Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

theinformation.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 171 posts

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#31

Post by rietta »

ajdlinux wrote: post #9
0x006A wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "secret" not one of the classifications for internal documents? "top secret", "secret", "confidential", "restricted". While this classification is usually used to classify access to documents of the state, it could also apply to internal documents in large organizations.

I'm not aware of any private sector companies that have more than 2-3 formal "classification" markings, and they're usually more like "internal use only" and "confidential" rather than "secret". For particularly sensitive documents there would of course be additional restrictions, but I'd be surprised if there were companies using the marking "top secret" for that purpose...

I have seen companies with 5. Along the lines of: 1. Public: Public information 2. Internal Use: Confidential business information 3. Confidential: Information that customers consider confidential 4. Sensitive: Personal and Private Information (PII), information that THE LAW considers confidential 5. Highly Sensitive: Encryption keys, server secrets, staff/admin passwords

This list is from a blog I wrote at https://rietta.com/blog/commercial-information-classificatio.... It was adapted from something I originally saw while a student at Georgia Tech. I've consulted with companies that separately developed a substantially similar 5 point list.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#32

Post by quelltext »

nolok wrote: post #14

While I have a facebook account I'm not a big user, it's mostly for a few contacts that are only on messenger. I don't look at my "stream" a lot, and when I do it's mostly useless content like meme, self-centered post and whatnot that I personnaly have zero interest in, with maybe 1% of actually interesting thing in between like birth annoncement from acquaintances etc ... I don't plan to delete my account because I…

The microphone permission is used for you to be able to record a voice message to send to someone.

I don't know why it would suddenly ask but I have pressed that voice message / microphone button by accident in the past. Or maybe it's just something the app requests globally on newer versions.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#33

Post by paulie_a »

bertil wrote: post #26
0x006A wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "secret" not one of the classifications for internal documents? "top secret", "secret", "confidential", "restricted". While this classification is usually used to classify access to documents of the state, it could also apply to internal documents in large organizations.

It can be but I’d be surprised if that document had anything like it. Very few things are confidential internally at Facebook. Compensation, seniority level and review are the most common “Confidential” category but they are typically marked as “personal and confidential”. A few things are permission-access-controlled (think things involving the Police where rules of evidence apply) but I don’t remember if they had a…

How can seniority level be secret?

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#34

Post by jefftk »

paulie_a wrote: post #33
bertil wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be but I’d be surprised if that document had anything like it. Very few things are confidential internally at Facebook. Compensation, seniority level and review are the most common “Confidential” category but they are typically marked as “personal and confidential”. A few things are permission-access-controlled (think things involving the Police where rules of evidence apply) but I don’t remember if they had a…

How can seniority level be secret?

"seniority level" an in "what level have you been promoted to".

At Google you don't have to disclose your level, but most people do and most of my coworkers know I'm L5. At Facebook my understanding is they've tried to build a culture where people don't know each other's levels, to focus more on "what can you do" instead of "what does management think you can do".

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#35

Post by donatzsky »

noragami wrote: post #30
salsadip wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I just don’t really use telegram that’s why I didn’t mention it, although of course it is a good app! It is just doing exactly what WhatsApp is doing (feature wise) minus the big user base, which is it‘s downfall

It's miles ahead of WhatsApp feature wise, except for properly implemented end-to-end encryption, of course. WhatsApp is a joke, I still don't understand why it became so popular.

WhatsApp became popular by being one of the first and by being available absolutely everywhere.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#36

Post by jefftk »

rietta wrote: post #31
ajdlinux wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not aware of any private sector companies that have more than 2-3 formal "classification" markings, and they're usually more like "internal use only" and "confidential" rather than "secret". For particularly sensitive documents there would of course be additional restrictions, but I'd be surprised if there were companies using the marking "top secret" for that purpose...

I have seen companies with 5. Along the lines of: 1. Public: Public information 2. Internal Use: Confidential business information 3. Confidential: Information that customers consider confidential 4. Sensitive: Personal and Private Information (PII), information that THE LAW considers confidential 5. Highly Sensitive: Encryption keys, server secrets, staff/admin passwords This list is from a blog I wrote at https://r…

Yes. Categories I've encountered at the big tech company I work at include:

* Public

* Company confidential (most things)

* Need to know (only finance people can see some kinds of financials, only people working on a service can see it's logs)

* Legal stuff

* Personnel stuff

* Highly valuable IP (spam detection algorithms etc)

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#37

Post by paulie_a »

nolok wrote: post #14

While I have a facebook account I'm not a big user, it's mostly for a few contacts that are only on messenger. I don't look at my "stream" a lot, and when I do it's mostly useless content like meme, self-centered post and whatnot that I personnaly have zero interest in, with maybe 1% of actually interesting thing in between like birth annoncement from acquaintances etc ... I don't plan to delete my account because I…

The targeting of ads on Facebook is complete garbage. But it seems to have improved in the sheer quantity. It wasn't even one to one, more so two ads for one bit of content from friends I actually was interesting.

My usage went way down from hours a week to maybe ten minutes. I don't know how the the algorithms work but I just started hitting the report button on ever single ad. There are still some of those insidious ads that pretend to be legitimate posts but my usage is up. I actually get to see interesting content from friends and family.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#38

Post by jefftk »

0xfaded wrote: post #16
salsadip wrote: post #8

I am happy that we have Snapchat and iMessage as competitors to the Facebook Apps. I very much dislike their business practices of sucking up all the data they can get their hands on e.g. during the acquisition of WhatsApp where they had to promise to European [1] regulators to not combine the user data with facebook‘s and then did it anyway. Also sad that they were so successful in copying Snapchat’s story feature -…

The reliance on facebook where I live now in Denmark is disgusting. I lived in SV for 4 years, and basically any information of importance reached me by word-of-mouth or mailing list. Craigslist is also used and awesome. Worst is that information meant for public dissemination, like training times or open event details, are now de facto private and require login. I've gone from logging in once every 3 months to once…

Open event details should be public without logging in. I help run an event series that has our website link to FB for per-event details, and no account is needed.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#39

Post by Retric »

crikli wrote: post #29
Retric wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think of secret as having a negative connotation. Secret Santa, secret key exchange, etc it’s just descriptive.

Context is everything. The things you're talking about are innocuous with no negative loading or reputation. Facebook isn't innocuous and has a high negative load and reputation. Tack the word "secret" in front of some internal research they did and it puts a darker shade on something every company does (internal research).

Doesn’t that just mean it’s Facebook with the negative connotation not secret?

Something like ‘Secret Facebook network architecture’ is rather neutral.

Re: Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

#40

Post by jefftk »

cobookman wrote: post #27
nexuist wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snapchat is not any better. Given their financials I am sure they are selling my data to anyone who is willing to pay for it.

Source to back that up? From my understanding Snap's entire spiel is user privacy

    s/spiel/shtick/
Post reply on HN