Almost everything grows “exponentially” when it grows (companies, population, virus infections etc). When exponent is 0.000000001 it is also “exponential” grows. And decline is also usually “exponential”. It is basic math and common sense. The author actually meant “fast”, and the word “exponential” is a marker of poor quality title.
‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
121–130 of 155 posts
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but they don't recommend random people who are nearby I think that's probably true. You need to spend sufficient time near someone--like within a few feet or so. I had an interesting experience where Facebook recommended me as a friend to someone I sat next to on an airplane, with whom I had a conversation with. My phone was in airplane mode. Not sure how that happened, TBH!
It could be based on connecting to the same in-flight WiFi.
And you might be able to correlate seating with WiFi strength? :)
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#123> A sex worker found Facebook recommending her clients, who did not know her true identity. A sperm donor got a suggestion for the biological child he never met. A psychiatrist learned that Facebook was recommending that some of her patients friend each other on the service. It is amazing how little pieces of information that are likely innocuous by themselves can be combined to develop a pretty thorough understandin…
The first and last must just be geolocation based, right? Like, these two people are in a room together every X day for Y hours... they probably know each other. The sperm donor guy, though... facial recognition? No idea.
In the recent events, like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22178917 we have learned that there is a lot of data moving around, including various third-parties.
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#124Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This attitude of "we know what's good for you" is apparent in more and more modern tech products. I find it pretty gross... It's even grosser than that. The attitude here is really "we did what was good for us, but we think you're dumb enough to be convinced we did it because it was good for you."
I think at least some engineers genuinely believe they're doing what's best for the users and that it just so happens to also be either the best for their personal bottom line or the easiest route to go with their product.
Also, company cultures get trimmed towards it. "Googlers" are one example. I don't think employees call themselves Facebookers, since that sounds like client for prostitution, but they probably have something else.
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#126Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I understand the rank hypocrisy here, tech billionaires have a slightly different risk calculation than your average Joe. For example, Jeff Bezos's iPhone was hacked by a nation state using zero day exploits of video playback, delivered via a person message from its head of state. People like Bezos and Zuckerberg are on the wrong end of James Mickens's "Mossad or not-Mossad" threat model and should be taking di…
The people's whose weddings got bombed by drones, or who get thrown in jail for having the same skin color and being in the same city block as an alleged perpetrator, may see it differently from you.
There is indeed a lot wrong in this world.
What you describe is an additional problem. A normal person targeted by a blackmailer over their sexual history would be a closer model, although even then it would still not be close to the level of a state sponsored attack on you personally — that can include combining the drones with accurate information rather than whatever led to them hitting weddings, or it could be as mild as Van Eck phreaking to find what you’re looking/who you’re talking to at no matter how well you encrypt the connection.
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#128> A sex worker found Facebook recommending her clients, who did not know her true identity. A sperm donor got a suggestion for the biological child he never met. A psychiatrist learned that Facebook was recommending that some of her patients friend each other on the service. It is amazing how little pieces of information that are likely innocuous by themselves can be combined to develop a pretty thorough understandin…
I mean, they're creepingly good sometimes. I once met a lady in the streets, we exchanged numbers and sent a few messages but never saw each other again. Facebook recommended her to me. I used whatsapp to text her, so I assume Facebook crossed some data and suggested her to me.
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Happened to me a few times, some people I randomly met in a bar where recommended to me the next day, super creepy.
Could not be because they checked you out by name on facebook?
Possible, although I've only given them my first name. And this is not just on one occasions, it has happened multiple times. My best guess has always been that Facebook uses some geo targeting to see who was at the same location at the same time.
Re: ‘People You May Know’ helped Facebook grow exponentially
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Billions of people used PYMK and are generally happy with it and Facebook in general. You might be right, but that isn't necessarily so. I'm on Facebook, I hate many of it's features, the product design decisions and I think they are hostile and predatory. Wherever a knob was made available I changed it from the default to the more private setting. But I'm still on Facebook because I have no other option for effect…
> But I'm still on Facebook because I have no other option for effective communication with my globally distributed family and with the local tech community. But this speaks directly to the crux of this issue mentioned in the article that you take issue with. Growth team tactics got people on the site and kept them engaged, and having a large and mostly comprehensive network makes it valuable to users. So when you fi…
Nope, I found my family directly and the community is in the groups. I believe I never used the People You May know box myself. I may have been added as a friend by someone using the feature, but probably not anyone that I actually care about being connected to.