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Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

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Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#51

Post by robin_reala »

blitmap wrote: post #32
droithomme wrote: post #9

So this relates to their practice of ransacking all your email contacts without your consent, engaging in data theft as they upload them and analyze them for subsequent actions. And of course Linked In is also notorious for engaging in this criminal vile privacy raping practice. I remember maybe 8 years ago it was here on HN that a company was found to be doing this and it was shocking to some. But an executive of th…

You know someday when we have consumer protection laws for things like this, a company will be forced to trace every piece of derived data on a user based off of what was unlawfully collected - and provably delete it. Instead of simply paying a fine and moving along with the new insights they have on you. Like an entrance fee to the club. Sidenote: I bet you could make a business out of tracing derived data to comply…

We do (mostly) have these laws: it’s called GDPR. Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to everyone, but the good thing is that it’s forcing the internationals to put the software frameworks in place to deal with it ready for when the US decides to join in.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#52

Post by kerng »

orijing wrote: post #49

The article claims the practice "was uncovered by Business Insider last week", implying FB was being sneaky about it. But if you look at the Business Insider article ( https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-uploaded-1-5-millio... ), you'll see this: > A Facebook spokesperson said before May 2016, it offered an option to verify a user's account using their email password and voluntarily upload their contacts at the…

Can we please stop calling these privacy violations bugs? It sounds like a benign thing. These are not bugs anymore. It's unauthorized access to records of millions, and Facebook is the one who performed the violation.

I can give a dog walker or cleaning personel the keys to my apartment, still if they steal stuff and I have evidence they will be prosecuted. It's not a bug that they don't have business ethics.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#54

Post by cortesoft »

jmspring wrote: post #29
droithomme wrote: post #9

So this relates to their practice of ransacking all your email contacts without your consent, engaging in data theft as they upload them and analyze them for subsequent actions. And of course Linked In is also notorious for engaging in this criminal vile privacy raping practice. I remember maybe 8 years ago it was here on HN that a company was found to be doing this and it was shocking to some. But an executive of th…

LinkedIn is notorious for this. The app still asks for contact access all the time.

They are the worst... every few months, I will end up with like 20 emails at once asking to connect with a coworker on LinkedIn. They will be to 20 different email lists that I am on, which all get sucked up by LinkedIn and spammed. I don’t even have a LinkedIn account.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#55

Post by antt »

robin_reala wrote: post #51
blitmap wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know someday when we have consumer protection laws for things like this, a company will be forced to trace every piece of derived data on a user based off of what was unlawfully collected - and provably delete it. Instead of simply paying a fine and moving along with the new insights they have on you. Like an entrance fee to the club. Sidenote: I bet you could make a business out of tracing derived data to comply…

We do (mostly) have these laws: it’s called GDPR. Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to everyone, but the good thing is that it’s forcing the internationals to put the software frameworks in place to deal with it ready for when the US decides to join in.

It's also unfortunate that law makers for 20 years decided that online isn't real so what happens there doesn't really matter.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#56

Post by simion314 »

zamalek wrote: post #45
kerng wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They settled a class action lawsuite I think, but if I remember there was some form of consent involved that emails will be leveraged (probably not obvious either, and shouldn't be done). In Facebook's case it has clearly been misleading, possibly intentionally multiple times now (email, phone numbers,...).

I didn't like it (which is why they didn't get my damned password), but they were pretty open about what they planned to do with your credentials. The problem isn't how open they are, it's that most people don't understand what the harvesting means. Facebook could have asked for the sacrifice of the firstborn and people would have snapped it up on the prospect of a few likes on their fake online alterego. It's human…

>I didn't like it (which is why they didn't get my damned password), but they were pretty open about what they planned to do with your credentials.

From what I read FB had a "bug" where the feature was not removed properly, so the text about harvesting was removed but by "mistake" the harvesting code was left running.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#57

Post by product50 »

kerng wrote: post #52
orijing wrote: post #49

The article claims the practice "was uncovered by Business Insider last week", implying FB was being sneaky about it. But if you look at the Business Insider article ( https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-uploaded-1-5-millio... ), you'll see this: > A Facebook spokesperson said before May 2016, it offered an option to verify a user's account using their email password and voluntarily upload their contacts at the…

Can we please stop calling these privacy violations bugs? It sounds like a benign thing. These are not bugs anymore. It's unauthorized access to records of millions, and Facebook is the one who performed the violation. I can give a dog walker or cleaning personel the keys to my apartment, still if they steal stuff and I have evidence they will be prosecuted. It's not a bug that they don't have business ethics.

So a hacker took all of Equifax's data including your SSNs, address, names, DOB etc. By your analogy, all of Equifax engineers should be in jail right now!

BTW, just in case you are unaware, Equifax got away with this hack with zero fines in US.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#58

Post by tlb »

antt wrote: post #55
robin_reala wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do (mostly) have these laws: it’s called GDPR. Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to everyone, but the good thing is that it’s forcing the internationals to put the software frameworks in place to deal with it ready for when the US decides to join in.

It's also unfortunate that law makers for 20 years decided that online isn't real so what happens there doesn't really matter.

You wouldn't have liked it if the government started regulating the Internet when it was young. There were proposals in the early 90s that it should be regulated like broadcast radio. So no 7 deadly words, for example. It was good that the government left it alone until its effects on society were better understood.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#59

Post by kerng »

SheinhardtWigCo wrote: post #13
jakelazaroff wrote: post #3

I'm glad the attorney general is getting involved. We need to start charging Facebook execs for these flagrant privacy violations. They're being fined 3 billion dollars for legal expenses relating to an FTC inquiry… and their stock price went up by 8% [1]. The market just does not care; it's time regulators and law enforcement started to. [1] https://www.barrons.com/articles/facebook-stock-is-up-becaus...

Not just execs, I hope. The engineers who wrote the code and managers who told them to do it should also face justice.

Interesting point, at first it sounded a bit harsh but thinking a bit about this.... in the end as software engineers we are the ones pulling the trigger and your statement highlights our ethical responsibilities.

The problem though is that software engineering doesnt require any licensing requirements, etc. so one can always refer to incompetence being the problem (ooops a bug) and might get away with it.

Re: Facebook's Email-Harvesting Practice Is Under Investigation in N.Y.

#60

Post by antt »

tlb wrote: post #58
antt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also unfortunate that law makers for 20 years decided that online isn't real so what happens there doesn't really matter.

You wouldn't have liked it if the government started regulating the Internet when it was young. There were proposals in the early 90s that it should be regulated like broadcast radio. So no 7 deadly words, for example. It was good that the government left it alone until its effects on society were better understood.

I remember the crypto wars.

The US government has always controlled the internet. It just made the strategic decision that having a 'free speech' platform accessible to the thought leaders of the 21st century between 1980 and 2010 dealt more damage to its enemies than to itself.

Now that the internet is reaching the majority of people it's gotten worse, more regulated and less free. One only need to look at the 2016 election with it's 'fake news' and compare the US reaction to that of, say Iran in 2009 and see very little difference in rhetoric between the two countries.

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