Doesn’t a lot of the social networks do this? Linkedin used to ask for email password all the time at one point, don’t know if they still do. Mint and others want passwords to bank accounts. I know we are a bit more sensitive I e about privacy but the general population is still not. I can understand Facebook needs to be extra cautious now but I guess they don’t care.
Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
261–270 of 377 posts
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
Easy. The engineers who built it care mostly about their total compensation and getting promoted. They therefore gleefully implement the product requirements. The PMs behind the idea also care about the above, except they are held to account by business objectives. By narrowly optimizing for a particular objective (reducing account fraud) in an unprincipled manner, they come up with an insane feature idea like this.…
I find it fascinating how big tech companies are intent on spending enormous sums of money seeking out the top tech talent in the world. Then rather than listen to them when they voice concerns they try to beat them down into submission. I get that if you worked at a company whose core mission is evil that you just have to accept that when you sign up, but there's no reason facebook needs to be make these active mora…
Part of getting all the top talent is that you can deny it to potential competitors.
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Rivals of Costco are angry with them for paying their employees more to get better motivated ones and less shrinkage - when if they think it is a waste of money be happy about it Do you have a citation for this claim?
I don't have a citation, but I have read repeatedly that stock analysts cite "overpaying" their workers as a place where they could cut costs and boost short term profits.
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Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#264I just don't understand how this gets implemented without someone speaking up and saying "hey, wait, isn't this an insane thing to do?". I would guess it's some combination of the complainers being ignored, and people at a higher level thinking "well we're doing this in a secure way, as long as the user trusts us, and why wouldn't they trust us, we're Facebook!".
LinkedIn has been doing this for years. It's the reason why I don't use it (and the spam they send is the reason why everybody hates them).
LinkedIn asks for email passwords? I knew they encouraged uploading your contacts, but didn't realize they wanted your email too. Guess I shouldn't be surprised. If their's any major social media platform less ethical than Facebook it's probably LinkedIn.
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#265I just don't understand how this gets implemented without someone speaking up and saying "hey, wait, isn't this an insane thing to do?". I would guess it's some combination of the complainers being ignored, and people at a higher level thinking "well we're doing this in a secure way, as long as the user trusts us, and why wouldn't they trust us, we're Facebook!".
Easy. The engineers who built it care mostly about their total compensation and getting promoted. They therefore gleefully implement the product requirements. The PMs behind the idea also care about the above, except they are held to account by business objectives. By narrowly optimizing for a particular objective (reducing account fraud) in an unprincipled manner, they come up with an insane feature idea like this.…
Is it possible the private sector (free market) is not as infallible as I was lead to believe?
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#266How did they make it work? Even given the passwords, how would they check robustly without tripping the email "unusual connection from IP x.x.x.x". Even if they have a few IP to make the checks, the mail server may notice that one IP is connecting to thousands of accounts.
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's exactly why they spend that much money. They know you can be submitted. They want tech talent. Not revolutionists. It's a rough world out there and it's better to get in line than lose your pot of gold. Doesn't make it right at all. But if you were that engineer, it's easier to say to yourself that you'll work your way up and change things the day you are in charge.
It's not revolutionary to say that asking for user passwords is stupid and dangerous. Nothing good will come from giving your email account password to Facebook (or any company). It's also a basic human rights violation. We all have a right to our passwords. We do not have to share them with organizations seeking to exploit us and our information. It's just basic common sense, not revolutionary.
It's "revolutionary" to try and defy your bosses who tell you what code to write. Get back to your keyboard, serf.
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Top tech talent generally have no idea how businesses make money. So of course you’d ignore them.
Where's the greater RoI in this case, what shady shit were they doing once they gained access to users email passwords??
Realistically, probably just logging into the email account once to prove ownership. Not dissimilar to how LDAP authentication works.
Is it a worst practice in our industry right now? Yep. Is it nefariously evil, probably not.
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it fascinating how big tech companies are intent on spending enormous sums of money seeking out the top tech talent in the world. Then rather than listen to them when they voice concerns they try to beat them down into submission. I get that if you worked at a company whose core mission is evil that you just have to accept that when you sign up, but there's no reason facebook needs to be make these active mora…
That's exactly why they spend that much money. They know you can be submitted. They want tech talent. Not revolutionists. It's a rough world out there and it's better to get in line than lose your pot of gold. Doesn't make it right at all. But if you were that engineer, it's easier to say to yourself that you'll work your way up and change things the day you are in charge.
It is kinda funny when you tell their headhunters you will never work for them because they don't meet your ethical standards. I highly recommend the experience.
Re: Facebook Asking for Some New Users' Email Passwords
#270Some habits are hard to get over I guess. Remember when Mark Zuckerberg (allegedly) used FB data to hack into the email accounts of journalists reporting on him? [0]
Why trust him now?
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-i...