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Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

thehill.com

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Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#81

Post by dymk »

EnFinlay wrote: post #73
dymk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Asserting the presence of an "American Great Firewall" 2) Asserting the development of an American "social credit system" 3) Describing America's political atmosphere as an "authoritarian regime" 4) Describing Facebook as a "defense contractor" Come on, you know what you're doing

I am very surprised by the reaction you're getting.

Some large subset of the HN crowd isn't interested in being civil, or preferring realistic comparisons to hyperbole, when talking about Facebook anymore.

The two above comments I made are sitting at moderately positive vote counts, so it makes me happy that at least > 50% of HN is bored of the way we've been discussing this topic for the last few years.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#82

Post by benatkin »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #5

To those unsure as to why this is particularly relevant: the Patriot Act is notable for drastically expanding the surveillance powers of the US government [1]. I wonder what this lawyer will do at Facebook? [1] https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-su...

It isn't relevant, though. The PATRIOT Act had pretty broad support. Just because she helped write it doesn't mean that she supports it more than other lawyers – just that she's a talented enough lawyer to be working on such major projects. It's the same as complaining about individual multi-millionaires who optimize their taxes.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#83

Post by godelski »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #67
iheartpotatoes wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you are forced to use facebook. Its more of a problem in developing nations. I'm glad Myanmar finally gave Facebook the boot as the default portal to the internet. When the day comes that we are forced to use a social media platform... heh, we'll all just roll over and start using it. Revolution takes too much effort.

Unfortunately Facebook does its best to track those of us who don't use it as well (even if their information on us ends up being less comprehensive than the information they have on their actual users).

And you can be pretty effective at that tracking if your contacts use facebook. Since they have access to your call logs they know how frequently you communicate with someone. And people that communicate frequently share general interests.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#84

Post by OrgNet »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #5

To those unsure as to why this is particularly relevant: the Patriot Act is notable for drastically expanding the surveillance powers of the US government [1]. I wonder what this lawyer will do at Facebook? [1] https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-su...

And Obama promised to repeal the "PATRIOT" Act but instead signed to extend and expand it... If he had not signed anything, it would have expired all by itself...

edit: sorry if you don't like the truth (I know that a lot of you commit to only one political party, but still... the truth is the truth.).

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#85

Post by edmundsauto »

godelski wrote: post #76
Dangeranger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have a social credit score. It's called FICO and it's been doing a great job of making life difficult for people who don't fit the mold for over sixty years.

Can we stop making this comparison? At best it is naive at worst you're purposefully misrepresenting the argument. When people say "social credit score" they distinctly mean something different than "credit score" (you may get this hint by the extra word, "social"). A social credit system not only includes your finances, but as well as much about your behavior. Such as "do you buy cigarettes? How often?" FICO doesn't…

Do you not see any parallels between the two? FICO scores are borderline discriminatory because it turns out that social behaviors and group membership is correlated with those scores.

FICO doesn't "care" if you're Muslim or black, but FICO scores can be absolutely used to discriminate against those groups.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#86

Post by edmundsauto »

resters wrote: post #72
mfatica wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Controlling the news feed on one site is not nearly comparable to a universal firewall... Many people already have stopped using Facebook

> Many people already have stopped using Facebook Yet it is important enough to public opinion that congress undertakes days of hearings with Zuck to try to control the news feed algo?

This is easily explained by the desire of politicians to grab some time on the news. I didn't see much Congressional behavior or followup that suggests they actually cared about (or understood) the privacy issue.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#87

Post by novok »

godelski wrote: post #76
Dangeranger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have a social credit score. It's called FICO and it's been doing a great job of making life difficult for people who don't fit the mold for over sixty years.

Can we stop making this comparison? At best it is naive at worst you're purposefully misrepresenting the argument. When people say "social credit score" they distinctly mean something different than "credit score" (you may get this hint by the extra word, "social"). A social credit system not only includes your finances, but as well as much about your behavior. Such as "do you buy cigarettes? How often?" FICO doesn't…

I think in the past, credit reporting agencies did want to make things equivalent to social credit, or make social credit type things apply to your financial credit score, but were stopped by legislation.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#88

Post by resters »

dymk wrote: post #81
EnFinlay wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very surprised by the reaction you're getting.

Some large subset of the HN crowd isn't interested in being civil, or preferring realistic comparisons to hyperbole, when talking about Facebook anymore. The two above comments I made are sitting at moderately positive vote counts, so it makes me happy that at least > 50% of HN is bored of the way we've been discussing this topic for the last few years.

It’s not fair to call my comment uncivil.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#89

Post by xster »

godelski wrote: post #76
Dangeranger wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have a social credit score. It's called FICO and it's been doing a great job of making life difficult for people who don't fit the mold for over sixty years.

Can we stop making this comparison? At best it is naive at worst you're purposefully misrepresenting the argument. When people say "social credit score" they distinctly mean something different than "credit score" (you may get this hint by the extra word, "social"). A social credit system not only includes your finances, but as well as much about your behavior. Such as "do you buy cigarettes? How often?" FICO doesn't…

The US justice scores like COMPAS absolutely cares about your skin color and your sentencing depends on it. It just doesn't have a sexy Chyna-BAAAD label next to it to attract your eyeball.

https://epic.org/algorithmic-transparency/crim-justice/

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#90

Post by lkrubner »

dymk wrote: post #81
EnFinlay wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very surprised by the reaction you're getting.

Some large subset of the HN crowd isn't interested in being civil, or preferring realistic comparisons to hyperbole, when talking about Facebook anymore. The two above comments I made are sitting at moderately positive vote counts, so it makes me happy that at least > 50% of HN is bored of the way we've been discussing this topic for the last few years.

It takes awhile before people gain the ability to downvote, so an aggregate vote of 1 does not imply a 50% split. There is a bias toward positive vote totals, since people can upvote but not downvote when they join Hacker News. On any thread there are more people who can upvote than downvote.

It would be useful if Hacker News would either make a magnitude number available or the actual up and down votes. A comment that gets 3 upvotes versus 2 downvotes will have the same total as a comment that has 412 upvotes versus 411 downvotes, but clearly one comment was ignored while the other struck a nerve.

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