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Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

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Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#61

Post by Gibbon1 »

stevehawk wrote: post #56
passivate wrote: post #25

Can Facebook legitimately pivot into any other service/product and still make money? It seems like they're always going to be at odds with privacy/public trust. One one hand, it is extremely sad to see talented engineers at Google/FB work hard on products designed to spy on people, but OTOH, I suppose it could be far worse if these were companies who simply sold our data.

as a ~40yr old it feels like the greatest disappointment of my generation is that most of our brain power went towards making better spyware, click tracking, etc, all in the name of maximizing ad revenue and click through.

Went from designing stupid stuff like cheap audio IC's which meant any teenager with a part time job could afford a bitchin stereo. To designing cool stuff like a wiget that disables a single mother's car when she's a day late on her car payment!!!

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#62

Post by stevehawk »

marto1 wrote: post #4

Wouldn't be surprised if they haven't even written the code to actually delete stuff.

actually, that was the situation at one point. Facebook never wrote the code to delete things from their CDN.. so if you deleted your photo from your profile or album or whatever but someone else still had a link then that photo was still available.

I assume that's changed since 2010 - https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-does-not-erase-user-d...

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#63

Post by zelphirkalt »

gundisclosed wrote: post #7
bicepjai wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about if one deleted the account with them 5 years before and they still follow you. I hope that is stalking.

“When you delete content, it's no longer visible to other users; however, it may continue to exist elsewhere on our systems” This is from FB’s terms and conditions, so I guess they can still keep the data. If you agree to any other website’s terms and conditions saying “any third party can track you”, you have again given permission.

On the other hand consent given once does not imply giving consent forever.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#64

Post by rcoveson »

aardvarkr wrote: post #55
rcoveson wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. If entity A makes billions of dollars by selling everything they know about you, and entity B makes billions of dollars by merely knowing everything they know about you, I much prefer entity A. Entity B and its investors terrify me with the confidence they have in the future returns on that knowledge.

So you’d rather me be able to purchase information about everything you’ve done, down to your gps location from five minutes ago? Even “anonymized” data is trivially easy to de-anonymize with publicly available information. It makes me shudder to think how many apps (like weather channel) are on everyone’s phones that allow companies to sell your current location to the highest bidder. It’s shockingly pervasive.

If you can purchase it then so can I, so yes, I would absolutely prefer that. Better than Facebook building up a totally proprietary information hoard. If Facebook knows it, I consider it lost anyway.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#65

Post by aierou »

dspillett wrote: post #15
gundisclosed wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess no, because you agreed to terms and conditions that they can.

For those who have signed up. What about "shadow profiles"?

It seems that the term "shadow profile" refers to a feature where Facebook retains contact information uploaded by other users in order to recommend them as friends if/when you create a profile [1]. For all the fear associated with the term, that's pretty benign. Is there any evidence for a link between these "profiles" and some of the more egregious claims of privacy infringement?

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/firm-facebooks-shadow-profiles...

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#66

Post by mtnGoat »

well this is not a surprise at all. I am pretty sure facebook engineers have outright said the system does not have the capability to delete anything. Their claim was that deleting things "is hard"... id bet that scaling to keep everything forever is much harder.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#67

Post by yosito »

Jaygles wrote: post #2

If someone decided to meticulously track everything I do. Follow me wherever I went. Put a GPS tracker on my car to see everywhere I visit. Peep inside my windows to see what websites I browse. Look over my shoulder at the grocery store to see what items I buy. I would consider that stalking and attempt to file a restraining order against that person. Can I file a restraining order against Facebook? Or Google?

> Can I file a restraining order against Facebook? Or Google?

Not as long as you're maintaining an active relationship with them. First step is to break up and stop using their services entirely.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#68

Post by unyttigfjelltol »

skybrian wrote: post #36
r00fus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because of a 1996 US Federal law, information collected about you is no longer your property, even if there is no business relationship.

When was it ever? Anyone could write an article about you. Articles about specific people are discussed all the time on Hacker News. Usually the person being written about doesn’t get a say about their reputation.

The common law arguably put the question you ask in the hands of a jury.[1] It is public figures whose lives are fodder for public consumption; more generous privacy rules traditionally have applied for the more mediocre among us.

[1] https://law.jrank.org/pages/9409/Privacy-Common-Law.html

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#69

Post by yosito »

nicbou wrote: post #43
ThisWasTaken wrote: post #33

it's funny how when you open an article criticizing how Facebook tracks you the first thing you have to do is go through 70 pages to tell the site you're reading the article on to not track you.

uBlock has a blocklist for cookie notices and other annoyances. Turning it off feels like watching cable TV after a decade of Netflix. It's crazy that we need to go through so much crap (tracking, cookie notices, ads, newsletter prompts, SEO keyword soup) to get the simplest answers. The website I run is deliberately annoyance-free. I see it as a competitive advantage.

There's also a Firefox extension called "I don't care about cookies"

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#70

Post by adamdusty »

rcoveson wrote: post #16
Jaygles wrote: post #2

If someone decided to meticulously track everything I do. Follow me wherever I went. Put a GPS tracker on my car to see everywhere I visit. Peep inside my windows to see what websites I browse. Look over my shoulder at the grocery store to see what items I buy. I would consider that stalking and attempt to file a restraining order against that person. Can I file a restraining order against Facebook? Or Google?

You can't, because all the websites they're tracking you on are actually helping Facebook by choice. They didn't plant a GPS tracker on your car, they paid a bunch of amoral civilians to monitor your movements through the city. Our legal system isn't equipped to handle the majority of free people deciding to act like broad-spectrum stalkers within the span of a few years. Society only works if most people aren't evil…

They didn't plant a GPS tracker, you bought it and use it for navigation, messaging, and social media.
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