Please - if there're no aliens stop up-voting this shit you Nintendo fanbois.
Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
91–100 of 168 posts
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#92What a surprise! Microsoft villianised over the decades seems to be better than Google and Facebook. This brings us to the question. Have you paid XX money for a service that doesn’t show ads. Are you happy with it?
Still I think there's a difference in how deep the intrusion goes. I can just not use Google (except it's harder on stock Android phones), but I can definitely go without Facebook by just not using it. Having my own Operating System to spy on me makes me a victim whatever I do. I can't really escape from that.
Just use an operating system that doesn't track you? There are plenty out there.
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#93God, I wish someone added Quora to that list. After you read the first article, Quora masks all its content and forces you down the throat to sign up or sign in, pretending to be part of an age verification process (irrespective of the topic).
I remember when this happened - I was so pissed off that I made an add-on called "fuck quora" that will simply reset their cookies to have unlimited reading possible without signing in. Will be happy to open source if the need be :)
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the most ridiculous comment I've seen all month. I don't know if it's due to ignorance or some PR department in Redmond. Microsoft is the worst by far when it comes to privacy violations and dark patterns. And it's obvious to anyone who's ever heard about Windows 10 in the news over the past few years. But let me break it down anyway. First of all, Windows 10 is constantly stealing your personal info. To an e…
It would be fair to get rid of Windows from all EU public authorities, schools, etc. I really don't understand why is it still not done after so many years?
My guess would be lobbying.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/end-of-an-open-source-e...
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
By staying at Facebook your friends are explicitly supporting these and other scummy actions. They have decided to hold their noses and prioritise themselves over humanity. Think less of them.
This is a totally inappropriate thing to ask of anyone. Please rethink your view on life. Edit: Also, that's not what "explicitly" means. I think you meant "implicitly".
> This is a totally inappropriate thing to ask of anyone. Please rethink your view on life.
No, working at Facebook is the modern day corporate equivalent of the banality of evil.
Unless you genuinely think Facebook is doing good, take some fucking responsibility and rethink _your_ view on life.
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#96Page 14: [edit: number corrected, thanks] > As the screenshots below illustrate, the Facebook GDPR popup requires users to go into “Manage data settings” to turn off ads based on data from third parties. If the user simply clicks “Accept and continue”, the setting is automatically turned on. This is not privacy by default. Beautiful! A minimal demonstration of a clear violation of the principal of data protection by…
That flow was really scummy. I remember going through it. The entry point was an email claiming you have to "read and accept the updated policies in order to continue using the site". And the first thing you're presented with was that two-choice "Manage data settings" / "Accept and continue", implying for the user who is less than extremely careful that if you don't "Accept and continue", you won't be able to use the…
Facebook will never care about Privacy. People like Zuckerberg are scum, and deserve jail. As an individual, I really do NOT want to live in the same society as this kind of person.
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#97God, I wish someone added Quora to that list. After you read the first article, Quora masks all its content and forces you down the throat to sign up or sign in, pretending to be part of an age verification process (irrespective of the topic). I remember when this happened - I was so pissed off that I made an add-on called "fuck quora" that will simply reset their cookies to have unlimited reading possible without si…
Please do! Though wouldn't it work to just never accept the cookie at all?
I got very pissed off at Quora for the same reason, and made an account just to read (knowing full well they'd use it for profiling).
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
some people work for charities, some people work for facebook. the employees make the company, and are complicit if they don’t react harshly to decisions made by their board like google employees did... if nobody wants to support the scummy tactics that “the company” is pushing, it won’t get done. sometimes you need to have a spine to get anything changed otherwise we are just heading for a blade runner distopia, and…
I don't think it's crazy either, I just think it's totally inappropriate to tell people to think less of their friends when they don't have the full context. There's a lot of FB employees on HN and I wager a lot of them know how scummy their employer is. Yes, many are staying for the paycheck (and because leaving a job isn't an easy thing for everyone), but I know several who are staying because they feel that their…
> but I know several who are staying because they feel that their position is where they can produce the most good for the world
Do you think Facebook is a net positive for the world? Borderline, or overwhelmingly?
To be clear, I'm not asking whether some people get net benefit out of it, I'm talking about the net overall effect on society and the individuals within it.
Personally, I believe it is causing tremendous psychological damage, and that anyone that works there is a contributor to that end.
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
There's a difference between working at Facebook actively being involved in the creation of such scummy designs, dark patterns, etc; and merely working on one of its open source libraries. Facebook does do some good and comparing what they're doing to war crimes ... does that really help?
I think that's a distinction without a difference. Facebook doesn't have engineers working on open source libraries because they want to do good in the world, and those other people working on scummy designs and dark patterns just didn't get the memo. They do open source work because:
* The projects directly help their business operations; those engineers might be doing the same work, anyway, even if Facebook were zealously closed source.
* Open source work gives the company image a boost in the minds of potential employees. This expands the labor pool, reducing the wages FB needs to pay, and helps give FB access to talent it otherwise simply could not have. In this case, hiring engineers to work on open source projects is little more than a PR campaign targeted at people like you and me--and it's clearly working on you.
The "good deeds" of their open source work are entirely accidental; the whole point of employing engineers to work on open source libraries is to help their business, which is inherently exploitative.
I agree with lancewiggs: by working at Facebook, your friends are aiding and abetting one of the most unethical and socially-dangerous companies in modern times. Think less of them.
Re: Norwegian Consumer Council report on how tech companies use dark patterns [pdf]
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
some people work for charities, some people work for facebook. the employees make the company, and are complicit if they don’t react harshly to decisions made by their board like google employees did... if nobody wants to support the scummy tactics that “the company” is pushing, it won’t get done. sometimes you need to have a spine to get anything changed otherwise we are just heading for a blade runner distopia, and…
I don't think it's crazy either, I just think it's totally inappropriate to tell people to think less of their friends when they don't have the full context. There's a lot of FB employees on HN and I wager a lot of them know how scummy their employer is. Yes, many are staying for the paycheck (and because leaving a job isn't an easy thing for everyone), but I know several who are staying because they feel that their…
No, they are not producing any kind of good for the world, never mind "the most".
For the users, Facebook is just a means of communication, among many others. If it disappeared tomorrow 10 different platforms would replace it and the level of goodness in the world might even increase.
Doing good is probably the lamest, least truthful excuse for working at Facebook, goes to show how self-deluded people can be.