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Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#391

Post by dylan604 »

dkrich wrote: post #377
dylan604 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would they do this if you never visit the site or download the app? Your friends install the app on their device. They provide access to their contacts. FB slurps in all of that data. For every person in the user's contacts, FB compares that info to their records. They update connections where found, and start new records when not found. So they now know your name/email/phone number/physical address info depend…

That’s not tracking web activity though. Also, why is google given a pass here? They use info gathered from my emails all over the place and that surely has more sensitive data than my Facebook account. What about amazon who has been reported to sell your purchasing data without your explicit consent to advertisers?

Granted, they aren't tracking your browser history, yet, in the manner I described. However, have you ever been to FB from a link? If so, you now have an FB cookie. Ever been to a website that has the FB like button, same thing. It's kind of like an STD. You don't know you have it, but it will follow everywhere. You can find out you have it, and try to take the appropriate actions, it'll just keep popping back up later in life. Now, they can track you anonymously. Whether they know it is you and link it to the shadow account they have or not, they still have data from a real person they can monetize. All without you having an account.

I'm definitely not giving Google a pass. I just didn't mention them ;-) Google Analytics, Fonts, whatever are just as bad, to me. I as an unsuspecting web user have my browser tracked from web developers using some free tools. I have no idea that it is occurring as a viewer. If a website puts in FB's like buttons, it is visible to me, and being in the know, I understand the repercussions of that site's decision. GA, Fonts, etc, are completely hidden from view. This is why I've used NoScript/Ghostery/etc throughout the years. It started with ads, but now I'm more concerned about these types of scripts.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#392

Post by pq0ak2nnd »

Xyik wrote: post #281

Its sad that everytime there is a post about Facebook the comments are extremely toxic and negative, and don't really even discuss the article itself. I would argue that 80% of all tech companies are doing close to 0 in making the world a 'better place'.

"I would argue that 80% of all tech companies are doing close to 0 in making the world a 'better place'."

I can only speak for the tech co I worked for: Intel, for 23 years. Three sabbaticals, lots of worthless options, and 6 years without a raise that led to a class-action lawsuit.

Intel likes to circle-jerk about how they are making the world a better place. But it is a heavily fallacious argument. It's like a hammer company saying they provide shelter to billions. Upper management gets all lubed up at their BUMs (business update meetings) telling everyone how the next generation core with a 5% performance increase somehow makes the world magic. Intel now is just fighting off competition and praying for inertia and no disruptive tech.

It was nauseating. I finally had to leave.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#394

Post by Bhilai »

subcosmos wrote: post #255
pdeuchler wrote: post #127

Said this yesterday in the other Facebook thread, and I'll say it again. Working for Facebook is a morally bankrupt position. If you are an engineer you have plenty of job opportunities available to you and there is no excuse for you to continue contributing your labor and time to a wholly malignant organization. At a certain point one has to ask how we as an industry will start dealing with those who continue to tak…

I've got several infosec friends at Facebook right now, all new hires, trying to preserve our democracy from attacks. I don't consider them morally bankrupt at all.

Did they just found their moral compass after 2016 or were they selectively applying morality when their platform being abused to spread misinformation in 2016 elections. Or when Facebook could not curb hate speech in Myanmar that had direct impact on thousands of lives. Or when Facebook ran mood manipulation experiments... or when Facebook decided to use 2FA type security features to show ads to users ?

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#395

Post by mmaunder »

pdeuchler wrote: post #127

Said this yesterday in the other Facebook thread, and I'll say it again. Working for Facebook is a morally bankrupt position. If you are an engineer you have plenty of job opportunities available to you and there is no excuse for you to continue contributing your labor and time to a wholly malignant organization. At a certain point one has to ask how we as an industry will start dealing with those who continue to tak…

Repent ye sinner and come join us in cybersecurity. ;-)

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#396

Post by rsp1984 »

naravara wrote: post #352
chronid wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is working at Google, Amazon and probably 90% of the big corps of the world in many sectors - from oil to finance to pharmaceutical to telecommunications and so on. And we can include the government. If you're a subcontrator or sold in body rental (modern IT slavery) you're also in the same position as an employee, so you're enabling their evils. Also, if one of those companies is a client of your company you're a…

> So is working at Google, Amazon and probably 90% of the big corps of the world in many sectors While Google and Amazon both have their ethical problems and serious anti-trust issues, Facebook is in a league of its own. The complete, cavalier disregard for the consequences of its own actions as long as they get theirs is utterly unconscionable. Unlike Google or Amazon, they add nothing of real value to society to ba…

While Google and Amazon both have their ethical problems and serious anti-trust issues, Facebook is in a league of its own.

Maybe, but at least Facebook doesn't actively try to manipulate you into believing that they're the "good guys" and "not evil". That's why, after all, my level of respect for FB is still a lot higher than for Google.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#397

Post by pq0ak2nnd »

tmh79 wrote: post #44
dawhizkid wrote: post #9

Is it wrong to be glad FB's reputation has tarnished (and stock price sideways) over the past year or so? For so long they've monopolized the talent pool in the Bay Area. If more people decide 1) they don't want to work at FB and 2) FB employees are itching to leave then I see any stain on FB's employment brand as a net positive to the greater tech + startup ecosystem.

they havent monopolized talent, they pay for talent. Facebook paying high salaries has increased all of our pay, equity etc, whether you work there or not. The only thing this may be bad for is founders who are in a zero sum competition with FB for talent and now need to spend more money and equity to get it.

Wasn't Facebook part of the class action lawsuit that sought to supress wages and colluded in anti-poaching between Intel, Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe?

They may pay more, but they collude to make sure people couldn't leave without going far outside the bay. That's a monopolistic trait.

I agree they weren't putting a gun to people's heads but they were making the environment less available.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#398

Post by DSingularity »

chronid wrote: post #321
pslam wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They're all like this so it's impossible to do good" is an even more morally bankrupt position. It rejects personal responsibility and agency, places you as the victim, and allows you to continue to be a bad actor in the world. You should change this.

It's not impossible to do good, that's not what I'm claiming at all, and that's why the last line is there. I'm pretty sure you can do good even within facebook, doing your utmost to keep the company accountable (from my experience in another big corp, we don't see 1% of what's happening inside it, and how many people are facepalming - and we'll never know if many things were just humans being stupid or actual calcul…

Why are you so invested in the continuity of facebook?

Its like, "Doctor, why dont we just apply pressure on the tumor until it starts to grow at more reasonable rates!".

No. When you find cancer, you try to eliminate it.

Facebook is exactly this -- cancer. They have been aggressively monopolizing software for socializing so that they can arrive to the dominant position they are in now.

Until Facebook becomes more transparent w.r.t how they use the user data and until Facebook gives users autonomy -- they need to be regulated. We need to define constraints regarding how they present and manipulate user data and interactions.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#400

Post by blueprint »

rsp1984 wrote: post #396
naravara wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So is working at Google, Amazon and probably 90% of the big corps of the world in many sectors While Google and Amazon both have their ethical problems and serious anti-trust issues, Facebook is in a league of its own. The complete, cavalier disregard for the consequences of its own actions as long as they get theirs is utterly unconscionable. Unlike Google or Amazon, they add nothing of real value to society to ba…

While Google and Amazon both have their ethical problems and serious anti-trust issues, Facebook is in a league of its own. Maybe, but at least Facebook doesn't actively try to manipulate you into believing that they're the "good guys" and "not evil". That's why, after all, my level of respect for FB is still a lot higher than for Google.

> Maybe, but at least Facebook doesn't actively try to manipulate you into believing that they're the "good guys"

They don't? News to me.

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