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Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

zdnet.com

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Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#71

Post by Silhouette »

rwolf wrote: post #70
Silhouette wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but it is wrong for them to start plugging that number into some database of telesales people they feel like working with. (Edit: To those downvoting, do you not like the analogy, or do you not agree with the ethical principle?)

I believe sorbus's comment covers it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2730277

I don't really see why. The world is not black and white. I tell my friends things that are sensitive all the time, and they understand that as a matter of simple good manners and common courtesy they would keep that information between us. How come as soon as we're on the Internet, suddenly all the shades of gray disappear, and I either trust someone with my entire life story to do with as they wish or I don't trust them at all?

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#72

Post by Silhouette »

sorbus wrote: post #52
brendano wrote: post #51

There is a legitimate question here -- do you own the information about your friends, or do your friends? Many things on Facebook are a shared quasi-public, quasi-private space where the ownership isn't clear, and don't fit into our usual mental model of "I own my own data!" This example is even clearer. The app lets you export your friends' names and contact information. This isn't your information, it's your friend…

> What if one of them wanted to take their phone number off the site? What if one of them wanted to hide their information from you specifically? If you've downloaded it already you're depriving them of the right to control their own data. Consider how ridiculous that would sound if you asked "What if one of your friends had emailed you their phone number and wanted to remove your access to it (or had emailed you and…

You never tell your friends secrets in real life, and trust them not to tell the rest of the world?

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#73

Post by Lewisham »

mapgrep wrote: post #57
Locke1689 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, if you go into Google+ and go to your account settings, you'll see a link called "Data Liberation." This link will allow you to download all of your data -- contacts, posts, pictures; everything -- and take it wherever you like. The Data Liberation Front is Google's project to make sure that you can withdraw your data from all Google sites as you please. Disclaimer: I'm a Google intern this summer.

Does the export include email addresses? Facebook offers an "export" too, but you just end up with HTML pages with your friends' names and no contact info.

So I just looked into what's in the VCards.

How it works is you get all your contacts, and the data you're authorized to see. So, people who you're just following and aren't sharing anything with you, just appear as Google Plus links. People who have you in their circles and are sharing their email address with you will also have their email address attached.

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#74

Post by moheeb »

Silhouette wrote: post #71
rwolf wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe sorbus's comment covers it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2730277

I don't really see why. The world is not black and white. I tell my friends things that are sensitive all the time, and they understand that as a matter of simple good manners and common courtesy they would keep that information between us. How come as soon as we're on the Internet, suddenly all the shades of gray disappear, and I either trust someone with my entire life story to do with as they wish or I don't trust…

When you tell your friends, the information loss over distance and time eventually makes the words turn to shades of grey.

The internet preserves those words in their original state, black and white, which makes them stick out against the shades of grey composing the background.

Even simpler...when your friends die, with them go the words you have shared. Not so with the internet. It appears to be immortal.

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#75

Post by chc »

Silhouette wrote: post #65
chc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't fool yourself. If they're not that trustworthy, you shouldn't be friending them, because preventing known Chrome extensions from doing this does not prevent the other 5000 ways (including a pen and paper) of doing the same thing.

I would be offended if my friends started giving out my personal details to random businesses using a pen and paper, too. I don't personally use Facebook, having abandoned it almost immediately precisely because my friends were collectively volunteering all kinds of information that I considered private. Today, my friends know this is my view and it's not a problem, nor am I the only one of my group who takes this vi…

But this isn't a random business. They decided, intentionally, that they wanted to put your personal information in there. True story: I have manually entered personal information (name, email, birthday, phone number) for many of my friends into my email accounts' address books over the years. They have done the same to me. It's expected.

That's what I was saying: If you're going to let people see all your personal info, it should be people you would trust to use that info properly. Facebook stopping Google from importing your info but allowing Yahoo to do so won't protect you at all.

