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Why We Disagree with The New York Times

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Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#111
post #86

I had a Windows phone that used these API's. When Windows Phone 7 came out, Facebook didn't create the Facebook App for that OS, Microsoft did. It looked like what you expected Facebook to have built and it worked like the Facebook App that other platforms had. The whole purpose of the API agreement with Microsoft was to guarantee that the Facebook App they wrote would still work years down the road. Microsoft did no…

The NYT article says that Facebook told them that some partners stored that data on their servers. Do you have a good citation that this does not refer to these device integrations, given you so strongly claim it doesn't? (It's very well possible that it's a misleading quote by the NYT, or a misunderstanding, but I don't see a clear answer in any of what we know) That's from my perspective the critical point here.

Surely that applies to every API in existence, for example, on the HTTP API I'm using right now to post this comment, I know that Mozilla stores some of my data on their servers (through FF Sync), and HN know that's possible, but it's not up to HN to ensure Mozilla aren't taking that data and selling it elsewhere.

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is it different from any other legal agreements? Suppose I tell you a secret. You promise only to share it with others who will keep it a secret. You share my secret with Bob. Bob promises he won't share my secret. Bob shares my secret. You broke your promise. You tried not to break it. But break it you did.

> You broke your promise. Then you face the legal consequences for doing so. Thats what prevents people from breaking them in first place. Unless you are arguing that all legal contracts are useless because they can be broken. I am not asking about the logistics of leaking. Yes ofcourse its physically possible, I am asking why the consequences of breaking a contract don't matter in this specific case.

Even if they broke their promise (EULA), what remedy does that EULA provide for FB breaking their promise? What legal consequence is there?

The burden is on the plaintiff to prove FB violated the agreement, that violation caused damage, and the value of that damage. The EULA doesn't say the user gets a pay out if FB admits (or is obviously caught) non-compliance with the agreement.

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#113

It reads like a long defensive argument, "how else did you expect us to make huge sums of money"? It is exactly as tone-deaf and legalese as you would expect. There is no new information here; Facebook says legal contracts actually protect your data so it can't go anywhere, "just trust us", etc. > These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than…

> Facebook has acted on this and intentionally made hundreds of thousands of people fall into a depression, just to see if they could, and then they bragged about it. That's interesting. Do you have a link to source?

I was banned from HN some time after I made that post (for something else) and should not be posting any more (sorry mods, I'll stop). This will be my final post.

Here's a news article about it (probably).

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/02/facebook-...

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#114
post #54

It seems they don't really disagree but are simply saying, its not as bad as you think. Is there anything factually incorrect in the New York Times reporting?

It's one of those articles that's technically true-ish so long as you redefine words to mean something very different from what people would expect them to, but is written in a way designed to misinform basically everyone who reads it. For example, when they say "Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends", they mean Facebook let them write software that could be run by their users and give…

> It makes it sound like Facebook gave a big fat chunk of user data to device makers as a bribe to include Facebook on their devices, when in reality we're talking about giving their software the access it needs in order to actually provide access to Facebook in the first place.

These two things are not mutually exclusive. They effectively did both, even if the intention is unclear. You must have forgotten how bundled apps on OEM Windows worked.

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#115
post #105
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Signed agreements do not prevent your information from being used in other ways. That's insane, literally. The real insanity is with the users. FB did the most obvious thing. The user-base somehow magically thought they were providing all those free services because they were nice guys. It was obvious to anyone since the beginning that FB was a clearinghouse for private data trading. How else could the model remotel…

> It was obvious to anyone since the beginning that FB was a clearinghouse for private data trading. I tire of this argument that users should obviously know they are trading their personal information in return for access to a service. They don't know this. It's obvious in a conversation with any (even lightly) tech-illiterate person that nothing about how the modern internet economy works is obvious. Think back to…

Exactly that.

I consider myself relatively tech savvy, but when - thanks to the GDPR - that hive of scum and tracking that underpins the modern internet was revealed I was really shocked.

Clicking one of those "manage your cookies" links is a truly enlightening experience.

How should Average Q User even begin to grasp the implications of this fucking datasucking hydra?

I was glad having "deleted" my Facebook account some 4 years ago.

Man, I didn't no 10% of the shit that's really going on.

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#116
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Signed agreements do not prevent your information from being used in other ways. Why is this, though? How is it different from any other legal agreements?

I think the argument is that saying "I promise not to murder someone" does not in any way prevent said party turning around and murdering someone - signing a contract does not prevent these companies from violating the terms of the contract.

If data isn't protected unless it's physically impossible for privileged persons to access it, then I'm afraid essentially no data is protected.

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#117

> It’s hard to remember now but back then there were no app stores. Bunch of nonsense. Of course there were.

What they should have said was, "Remember when our official app was garbage and you needed to rely on 3rd party apps to have a passable mobile FB experience?"

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#119

It reads like a long defensive argument, "how else did you expect us to make huge sums of money"? It is exactly as tone-deaf and legalese as you would expect. There is no new information here; Facebook says legal contracts actually protect your data so it can't go anywhere, "just trust us", etc. > These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than…

> Facebook has acted on this and intentionally made hundreds of thousands of people fall into a depression, just to see if they could, and then they bragged about it. That's interesting. Do you have a link to source?

https://www.google.com/search?q=facebook+psychological+exper...

Re: Why We Disagree with The New York Times

#120
post #97

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that this all comes down to one basic question: Does a Facebook-approved "mobile experience" count as an official FB app or a third-party app? It seems to me that the FB post is trying to frame it as the former, and everyone who's upset is trying to frame it as the latter. Is that what this entire disagreement is about? Because if it is, maybe it would help if we just foc…

Did you consent to anything that Facebook approves when you consented to using Facebook? Did you consent to the transitive property?

How does Facebook approving of some obvious third party make the third party not a third party? Approval and third party status are orthogonal.

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