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Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#31

Post by willyg123 »

inetknght wrote: post #16
willyg123 wrote: post #14

All organizations, no matter if they are public or private, need checks and balances at the top. I predict that legislation will become the de facto check on FB and there will be many negative unintended consequences for the rest of the tech industry, harming companies who are ethical stewards of privacy.

Can you name an organization that you think is an ethical steward of privacy?

A great point in the form of a question. I should have phrased my comment differently.

The emergence of DuckDuckGo and the excitement for Apple's upcoming anonymous sign-in feature proves there is a massive gap in the market for privacy-focused products.

I'm afraid there will be regulation that will harm the ability for new companies, with a focus on privacy, to emerge due to the increased compliance costs.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#32

Post by joker3 »

vijaybritto wrote: post #2

Honestly is anyone surprised by this? He controls everything and how will he not know their own policies?! Facebook needs a serious lesson from the regulators.

There's a big difference between what everyone believes and what everyone actually knows. Getting confirmation could matter.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#33

Post by idlewords »

ravenstine wrote: post #25
camjohnson26 wrote: post #18

Honestly I don’t see the problem, Facebook’s privacy stance has been well known for years. I don’t use their product much because of this, but friends and family couldn’t care less. Their response is that they don’t care if someone reads their messages or tailors ads to them and no matter how hard I try it won’t change their minds. If you don’t like their privacy stance just don’t use the product, it’s not like there…

> no reasonable person thought it didn’t What's a reasonable person? Plenty of "reasonable" people drink Coke every day because the system indoctrinates otherwise rational people into believing that sugar isn't a poison comparable to alcohol. One of my friends, who is an attorney, still thinks that snack foods devoid of fat but loaded with sugar are somehow healthier . Speculating how a rational person would respond…

What the hell is your problem with alcohol?

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#34

Post by camjohnson26 »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #19
camjohnson26 wrote: post #18

Honestly I don’t see the problem, Facebook’s privacy stance has been well known for years. I don’t use their product much because of this, but friends and family couldn’t care less. Their response is that they don’t care if someone reads their messages or tailors ads to them and no matter how hard I try it won’t change their minds. If you don’t like their privacy stance just don’t use the product, it’s not like there…

I haven't used Facebook in nearly 8 years, however to say there are alternatives is specious. For example, I have recently learned I missed my first high school reunion because it was only posted on Facebook. Unfortunately, there isn't another service out there that I could subscribe to that would ensure I receive such communication.

Alternatives don’t have to be services, you can directly contact people who do use the service or who live with the people you want to know about.

And your opting out of the network makes it a little less valuable, since now no one has access to updates about yourself. If you can convince a few more people to lower their exposure or to move to something like friendica then the network becomes even less valuable and helps to lower Facebook’s power.

I would much rather fight the problem this way than trust legislators to come up with a fair way to regulate it. Same with sugar, I would rather invest in educational campaigns to convince people how bad sugars and sodas are for their body than have the government ban all sugar or decide how much can be in a product. The lobbies will usually end up writing the final laws anyway, and who knows what their incentives are.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#35

Post by Liquix »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #18

Honestly I don’t see the problem, Facebook’s privacy stance has been well known for years. I don’t use their product much because of this, but friends and family couldn’t care less. Their response is that they don’t care if someone reads their messages or tailors ads to them and no matter how hard I try it won’t change their minds. If you don’t like their privacy stance just don’t use the product, it’s not like there…

Agreed; it's frustrating and scary how difficult it is to get people to care about online privacy. If data harvesting/target advertising continues unchecked, we'll be living in an Orwellian surveillance state by 2030. That's not the scary part, though. The scary part is that the writing is on the wall and no one can be bothered to care (excluding HN users and the like - ya'll are awesome).

Also agree re:Coca Cola. However I also believe that we shouldn't blindly accept a status quo of "companies are inherently evil and value financial growth over the wellbeing/health/privacy of their customers". There are a few shining examples of business being conducted with true respect for customers. These ethical entities are few and far between, but they are worth their weight in gold and we should be mindful to vote for them with our wallets.