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#76

Post by roldon332 »

Silhouette wrote: post #71
rwolf wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe sorbus's comment covers it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2730277

I don't really see why. The world is not black and white. I tell my friends things that are sensitive all the time, and they understand that as a matter of simple good manners and common courtesy they would keep that information between us. How come as soon as we're on the Internet, suddenly all the shades of gray disappear, and I either trust someone with my entire life story to do with as they wish or I don't trust…

You are confusing trust with the right to have an address book. if you give me your phone number I can save that number in my Verizon cell phone, then when I switch to ATT I can move the number to my ATT cell phone. That IS a black and white issue.

Because I demand the right to move phone numbers to my new phone, does not mean that I demand the right to sell your phone number to telemarketers or send your phone number to sex offenders. Doing things like that would make me a shitty friend. And being a shitty friend is totally unrelated to what websites/phones I store contact information on

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#77

Post by Silhouette »

roldon332 wrote: post #76
Silhouette wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see why. The world is not black and white. I tell my friends things that are sensitive all the time, and they understand that as a matter of simple good manners and common courtesy they would keep that information between us. How come as soon as we're on the Internet, suddenly all the shades of gray disappear, and I either trust someone with my entire life story to do with as they wish or I don't trust…

You are confusing trust with the right to have an address book. if you give me your phone number I can save that number in my Verizon cell phone, then when I switch to ATT I can move the number to my ATT cell phone. That IS a black and white issue. Because I demand the right to move phone numbers to my new phone, does not mean that I demand the right to sell your phone number to telemarketers or send your phone numbe…

> You are confusing trust with the right to have an address book.

And most of the people in this discussion are confusing the right to have an address book (which you control and to which only you have access) with giving someone else's personal data to Google (a global giant that would squish you like a bug if it meant a 0.001% increase in its data mining efficiency, with absolutely no loyalty to either you or the person whose data you are providing to it). Is that clear enough?

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#78

Post by Silhouette »

chc wrote: post #75
Silhouette wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be offended if my friends started giving out my personal details to random businesses using a pen and paper, too. I don't personally use Facebook, having abandoned it almost immediately precisely because my friends were collectively volunteering all kinds of information that I considered private. Today, my friends know this is my view and it's not a problem, nor am I the only one of my group who takes this vi…

But this isn't a random business. They decided, intentionally, that they wanted to put your personal information in there. True story: I have manually entered personal information (name, email, birthday, phone number) for many of my friends into my email accounts' address books over the years. They have done the same to me. It's expected. That's what I was saying: If you're going to let people see all your personal i…

It's not my friends I don't trust, it's Google.

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#79

Post by chc »

Silhouette wrote: post #78
chc wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this isn't a random business. They decided, intentionally, that they wanted to put your personal information in there. True story: I have manually entered personal information (name, email, birthday, phone number) for many of my friends into my email accounts' address books over the years. They have done the same to me. It's expected. That's what I was saying: If you're going to let people see all your personal i…

It's not my friends I don't trust, it's Google.

Then you should ask your friends not to enter your info into their Gmail address books, and only give your info to you people you trust to honor that request. That's where the trust comes in. If you give your info to people, you must trust that they will not misuse it, whatever "misuse" means to you. Google's import tool would not sneak onto your friends' computers at night and surreptitiously import your data against their wishes, and lacking that tool will not stop your friends from "giving" your info to Google.

Facebook blocking one method for one company to import your data is not security; it's just corporate warfare.

Re: Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends

#80

Post by roldon332 »

Silhouette wrote: post #77
roldon332 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are confusing trust with the right to have an address book. if you give me your phone number I can save that number in my Verizon cell phone, then when I switch to ATT I can move the number to my ATT cell phone. That IS a black and white issue. Because I demand the right to move phone numbers to my new phone, does not mean that I demand the right to sell your phone number to telemarketers or send your phone numbe…

> You are confusing trust with the right to have an address book. And most of the people in this discussion are confusing the right to have an address book (which you control and to which only you have access) with giving someone else's personal data to Google (a global giant that would squish you like a bug if it meant a 0.001% increase in its data mining efficiency, with absolutely no loyalty to either you or the p…

So google is going to sell me out? But facebook isn't? What about Verizon? How do you know what companies to trust with private information?
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