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Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

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Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#171

Post by romwell »

la_barba wrote: post #157
mrtksn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty Big claim. Any proofs? With Facebook, what annoyed me was that they set up internal teams to help with political candidates social media campaigns - no matter who the candidates are. Extremely worrisome if you prefer to have people elected through a democratic process that is based on the discussion. This is not like understanding what people want or how do…

Has Google ever disclosed exactly what data they collect, what they do with it, who can look at it, etc? We "know" that Google takes privacy "seriously", but that is a faith based position.

Actually, Google has. [0]

And I can't vouch for all of Google, but regarding location data, Google has been pretty transparent regarding which data is collected and stored; papers like NYT covered it extensively - see [1].

And Google also gives you clear ways to delete this data, as referenced in that NYT article [2].

And moreover, Google has been consistently on track to store less private data. Example: location data is going to be auto-deleted for users that want that, as of this month[3]. Maps now gets an incognito mode[4].

>but that is a faith based position.

Hope the links I referenced will help dispel this notion. Google does take privacy seriously.

(Disclaimer: I work for Google. The opinions expressed here are mine and not of my employer; etc - what I said is public knowledge.).

[0]https://policies.google.com/technologies/retention?hl=en-US

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/technology/google-sensorv...

[2]https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3118687?hl=en

[3]https://mashable.com/article/google-auto-delete-location-his...

[4]https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/7/18535657/google-incognito-...

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#173

Post by subparwheat »

gambler wrote: post #44

>Facebook candidates are asking much tougher questions about the company’s approach to privacy, according to multiple former recruiters. This narrative is highly suspicious. Zukerberg openly and repeatedly said that he doesn't care about anyone's privacy for well over a decade [1]. The whole company is built around collecting and selling private information. Why would people who care about privacy interview with Face…

I believe this is pretty true, cause I was interviewing with FB and I brought up some of those questions.

Before the scandal broke out, I didn't really know much about Zukerberg's view on privacy. The scandal definitive rose my awareness on this topic.

But the questions for me is less on FB's approach to privacy, but more on how much is Zukerberg dictating the company. In other words, how much are FB employees empowered to do what's right, to fix their problems. Empowerment and autonomy is a very important for tech talents. FB is not presenting itself too well in this perspective.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#174

Post by GCA10 »

clairity wrote: post #51
jfasi wrote: post #38

I just spent three months hiring in NYC, and now that I think about it, I haven't seen a single person mention they were considering counteroffers from Facebook. For context, Facebook and Google are the two largest tech companies with a significant NYC presence. It's telling that a substantial portion of our candidates admitted to considering competing offers from Google, but literally no one was considering Facebook…

> "It's telling that a substantial portion of our candidates admitted to considering competing offers from Google, but literally no one was considering Facebook." intersting anecdote. google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty, yet jobseekers are shunning facebook because of the more wide-ranging negative press.

Google makes a lot of genuinely useful products and services. We've all got to wrestle with the privacy tradeoffs of "free" maps, "free" email, "free" Android, etc. But at least the satisfaction of using well-built tools to accomplish more is enough of an offset to many people.

Facebook is much more likely to be seen as a guilty pleasure, or a marvelous time-waster, or something else that's a bit farther down the utility curve.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#175

Post by ppeetteerr »

bognition wrote: post #5

Honestly I think its more than just that, Facebook is no longer the cool start up building the world's favorite website. They're a multi-national advertising mega corp, and TBH most people just don't want to work there.

Totally agree. There are dozens of companies that aggregate user information (Google amongst them). Like @bognition said, FB lost its cool a while ago.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#176

Post by la_barba »

halflings wrote: post #161
la_barba wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has Google ever disclosed exactly what data they collect, what they do with it, who can look at it, etc? We "know" that Google takes privacy "seriously", but that is a faith based position.

It's all here, and you can delete it (including batch delete by period or source): https://myactivity.google.com/ This page includes other types of data (e.g videos you upload to youtube or mails in Gmail): https://policies.google.com/privacy

Thanks for linking to the policy document. They have this convenient line that allows them to do anything.

"We provide personal information to our affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures."

>It's all here, and you can delete it (including batch delete by period or source)

That scratches the surface, but an iceburg hides underneath. For one, how do we know its all the data? For another, there is no indication as to who has seen it or how Google uses it. That is my point. Google has never detailed those things..I suppose for legal reasons. A user has a right to know exactly what they are trading with Google in exchange for free services. They can then make up their own mind if they think its worth it. I'm just picking on Google here, because its a soft target, but it should apply to any service. We need new privacy regulations to formalize this.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#177

Post by heyyyouu »

golemiprague wrote: post #124
heyyyouu wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's seen as the platform your parents (or worse, grandparents) use. Pretty much a step above Next Door. Why would you want to work for that over some of the other companies out there?

Facebook is also instagram and whatsapp, two platforms used by young people

My teenagers have pretty much moved on from those.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#178

Post by drugme »

idlewords wrote: post #163
mrtksn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>google is a bigger concern for privacy and personal liberty Big claim. Any proofs? With Facebook, what annoyed me was that they set up internal teams to help with political candidates social media campaigns - no matter who the candidates are. Extremely worrisome if you prefer to have people elected through a democratic process that is based on the discussion. This is not like understanding what people want or how do…

It's getting a little wearying to have to rehearse the ways in which Google is a threat to privacy. But let's get the band together one more time: Google runs search and email for essentially the entire web, controls the market dominant browser and mobile OS, has tracking scripts on >75% of the top million websites and runs a fair amount of the internet's infrastructure. It is the senior partner in the online adverti…

No one disputes that Google has its tentacles in many pots -- and definitely needs to be kept on a leash. But the claim was that Google was not just a matter of concern -- somehow a clearly bigger threat than FB.

Can anyone provide substantiation for that claim?

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#179

Post by mrep »

decebalus1 wrote: post #31

Hmm... the headline is in direct contradiction with what I read on Blind. People are still flocking at Facebook's gate for an offer.

Ha, first thing I thought of when I saw a Facebook struggling to hire post is blind. If any reason is causing people to not interview with facebook, I would argue it was the weekly burnout thread that was happening on blind last year.

Re: Facebook has struggled to hire talent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal

#180

Post by drugme »

redwards510 wrote: post #55

As much as everyone wants to believe this is because all the applicants are suddenly taking strong ethical stances, I bet it has more to do with Facebook simply not being considering cool or exciting anymore.

And the root cause of its suddenly "not being considering cool or exciting anymore" would be?
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