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Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

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Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#31

Post by dillonmckay »

jsharf wrote: post #13
stevewodil wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’ve been thinking about a Pi Zero W w LoRa acting as a wifi bridge between the smartphone and the Pi and the Pi uses LoRa for the P2P portion.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#32

Post by deathanatos »

paulcole wrote: post #25
deathanatos wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber and their "God Mode"/"God View" comes to mind. E.g.: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view...

Huh, you always hear so much about the good Uber is doing it’s hard to accept that’s a true story.

> the good Uber is doing

(Edit: seems I'm a victim of Poe's Law. Oh well. In case anyone is sincerely wondering, I've left the below. Not sure I agree w/ such unmarked sarcasm though; I think there are a good number of people in SV trying to act ethically w/ consumer data.)

You're kidding me, right? I have nearly an opposite impression of Uber as a company:

Uber's self-driving car killed a woman while the human was not paying attention at the wheel[1]; IDK what the end result of this was, but at the time it was scandalous for a. the driver not paying attention and b. the car not noticing the human basically at all, until it was basically about to make impact. (Whatever sensors/sensor processing was happening failed entirely. IIRC, the Lidar company basically stated their stuff would have seen the human, and it was Uber's software that ignored that signal. The NTSB investigated it, but IDK what the resolution was.)

There was a long history of sexual workplace harassment scandals ("In August 2018, Uber agreed to pay a total of $7 million to 480 workers to settle claims of gender discrimination, harassment and hostile work environment."[3]; the former CEO resigned over similar allegations).

There's been numerous reports of them skirting or flat out ignoring the law in many jurisdictions.

The incident where a driver refused to service someone with a service animal.

Allegations over their treatment of drivers (that they're mislead in how much they can earn; that they're banned for even the slightest of transgressions; their classification as contractors and not employees, but they're not allowed to set their own rates by logging when the price isn't worth their while[2]).

The Greyball thing[3]:

> Uber developed an internal software tool called Greyball, which uses data collected from the Uber mobile app other means, to avoid giving rides to certain individuals. The tool was used starting in 2014. By showing "ghost cars" driven by fake drivers to the targeted individuals in the Uber mobile app, and by giving real drivers a means to cancel rides requested by those individuals, Uber was able to avoid giving rides to known law enforcement officers in areas where its service is illegal.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/19/uber-self...

[2]: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/20/lyft_uber_surge_pri... (not sure if this is the best source)

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber#Criticism

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#33

Post by dgzl »

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…

> Why do we continue to trade convenience for privacy?

I think there's a big misconception about privacy rights in America. I think a lot of people believe the government is actually allowed to collect otherwise private information, and that it's important they do so. I think this causes people to become complicit in giving away their information because they don't feel they have any choice, which allows people to become willfully ignorant, which makes it easy for the private sector to do the same.

Tldr, the government is setting a precedent where we shouldn't care about our privacy.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#34

Post by inflatableDodo »

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…

>How do you build "retries" into a decentralized infrastructure?

Heartbeat pings to contact list, cached at senders end until recipient is ready and offer aliased nodes as a feature so multiple devices can act as a RAID array for an identity, both at senders end and recipients.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#35

Post by inflatableDodo »

jsharf wrote: post #13
stevewodil wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>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.

That is only a software bug.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#36

Post by JamesBarney »

deathanatos wrote: post #32
paulcole wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, you always hear so much about the good Uber is doing it’s hard to accept that’s a true story.

> the good Uber is doing (Edit: seems I'm a victim of Poe's Law. Oh well. In case anyone is sincerely wondering, I've left the below. Not sure I agree w/ such unmarked sarcasm though; I think there are a good number of people in SV trying to act ethically w/ consumer data.) You're kidding me, right? I have nearly an opposite impression of Uber as a company: Uber's self-driving car killed a woman while the human was n…

Both of his posts are sarcastic.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#37

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

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…

One big reason is battery life. I don't want my mobile device to have to rely on the reliability of another party to transmit. If the other party can't receive at the moment, my phone has to do a lot of work to figure that out and periodically retry sending in a graceful fashion. With a server I am guaranteed that as long as my phone has connectivity, my message will eventually be received, and it only takes as much energy as it takes for me to send it to the server.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#39

Post by paulcole »

JamesBarney wrote: post #36
deathanatos wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the good Uber is doing (Edit: seems I'm a victim of Poe's Law. Oh well. In case anyone is sincerely wondering, I've left the below. Not sure I agree w/ such unmarked sarcasm though; I think there are a good number of people in SV trying to act ethically w/ consumer data.) You're kidding me, right? I have nearly an opposite impression of Uber as a company: Uber's self-driving car killed a woman while the human was n…

Both of his posts are sarcastic.

Please, it’s called shitposting.

Re: Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users

#40

Post by malvosenior »

I’ve heard early (~2008) Facebook employees bragging about this type of thing. They used to specifically look at who was looking at other people’s pages (aka “stalking” them). They were absolutely doing this for purely personal reasons and thought it was cool enough to brag about it at parties.
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