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“The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

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Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#41

Post by rodgerd »

Lammy wrote: post #31
na85 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was intentionally "leaked"; the whole thing is a PR move. Facebook's entire business is predicated upon having intimate knowledge of its users and is as such irreconcilable with the concept of privacy.

Why is this downvoted? Zuck decried leaks for years when "leak it to the press" became the only way for rank-and-file employees to affect change on contentious topics, particularly in the wake of Cambridge Analytica. Anything sent to employees these days is 100% expected to be repeated in the press and would be written with that in mind.

> Why is this downvoted?

HN is predominantly ad-tech or ad-tech related people. It's uncomfortable for them.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#42

Post by cratermoon »

rodgerd wrote: post #40
hyperion2010 wrote: post #5

Hilarious. This is not something that employees and engineers have any control over, and framing it like this is passing the buck. Furthermore, user privacy is a fundamental top down engineering decision, not something that any individual can "do better on."

This is like a workplace responding to overwork-related crises (rage quitting, health problems, suicides, etc) by telling people that they need to do some wellness courses. And then telling them to do more work.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#43

Post by rodgerd »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #19

OK, so this is coming from the head of Facebook Reality Labs, i.e. Oculus. Which is incredibly ironic, because Oculus very recently required FB accounts to use the device, which was met with a huge privacy-focused backlash, including from Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus. So either they are planning to reverse that completely anti-privacy decision, or the author is totally full of shit. Can't have it both ways.

> including from Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus.

"I didn't think the leopards would eat my face" could be the theme of 2021.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#44

Post by rodgerd »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #30

Does anyone else hear the echoes of Bill Gates "Trustworthy Computing" memo[1] in this? Granted, it wasn't written by Zuck which would have given it more "oomph" as they say, but still the idea that "Crap, this externally applied criticism of our product now has become too onerous to continue ignoring." It would be a useful legacy if Facebook managed to impact the industry's privacy practices the way Microsoft impact…

> Does anyone else hear the echoes of Bill Gates "Trustworthy Computing" memo[1] in this? Granted, it wasn't written by Zuck which would have given it more "oomph" as they say, but still the idea that "Crap, this externally applied criticism of our product now has become to onerous to continue ignoring."

Not at all.

Nothing about Windows as a money-making product was antithetical to improving security; if anything "making secure computing more readily available to the masses" was in line with "making computers more readily available to the masses" which is something that, for all the many faults of their OSes and business, Microsoft has been pretty successful at.

Facebook is surveillance capitalism. That's the business model. No privacy violations, no Facebook as a multi-billion dollar company.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#45

Post by tassl »

hyperion2010 wrote: post #5

Hilarious. This is not something that employees and engineers have any control over, and framing it like this is passing the buck. Furthermore, user privacy is a fundamental top down engineering decision, not something that any individual can "do better on."

Actually, engineers in big companies have more control than it seems. After all, privacy is not only about intent, but also execution, and care needs to be taken at every level.

Privacy requires engagement from all levels, and I'm this case Facebook seems to be doing the trigger thing after f*** things up quite a bit in the past.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#46

Post by throwaway3699 »

duxup wrote: post #17

Why would "employees" need to be told this? Are we to believe random employees just happen to create these non pirvacy products and the VP(s) at Facebook have nothing to do with it?

It is definitely everyone involved, and having this memo out there means engineers can point towards it when working on a feature that could reduce privacy and try and shift direction slightly.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#47

Post by kantrowitz »

na85 wrote: post #15
hyperion2010 wrote: post #5

Hilarious. This is not something that employees and engineers have any control over, and framing it like this is passing the buck. Furthermore, user privacy is a fundamental top down engineering decision, not something that any individual can "do better on."

It was intentionally "leaked"; the whole thing is a PR move. Facebook's entire business is predicated upon having intimate knowledge of its users and is as such irreconcilable with the concept of privacy.

Hi, I wrote the story. It was not leaked by PR. Did they anticipate it might go out? Perhaps. But consider: Boz wrote it a month ago. If they wanted this out in public, they did a poor job getting it out. This was an internal memo meant for an internal audience to address an internal problem.

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#48

Post by na85 »

kantrowitz wrote: post #47
na85 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was intentionally "leaked"; the whole thing is a PR move. Facebook's entire business is predicated upon having intimate knowledge of its users and is as such irreconcilable with the concept of privacy.

Hi, I wrote the story. It was not leaked by PR. Did they anticipate it might go out? Perhaps. But consider: Boz wrote it a month ago. If they wanted this out in public, they did a poor job getting it out. This was an internal memo meant for an internal audience to address an internal problem.

Who leaked it to you, then?

> This was an internal memo meant for an internal audience to address an internal problem.

Do you actually think this can address "the problem" or is it performance?

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#49

Post by Lammy »

rodgerd wrote: post #40
hyperion2010 wrote: post #5

Hilarious. This is not something that employees and engineers have any control over, and framing it like this is passing the buck. Furthermore, user privacy is a fundamental top down engineering decision, not something that any individual can "do better on."

This is like a workplace responding to overwork-related crises (rage quitting, health problems, suicides, etc) by telling people that they need to do some wellness courses. And then telling them to do more work.

Yeah they do that too lol https://en.pingwest.com/a/3649

"Mr. Yin claimed that he watched as his director typed the report of their one-on-one meeting into his computer and pressed the send button. Afterwards, he told his director in a small talk that he was busy with many personal affairs and felt stressed. Unexpectedly, in the email he later received, a company HR emphasized to him that the company offers psychological help and told the contact information to him, which he suspected was the result of his director snitching him out and made him feel betrayed."

Re: “The Big Shift”: Internal Facebook Memo Tells Employees to Do Better on Privacy

#50

Post by est31 »

peterdemic wrote: post #32
est31 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> breaking up Google's search monopoly Google has 90% market share still. I'd thus still call that monopoly unbroken.

You may have missed the invisible tag on the post above.

Yeah now that you say it I see it too.
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