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Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

nytimes.com

191–200 of 248 posts

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL, but grand juries do a lot of work before the charges are filled. For example, they check whether there's a probable cause for a search warrant.

Do you know how grand juries are selected? I find it weird that I've been selected for a trial jury a bunch of times but never a grand jury.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#192
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let's incriminate engineers for building a faulty airplane too.

But engineers (real engineers, not self-styled unregulated ones) are already liable for their negligence and failures.

The vast majority of engineers at Boeing and similar companies are not personally liable for failures; the company is. They are working under an industrial exemption.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#193

> F.T.C. officials, who spent the past year investigating whether Facebook violated the 2011 agreement, are now weighing the sharing deals as they negotiate a possible multibillion-dollar fine. That would be the largest such penalty ever imposed by the trade regulator. A multibillion dollar fine? That's great, but even greater would be to put Facebook's exces behind bars. A CEO shouldn't walk away with a stuffed bank…

> but even greater would be to put Facebook's exces behind bars. What is with this place wanting to throw everyone in prison? Is there some thrill you get from seeing executives in an orange jumper? Fines can be far more beneficial to society. Make them pay in a way that actually helps other people.

Fines can be far more beneficial to society.

It's not an either/or. You can be sentenced with both a fine and jail time. Plus, I feel like the goal here should be stopping illegal activity (should this investigation find something, of course), and I think jail time would be more of a deterrent than a fine. Plus, we already have a system in place for corporations to benefit society from the earnings society lets them make: taxes.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#194
post #189
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What specific charges can be filed against him? What laws have Facebook broken? I suspect FB have broken many laws but perhaps the country simply has inadequate consumer protection. Advocating for jail terms without specific charges is not the direction to go.

What laws have Facebook broken? The article very clearly states that there is a criminal investigation going on.

Right. So people in the thread advocating 3-5 years of prison for someone who hasn't even been charged with a crime is outrageous.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#195
post #49

Facebook is a criminal corp. And indeed when you are selling data to clients that resell or do with the data as they please (including mining them) they should be under criminal investigation. Thank God the FBI exists and counting for the day that criminal charges are brought against executives who broke the law.

Considering they are accused of broad criminal activity, your statement should be considered a valid expression of public opinion on the matter, and should not be downvoted.

First, the post is sensationalist populism that only serves to pull the conversation down and cause shouting matches.

Second, Facebook is not currently "accused of broad criminal activity". They are being investigated for breach of a consent decree, which may lead to criminal charges, which in turn may be broad.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#196

I was personally involved in a leadership role in one of these key strategic deals while at a major handset maker. To be clear, we built the 'Facebook experience' for our device because only we really could. During this era, APIs were a disaster of a mess, moreover, the special API that made the device so special was not available to the public. Ironically it was our internal APIs that were making the special sauce!…

I'm so glad you wrote this. It's mind-bogglingly stupid what people are saying about the nefarious purposes this stuff was put to when that's obviously so far from the case and EVERYBODY involved in working on this stuff 10 years ago understands it.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#197
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has always been the advertisers that are asking for the sort of tooling that can be taken advantage of during the election cycle. If you don’t think Russia should be able to manipulate the black voting populace then maybe it’s worth thinking about whether Unilever should be able to specifically target and market axe body spray in the same fashion. The tools only exist because advertisers are paying for them. Blami…

Martin Shkreli didn't play within the rules, which is why he's in prison today.

What he is in prison for is not related to what most people are mad at him for.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#198

> F.T.C. officials, who spent the past year investigating whether Facebook violated the 2011 agreement, are now weighing the sharing deals as they negotiate a possible multibillion-dollar fine. That would be the largest such penalty ever imposed by the trade regulator. A multibillion dollar fine? That's great, but even greater would be to put Facebook's exces behind bars. A CEO shouldn't walk away with a stuffed bank…

> but even greater would be to put Facebook's exces behind bars. What is with this place wanting to throw everyone in prison? Is there some thrill you get from seeing executives in an orange jumper? Fines can be far more beneficial to society. Make them pay in a way that actually helps other people.

[flagged]

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there're such crimes, but there aren't so many of them.

There are lots of crimes that require a mental state less than intent (either recklessness or criminal negligence, mostly, though there are some strict liability crimes, and the weird case of “malice aforethought” for common law murder which is narrower than recklessness but just slightly broader than only intent.)

Recklessness and negligence require some understanding of what you are doing and that it's wrong. So, it's really hard to commit them by mistake.

Re: Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation

#200

> F.T.C. officials, who spent the past year investigating whether Facebook violated the 2011 agreement, are now weighing the sharing deals as they negotiate a possible multibillion-dollar fine. That would be the largest such penalty ever imposed by the trade regulator. A multibillion dollar fine? That's great, but even greater would be to put Facebook's exces behind bars. A CEO shouldn't walk away with a stuffed bank…

> but even greater would be to put Facebook's exces behind bars. What is with this place wanting to throw everyone in prison? Is there some thrill you get from seeing executives in an orange jumper? Fines can be far more beneficial to society. Make them pay in a way that actually helps other people.

Fines simplify criminal behavior down to a "business decision." Is the extra revenue to be made minus the fine still profitable? If so, it makes sense to break the law. Often it is, because fines don't tend to scale with the size of the company they're levied against.

Start putting executives in jail, and behavior will actually change. Isn't that the desired goal?

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