's not useful anyway. It's not that important who is the largest provider, as long as the incentives are the way they are now, the largest provider will be doing harmful things. We need to establish appropriate incentives and boundaries (of which GDPR isn't perfect but certainly in the right direction) so that no matter if it's Facebook or someone else, their behavior is one that we can live with.

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#72

Post by mamon »

obelix_ wrote: post #12
jumelles wrote: post #6

Here we go again... it feel like there's no way to break out of this cycle where companies routinely go unpunished for bad behavior. Facebook, Equifax, Wells Fargo...

China just executes the CEO. Mindless ambition. Mindless consequences.

So China has redefined CEO to mean: "Chief Executable Officer" :)

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#75

Post by mtgx »

knoepfle wrote: post #5

What is this describing? First-party apps with Facebook integration and/or OS features connecting to Facebook? The leakage of Facebook information onto MS/Apple/Blackberry servers would be concerning, but having Microsoft software connect to Facebook on a user's device sounds harmless (to the extent we trust MS/Apple/Blackberry software to not leak information so accessed). Right now I'm giving Apple similar access t…

Why would it be "harmless" if you weren't even aware it was happening, let alone give you consent?

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#76

Post by evincarofautumn »

hublott wrote: post #42

Response from FB: "Why We Disagree with the NYT" https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/why-we-disagree-with-th...

The NYT article is definitely overblown. It’s popular to hate on Facebook about privacy, and yeah, they’ve made mistakes in the past, but that’s largely because they’re just engineers trying their best to do the right thing. IMO they need more non-engineer types to inform them what “the right thing” actually is, when it doesn’t align with the typical attitude of “Oh, there’s a technical solution to this problem!”

> the BlackBerry app had access to all of the reporter’s Facebook friends and, for most of them, returned information such as user ID, birthday, work and education history and whether they were currently online.

User ID and birthday are both public information, and people typically share work and education history as public (or at least “networks” thereof, for finding friends). AFAIK online status is the only thing that’s usually friends-only, but perfectly reasonable to share with a device messaging app.

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#77

Post by mtgx »

sigmar wrote: post #17

>The company continued to build new private APIs for device makers through 2014, spreading user data through tens of millions of mobile devices, game consoles, televisions and other systems outside Facebook’s direct control. So Facebook says "we don't sell data," but they are giving manufacturers access to data in exchange for being integrated/pre-installed on the device. How is that not "selling" data? Just because…

IT's been obvious they do exactly that since the Zuckerberg hearings. But all of the politicians asking him questions seem to have missed that subtlety and kept asking about "selling data".

Facebook hardly sells any data. It just shares it for free with a ton of partners (and without freely-given user consent).

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#78

Post by obelix_ »

mamon wrote: post #72
obelix_ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China just executes the CEO. Mindless ambition. Mindless consequences.

So China has redefined CEO to mean: "Chief Executable Officer" :)

That is pretty good :) I can't find it right now, but some very similar phrase was used after the Deep Water Horizon explosion and oil spill, which caused the BP CEO to get fired, to describe the role of the leader in such situations.

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#79

Post by kofejnik »

knoepfle wrote: post #5

What is this describing? First-party apps with Facebook integration and/or OS features connecting to Facebook? The leakage of Facebook information onto MS/Apple/Blackberry servers would be concerning, but having Microsoft software connect to Facebook on a user's device sounds harmless (to the extent we trust MS/Apple/Blackberry software to not leak information so accessed). Right now I'm giving Apple similar access t…

For one, Facebook obviously had access to contacts and photos, without any way for user to disallow it.

Re: Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

#80

Post by zerostar07 »

At which point can facebook start suing around for [slander/damages]? It's not like they did all this in secrecy , they were quite open about their platform with developers (which has helped developers warm up to a company that basically sells gossip). They never will of course, because they 'd be retroactively judged with today's standards. E.g. I find their unfair advantaging of the Obama campaigns a lot more troubling than this.
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