Behind the Messy, Expensive Split Between Facebook and WhatsApp’s Founders

Post by Kalium » Tue, Jun 05, 2018, 7:25 PM UTC

nougatbyte wrote: post #200

Kalium wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decentralized social network, built on peer-to-peer connections, allowing people to connect with one another without being intermediated and monetized by some central party? Sounds idyllic! Is it possible that perhaps this has been considered before, and perhaps even implemented?

Isnt this what diaspora and mastodon are doing?

Post by tedunangst » Tue, Jun 05, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #162

satsuma wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wouldn't using facebook be a hipaa violation in and of itself? doesn't information like that need to be contained to pre-approved, secure methods?

IANAL, but there is a legal concept of ‘Joint And Several Liability’ — it might be the case that Facebook and the doctor were in violation. Or it might have been just the doctor until someone complained and from that point on just the fact that Facebook knew about it might make them suddenly and automatically liable for further bad behaviour.

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 05, 2018, 7:38 PM UTC

thieving_magpie wrote: post #196

ttul wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never understood why North American bathroom stalls don’t just go to the floor. Jesus Christ how much would it really cost to enable some damn privacy.

I'm torn on this one. One the one hand I would love that extra privacy. On the other, I really value knowing if someone is in the stall next to me and how many people are in the bathroom. If the stalls extend to the ground how am I supposed to scan for legs? Someone could be hiding in there waiting to frighten me! I cannot use the bathroom until everyone has left it. Just how am I supposed to verify that some quick-f…

Post by danpalmer » Tue, Jun 05, 2018, 7:38 PM UTC

cma wrote: post #64

rm999 wrote: post #57

I've had a tremendous amount of respect for Mark Zuckerberg as a leader, and have gone out of my way to defend him in the past ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17128369 ). I always envisioned whatsapp as a defensive purchase that would stay true to its initial vision (perhaps being used to prop up their other products in an unintrusive manner). But this article makes me realize Mark is s a one-trick advertising…

Imagine how useful it would be if when there is a notification about a friend on Facebook, you could peek it by swiping on the notification in the android drawer like you can with texts, without entering the Facebook app. Nope. Engineers are dedicated there to increasing other things than the utility of the app. Interests aren't aligned with the users. Same with removing chronological feeds. Turn things more and more…

Post by reaperducer » Tue, Jun 05, 2018, 7:44 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #89

mycorrhizal wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm just not creative enough, but what is a better alternative? Let's say you have a subscriber model, but than what kind of world will it be where only the wealthy have access to these communication technologies and access to social information. Or you have a hybrid ad model with the ability to opt out by paying some fee. Than what kind of world will that be when privacy is a luxury item limited to how much yo…

In the past the function of the "phone company" was a paid for service which provided for your communication needs. You didn't have to listen to ads before you could talk to your friends but you did occasionally get unwanted calls. This medium reached people rich and poor, all around the world. The challenge here is greed. One of the interesting topics in economics is the ability to subvert the supply-demand curve by…