Getting aunt Sue to care about data harvesting and stopping the likes of Google/Amazon from taking over the world are both uphill battles. But something has to change, soon.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#36

Post by Liquix »

idlewords wrote: post #33
ravenstine wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no reasonable person thought it didn’t What's a reasonable person? Plenty of "reasonable" people drink Coke every day because the system indoctrinates otherwise rational people into believing that sugar isn't a poison comparable to alcohol. One of my friends, who is an attorney, still thinks that snack foods devoid of fat but loaded with sugar are somehow healthier . Speculating how a rational person would respond…

What the hell is your problem with alcohol?

Way to pick out the least important sentence in that well-crafted response and attack it for no reason.

Alcohol can indeed be classified as a poison. When someone gets their stomach pumped after drinking too much, they're being treated for alcohol poisoning.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#37

Post by SapporoChris »

idlewords wrote: post #24
camjohnson26 wrote: post #18

Honestly I don’t see the problem, Facebook’s privacy stance has been well known for years. I don’t use their product much because of this, but friends and family couldn’t care less. Their response is that they don’t care if someone reads their messages or tailors ads to them and no matter how hard I try it won’t change their minds. If you don’t like their privacy stance just don’t use the product, it’s not like there…

There are lots of situations where you have no choice but use Facebook. Some schools, for example, communicate through Facebook groups. Your church might do the same thing. You may have relatives abroad you can only talk to through Facebook or WhatsApp, because that's all they know how to use. Your landlord or employer might demand to see your Facebook profile as a condition of getting a lease or a job. The stance of…

I call BS. Every situation you mentioned exists because people passively accept the situation. Simply demanding a method to communicate other than Facebook can remedy the situation.

I'd love to see a list of companies that require a Facebook account. Not ask for Facebook account, require Facebook account.

"You may have relatives abroad you can only talk to through Facebook or WhatsApp" They can't pick up the phone?

Side note: I've never had a Facebook account.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#38

Post by zachrose »

Meekro wrote: post #23

I see a lot of these articles about Facebook and privacy lately, but I'm still wondering what, precisely, Facebook is doing that people object to and what kinds of changes would satisfy those who are upset. Near as I can tell, this is about data in Facebook's databases finding its way to other organizations without the users' knowledge or consent. But the way this happens is pretty benign: 1. User installs Facebook a…

You've already hit the nail on the head.

Facebook is providing a friendly user interface to do normal people stuff. To the users who aren't technically sophisticated or haven't thought deeply about any of this, sucking up their contacts and shipping them off to wherever is just not something they would have imagined, let alone agreed to.

And yet they did, at least technically, when they clicked some button saying they had read 40-pages of legalese.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#39

Post by freehunter »

jerkstate wrote: post #28
rjkennedy98 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't used Facebook in nearly 8 years, however to say there are alternatives is specious. For example, I have recently learned I missed my first high school reunion because it was only posted on Facebook. Unfortunately, there isn't another service out there that I could subscribe to that would ensure I receive such communication.

you mean like.. email?

>it was only posted on Facebook

Not sure how email solves that problem.

Re: Facebook Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

#40

Post by idlewords »

SapporoChris wrote: post #37
idlewords wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of situations where you have no choice but use Facebook. Some schools, for example, communicate through Facebook groups. Your church might do the same thing. You may have relatives abroad you can only talk to through Facebook or WhatsApp, because that's all they know how to use. Your landlord or employer might demand to see your Facebook profile as a condition of getting a lease or a job. The stance of…

I call BS. Every situation you mentioned exists because people passively accept the situation. Simply demanding a method to communicate other than Facebook can remedy the situation. I'd love to see a list of companies that require a Facebook account. Not ask for Facebook account, require Facebook account. "You may have relatives abroad you can only talk to through Facebook or WhatsApp" They can't pick up the phone? S…

So... you're opining on a service you've never used? I guess you're on the right site for that.
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