Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users • Hacker News Board

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#11

Post by parliament32 » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:04 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

Stronger audit controls are the way to go for deterring this kind of abuse. Having an audit log of all privileged access, and having a different department review it (employee X accessed user Y's data, which LE request was this for?) isn't necessarily a huge burden: LE requests aren't frequent enough to justify not doing this.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#12

Post by rcfox » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:06 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

Wasn't the ability to access Facebook users' profiles one of the (unofficial?) perks of working there in the early days?

Also, the CEO of Reddit was caught editing user comments. https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5frg1n/tifu_...

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#13

Post by jsharf » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:10 PM UTC

stevewodil wrote: post #10

dev_throw wrote: post #4

I understand that centralized systems are much more efficient than P2P when it comes to high bandwidth communication. But as of today, it would be possible to create a completely decentralized Snapchat (signed ephemeral videos that are shared between two parties). The routing would be the only non-trivial component of this, but it could be solved with a DHT. Why do we continue to trade convenience for privacy? Such a…

What happens when one peer doesn't have internet access for a moment and a snapchat is delivered at that moment? How do you build "retries" into a decentralized infrastructure? If no server is storing the content, couldn't someone fill up my phone storage simply by sending me videos repeatedly? The infrastructure forces my phone to instantly download the content, because no one is paying for storage of it before it g…

It wouldn't make sense for your phone to be part of a P2P network. It's only connected to your radio tower, and not really anything else.

Also, you could define a maximum file limit size, and at that point your phone would be considered backed up, and then if no other route is found, the transfer is cancelled after a certain timeout.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#14

Post by mfatica » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

rcfox wrote: post #12

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

Wasn't the ability to access Facebook users' profiles one of the (unofficial?) perks of working there in the early days? Also, the CEO of Reddit was caught editing user comments. https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5frg1n/tifu_...

Certain subreddits have changed their "edit" button to "spez" to remind people of this abuse.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#15

Post by devindotcom » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

I think the other comments under you are evidence of something like Poe's Law at work.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#16

Post by kovacs » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:26 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

Luckily Snapchat isn't in SV so the record of zero unethical behavior in SV remains in tact.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#17

Post by savethefuture » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:26 PM UTC

mfatica wrote: post #14

rcfox wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't the ability to access Facebook users' profiles one of the (unofficial?) perks of working there in the early days? Also, the CEO of Reddit was caught editing user comments. https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5frg1n/tifu_...

Certain subreddits have changed their "edit" button to "spez" to remind people of this abuse.

They should have deleted their subreddits and move else where after that...

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#18

Post by aphextron » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

kovacs wrote: post #16

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

Luckily Snapchat isn't in SV so the record of zero unethical behavior in SV remains in tact.

Woosh

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#19

Post by X-Istence » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #3

Really shocked by the allegations. Has any unethical behavior like this ever happened in a Silicon Valley startup before? Would there have been any way to see this coming?

This post really needs a /s on it for full effect.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#20

Post by Nition » Thu, May 23, 2019, 10:31 PM UTC

stevewodil wrote: post #10

dev_throw wrote: post #4

I understand that centralized systems are much more efficient than P2P when it comes to high bandwidth communication. But as of today, it would be possible to create a completely decentralized Snapchat (signed ephemeral videos that are shared between two parties). The routing would be the only non-trivial component of this, but it could be solved with a DHT. Why do we continue to trade convenience for privacy? Such a…

What happens when one peer doesn't have internet access for a moment and a snapchat is delivered at that moment? How do you build "retries" into a decentralized infrastructure? If no server is storing the content, couldn't someone fill up my phone storage simply by sending me videos repeatedly? The infrastructure forces my phone to instantly download the content, because no one is paying for storage of it before it g…

Have the receiving phone send an acknowledgement message back and if the sender's phone doesn't get one after a few seconds, show a "{name} failed to receive your message. Maybe they're offline." dialog. Allow the sender to try again later.