Live data from Hacker News

Facebook's seized files published by MPs

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 507 posts

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#61
post #22
post #7

> Facebook used data provided by the Israeli analytics firm Onavo to determine which other mobile apps were being downloaded and used by the public. It then used this knowledge to decide which apps to acquire or otherwise treat as a threat > there was evidence that Facebook's refusal to share data with some apps caused them to fail Stuff like this should trigger the EU Commissioner for Competition to withdraw the aut…

A world in which companies are not allowed to selectively withhold proprietary data from some competitors, and form partnerships with others, is a world that suboptimally promotes innovation and economic growth.

Economic growth is overrated when it only goes to 1% of people.

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#62
post #7

> Facebook used data provided by the Israeli analytics firm Onavo to determine which other mobile apps were being downloaded and used by the public. It then used this knowledge to decide which apps to acquire or otherwise treat as a threat > there was evidence that Facebook's refusal to share data with some apps caused them to fail Stuff like this should trigger the EU Commissioner for Competition to withdraw the aut…

> Facebook's refusal to share data with some apps caused them to fail It's not clear what this means. Is it an API that returns '403 forbideen' or more of a case of lack of competitive information

https://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/facebook-cuts-off-acce...

> Yes, within a day of Vine’s launch, Facebook pulled the ability for Vine users to find Facebook friends who were also using the new app.

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#63
post #28

Thx for link. Everytime i read the word ‘whitelist’, i think, havn’t they caught up with the times, thats racist, whitelist. Why does white suggest good?

There's plenty of similar cases in IT. Some people find Master/Slave offensive - though I personally believe this is a 'looking for problems'-kind of thing.

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#64
post #32

Good for them, thank you! The sooner facebook is controlled and broken up into pieces, the better. They are a massive net negative on civilization. Do you work at Facebook? Shame on you.

Let's not shame workers at facebook. If you do you have to shame anyone who works at any big tech form for the decisions of the leaders. Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle included.

> If you do you have to shame anyone who works at any big tech form for the decisions of the leaders. Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle included.

And? If you're not proud of the impact your work is having on the world, than you shouldn't be doing it. You only have one life. Why waste it on making the world a worse place?

I had an easy and well paying job working on an IT project at DHS. I left after the child separation thing started, even though I wasn't working on anything related to that. It just disgusted me to go to work every day.

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#65

Here is a direct link to the files themselves: https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/cultu...

holy smokes...

>Michael LeBeau – ‘He guys, as you know all the growth team is planning on shipping a permissions update on Android at the end of this month. They are going to include the ‘read call log’ permission, which will trigger the Android permissions dialog on update, requiring users to accept the update. They will then provide an in app opt in NUX for a feature that lets you continuously upload your SMS and call log history to Facebook to be used for improving things like PYMK, coefficient calculation, feed ranking etc. This is a pretty high risk thing to do from a PR perspective but it appears that the growth team will charge ahead and do it.’

>Yul Kwon - ‘The Growth team is now exploring a path where we only request Read Call Log permission, and hold off on requesting any other permissions for now. ‘Based on their initial testing, it seems this would allow us to upgrade users without subjecting them to an Android permissions dialog at all.

This is huge, doesn't this make google guilty as well?

>‘It would still be a breaking change, so users would have to click to upgrade, but no permissions dialog screen.

EDIT: formatting

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#66

Good for them, thank you! The sooner facebook is controlled and broken up into pieces, the better. They are a massive net negative on civilization. Do you work at Facebook? Shame on you.

I don't see anything shocking or surprising here, that said I'm glad I don't have shares in facebook Here's one finding > Facebook used Onavo to conduct global surveys of the usage of mobile apps by customers, > and apparently without their knowledge. They used this data to assess not just how many > people had downloaded apps, but how often they used them. This knowledge helped them to > decide which companies to ac…

Hmm, looking at this with a glance, I am surprised the coverage around Onavo hasn't been bigger.

If I am following this correctly, it would be similar to Google creating a Firefox extension to enable "extra privacy," but secretly pumping the data back to Google? Or if Windows Defender sent all your web usage data and keystrokes to Microsoft?

I'm not sure how this doesn't fit the definition of Spyware?

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#67
post #7

> Facebook used data provided by the Israeli analytics firm Onavo to determine which other mobile apps were being downloaded and used by the public. It then used this knowledge to decide which apps to acquire or otherwise treat as a threat > there was evidence that Facebook's refusal to share data with some apps caused them to fail Stuff like this should trigger the EU Commissioner for Competition to withdraw the aut…

I have no particular love for FB or what they've done with data, but these I don't understand why either of those points is particularly controversial or even unusual. > Facebook used data provided by the Israeli analytics firm Onavo to determine which other mobile apps were being downloaded and used by the public. It then used this knowledge to decide which apps to acquire or otherwise treat as a threat Checking out…

> Sharing or not sharing data with another app is likewise not an unusual decision. FB is not a public utility - they can not work with other apps for any reason, or no reason at all. And this is a particularly ironic thing to point out, considering that the main thrust is complaining that they _did_ share data with other apps. So it's bad if they do share data, but also bad if they don't?

To me, this would be Facebook taking advantage of their stronghold on the market to continue to dominate the market.

Let's remember this is not Facebook's data, this is their users' data. It should be up to the User who they can share their data with, but they weren't given the choice to use their data with an app because Facebook decided they didn't like the way the other business competes with them in some aspect or how they aren't making money out of the third party app. An example is Facebook won't grant Influencer Marketing Companies access to their API even though the user (The Influencer) wants them to have the data so they can get paid based on the views, shares, comments, and likes of the posts they've been contracted for. User has a legit desire to share that data to the point where they will take screenshots, GDPR deletions, etc to fulfil the need for that data to be shared. Facebook's reason for not allowing them access is simple, they don't make any money out of the deal.

So if they refuse to allow you to share your data with people you want to share it with, that is bad. Sharing your data with companies you don't want to share with is also bad.

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#68
post #28

Thx for link. Everytime i read the word ‘whitelist’, i think, havn’t they caught up with the times, thats racist, whitelist. Why does white suggest good?

>Thx for link. Everytime i read the word ‘whitelist’, i think, havn’t they caught up with the times, thats racist, whitelist. Why does white suggest good? I can’t tell if this is satire. Which means it’s either really good, or sad times we’re living in.

I could not agree more. Its scary this stuff is so common recently, much less here.

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#69

Good for them, thank you! The sooner facebook is controlled and broken up into pieces, the better. They are a massive net negative on civilization. Do you work at Facebook? Shame on you.

> Do you work at Facebook? Shame on you. Everyone needs to work somewhere, you know, and not everyone has much of a choice about where. No shame in putting food on the table for your family.

>No shame in putting food on the table for your family.

Balderdash. Don't construct situations where people just shrug their shoulders and go along with morally inequitable because they're getting paid for it.

Besides, no one's throwing up their hands and saying "Gosh, I really messed up this time! I guess the only options left are working at Facebook or sucking dick under a bridge!"

Re: Facebook's seized files published by MPs

#70

Good for them, thank you! The sooner facebook is controlled and broken up into pieces, the better. They are a massive net negative on civilization. Do you work at Facebook? Shame on you.

> Do you work at Facebook? Shame on you. Everyone needs to work somewhere, you know, and not everyone has much of a choice about where. No shame in putting food on the table for your family.

If you feed your family with your left hand, there is indeed shame.
Post reply on HN