Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 233 posts

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

#101

Post by laumars »

goalieca wrote: post #95
josefresco wrote: post #90

Facebook's old policy: Move fast and break things. Facebook's new policy: Move fast and deny everything. I'm only half-joking as I was surprised to see a Facebook rebuttal so quickly after an article like this. It seems a new strategy is in place, to not let these article fester. The problem is their response is devoid of actual content, or even actual rebuttals to the main points of the NYT article. Mainly that FB d…

> I'm only half-joking as I was surprised to see a Facebook rebuttal so quickly after an article like this >Market Cap: 561.740B https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FB:US Not surprised at all. Their business model depends on it on people uploading all of their personal information, thoughts, and feelings into the machine for analytical processing. If that trust/relationship dies, facebook dies with it.

I think the problem isn't so much a question of users trust in Facebook but rather users apathy with regards to their own privacy.

I think most people are aware enough that they are the product - I just think they don't really care all that much.

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

#102

Post by dhimes »

makomk wrote: post #100
dhimes wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends. We are not aware of any abuse by these companies. Parsing: friends’ information, like photos, I have a friend named Tammy. Tammy has photos. was only accessible on devices Someone/thing can access these photos when people made a dec…

So basically, your argument is that it's a dangerous attack on users' privacy for Facebook to allow users to view it through any app but their own, no matter how strict their contracts with the app developers, even if those developers are big companies like Microsoft with a lot to lose if they get caught doing something malicious? That it's an attack on gay rights for the Facebook walled garden to not be maximally st…

So basically your argument is that corporations should be trusted to self-police, because they know that bad things would happen if they get caught misbehaving? Like, Microsoft would be destroyed if they were found to be sending users' information to their servers and the average user didn't realize it?

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

#103

Post by [deleted] »

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #47

Most notable pieces I took from the article: 1) Facebook does not see third parties (such as BlackBerry) as “third parties.” 2) Facebook told Congress that it disabled third party access to user data, but in actuality did not. My own strong interjection: Facebook’s competitive advantage is its disregard for ethics. Somehow, Zuckerberg has been able to convince a lot of smart people to do unethical things and build un…

[deleted]

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

#104

Post by [deleted] »

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #47

Most notable pieces I took from the article: 1) Facebook does not see third parties (such as BlackBerry) as “third parties.” 2) Facebook told Congress that it disabled third party access to user data, but in actuality did not. My own strong interjection: Facebook’s competitive advantage is its disregard for ethics. Somehow, Zuckerberg has been able to convince a lot of smart people to do unethical things and build un…

[deleted]

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

#105

Post by sharemywin »

Angostura wrote: post #85
Vinnl wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that that quip usually refers to technical breakage, i.e. "it's better to ship more often and potentially break something that you then fix equally quickly, than spending thrice as much time analysing the problem to ensure there's no breakage in the first place". In other words, an entirely different meaning that what the grandparent meant when they said it was a great phrase for it.

The point that the poster was making was that while the phrase normally refers to its technical development philosophy, it seems that it also seems to reflect Facebook's attitude to other issues, such as regulation and privacy.

and uber and theranos. and probably others. airbnb had a lot of people that broke their leases and deed restrictions and local zoning laws.

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

#106

Post by pritambaral »

Iv wrote: post #14
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...

The problem is that "bad behavior" is a concept in flux. Facebook never hid what their business model was: sell your personal data to third parties. Only a few privacy activists were concerned. Others reactions went from "meh" to "it's actually smart!" (Remember when Obama's campaign was praised for its innovative approach profiling voters?). It took Cambridge Analytica for people to realize that they did not want th…

> Remember when Obama's campaign was praised for its innovative approach profiling voters?

Didn't Obama's campaign obtain users' consent before reading data?

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

#107

Post by 11eleven »

It seems a lot of these tech companies' competitive edge is to ignore regulations and rules (other examples: Uber, AirBNB) to grow a massive user base 100x faster, as they hold onto the "scrappy startup" image.

Once they have achieved their scale and network effects, they can just promise changes and do an apology tour in response to any regulatory or public backlash after it happens.

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

#108

Post by RyanZAG »

joesb wrote: post #84
dman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We are not aware of any abuse by these companies." - seems to be carefully worded. They do not make claims that there are no abuses, nor do they elaborate what checks/audits they have in place to detect abuse.

> They do not make claims that there are no abuses How can any honest people make such claim? It is the same as proving the non-existence of abuses.

I think point of above is more that it's in their interests to make sure they never do any checks, so no doubt they never do any.

They could probably catch 99% of abuses by just specifying it in the contract with the 3rd party, but they have't done that.

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

#109

Post by [deleted] »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #97

Having read (been warned) "Chaos Monkeys" and "Dragnet Nation" this comes as no surprise. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/dealbook/revi... https://www.npr.org/books/titles/281981849/dragnet-nation-a-... Editorial: It's startling to me how outfits as reputable as NYT can time and again parrot a narative (e.g., FB is better than sliced bread), and then after the fact report on something that was right un…

[deleted]

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

#110

Post by lasc4r »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #97

Having read (been warned) "Chaos Monkeys" and "Dragnet Nation" this comes as no surprise. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/business/dealbook/revi... https://www.npr.org/books/titles/281981849/dragnet-nation-a-... Editorial: It's startling to me how outfits as reputable as NYT can time and again parrot a narative (e.g., FB is better than sliced bread), and then after the fact report on something that was right un…

I've been reading studies about how facebook makes you depressed for years. Facebook may have had a golden age around the time of the Arab spring, is that the narrative you're referring to?
Post reply on HN