Facebook says one hundred API users may have improperly accessed user data • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook says one hundred API users may have improperly accessed user data

#71

Post by knzhou » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 5:20 PM UTC

crematoria wrote: post #49

knzhou wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And blocking social media stalkers is much much easier than stopping real ones. It is indeed a different game, but I don't think it's qualitatively worse.

It can be automated and packaged into a solution for anyone to use. IRL stalking is hard and dangerous, and it's going to be that way for the foreseeable future. Is that "qualitatively" worse enough?

No, because blocking people takes one click. You can completely solve the problem in literally two seconds. For that reason, I’m more confident of my privacy when on social media sites than in real life.

Re: Facebook says one hundred API users may have improperly accessed user data

#72

Post by netsharc » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

knzhou wrote: post #69

netsharc wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're picking Taylor Swift to make it sound your argument is solid... Aren't there better indicators? If I follow my local city's LGBT group's FB page, well, what do you think my political leanings would be? Or on the opposite end, if I follow that megachurch's FB page? Or even if I'm just friends with many people who "checked-in" there last Sunday.

Sure, but do you really think this basic information about general political leanings wasn’t available before social media? 2004 wasn’t the stone age.

Can you point me to the online ad service where in 2004 you can do "Show this ad to people of (gender/age/race/sexual orientation) living in (area) who like (these things)"?

Also Cambridge Analytica did more than that, they figured out whether the voters were easy to influence from their Facebook profiles, and they targeted people on the fence with ads pointing to Anti-Hillary conspiracy videos...

If you think journalists are just lying about Facebook being able to do all that (it's just all fake news, right?), read this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook...

and notice how FB didn't have any concrete denials in the lines of "None of this is true"...

Re: Facebook says one hundred API users may have improperly accessed user data

#73

Post by dang » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 6:44 PM UTC

buboard wrote: post #54

dang wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, we've put partners in the title above.

I use the facebook API but don't consider myself a facebook partner. I'm fine with "API user"

Ok, we've turned the partners into API users.

Re: Facebook says one hundred API users may have improperly accessed user data

#74

Post by jdkee » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 6:45 PM UTC

knzhou wrote: post #40

jdkee wrote: post #23

We watched this documentary in the fake news class I taught this past summer. https://www.netflix.com/title/80117542 While some of the assertions in the film are unsubstantiated, the resulting classroom discussion on the role of social media and privacy were immensely constructive.

I once took a "media and society" class where I was told that critical thinking meant to take all my facts from the New York Times alone, that the NYT was infallible, and that I shouldn't even try to evaluate facts from "unauthorized sources" because they were all definitely lies anyway. On reflection, I think this kind of class is bad for society. Are you sure you aren't running that kind of class?

Yes. We cover numerous types sources, from traditional newsprint journalism, to online reporting by some crank with a blog. The idea is to develop and apply critical thinking skills while reading/hearing various news/editorials/advertising sources.

Re: Facebook says one hundred API users may have improperly accessed user data

#75

Post by chillacy » Sat, Nov 09, 2019, 6:57 AM UTC

knzhou wrote: post #37

chillacy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit underwhelmed, while some of the voter suppression stuff was pretty abhorrent, I thought building personality profiles and launching targeted ads was pretty mundane at the end of the day. The next level of discussion that interests me is why social media manipulation is so powerful in the first place. If people's beliefs are so heavily influenced by who we communicate with, what are the chances that we are…

> I thought building personality profiles and launching targeted ads was pretty mundane at the end of the day. The next level of discussion that interests me is why social media manipulation is so powerful in the first place. Well, if you push in that direction then the whole narrative falls apart. There is absolutely no evidence that social media based personality profiles are actually effective -- why would knowing…

> social media based personality profiles

It's not based on social media likes, it's a literal 5-factor psychology personality survey [1].

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-personality-test-ca...