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American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

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Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#51

Post by nomercy400 »

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #42
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Booking.com is the poster child of 'dark UX patterns' like that.

at the same time the UI is awesome. using booking.com on a regular basis and I'm quite happy with it.

When searching for an accomodation, booking.com offers a map, which shows the price of each accomodation, with filters applied. This is so useful and I wish other travel sites also had this.

A list of a 200 hotels of $50-100 is simply not enough information when searching in an unknown city. I need to narrow down that list, for example with features like a kitchenette (60 hotels left), but also a location near the city center, and not 20-30 minutes away in some suburb (20 hotels left). With booking.com I can now see on a map 20 pins of hotels with their pricing. Ok, some hotels are hostels with a Shared-6 room, which is one filter you cannot actually apply unfortunately (hey booking.com, if you are reading this, this is a hint!).

..then I know the hotel names, and search on the hotel's own site or other travel sites if there are any deals (genius dicounts sometimes help). Sometimes, Booking.com is cheapest, sometimes it is not.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#52

Post by LogonType10 »

throwaway4good wrote: post #25
mettamage wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds pragmatic, I wonder when this approach will backfire though.

I bet the attitude would have been very different had spying been done by China, Russia, Israel, or even the Netherlands itself.

It depends on if the Chinese/Russian/Israel troll farms are working that day.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#54

Post by mclightning »

jacquesm wrote: post #49

If you're a name with brand recognition, and active in a space that allows effective monitoring and/or eavesdropping on the communications of a large number of people then you can consider yourselves either already hacked or a target of various intelligence services. Also beware of employees that are overly eager to have more access than they should have the 'plant' is a very effective way to gain access to data (sup…

> Also beware of employees that are overly eager to have more access than they should

Another side of the coin, I always felt shy to ask for access to tools in big corporations that I worked at, unless I am offered access directly by a manager or co-worker directly.

This can backfire, if you act too strictly around tools, some employees will never even try to get a hold of the tool you potentially pay 100K$+ a year.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#55

Post by jacquesm »

mclightning wrote: post #54
jacquesm wrote: post #49

If you're a name with brand recognition, and active in a space that allows effective monitoring and/or eavesdropping on the communications of a large number of people then you can consider yourselves either already hacked or a target of various intelligence services. Also beware of employees that are overly eager to have more access than they should have the 'plant' is a very effective way to gain access to data (sup…

> Also beware of employees that are overly eager to have more access than they should Another side of the coin, I always felt shy to ask for access to tools in big corporations that I worked at, unless I am offered access directly by a manager or co-worker directly. This can backfire, if you act too strictly around tools, some employees will never even try to get a hold of the tool you potentially pay 100K$+ a year.

Access to tools is one thing, access to unfiltered large amounts of data (say: production database copies, backups, reporting tools that have themselves unfiltered access) are a real risk and should be handed out with great care and oversight.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#56

Post by nix23 »

nomercy400 wrote: post #51
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at the same time the UI is awesome. using booking.com on a regular basis and I'm quite happy with it.

When searching for an accomodation, booking.com offers a map, which shows the price of each accomodation, with filters applied. This is so useful and I wish other travel sites also had this. A list of a 200 hotels of $50-100 is simply not enough information when searching in an unknown city. I need to narrow down that list, for example with features like a kitchenette (60 hotels left), but also a location near the ci…

Have you checked trivago?

https://www.trivago.com/

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#57

Post by pacifika »

joe-collins wrote: post #44

> The specific intelligence organization—of which the United States has 18—is unknown. I certainly couldn't have named them all, so I dug up a list: • Air Force Intelligence • Army Intelligence • Central Intelligence Agency • Coast Guard Intelligence • Defense Intelligence Agency • Department of Energy • Department of Homeland Security • Department of State • Department of the Treasury • Drug Enforcement Administrati…

And the one that can’t be named?

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#58

Post by moooo99 »

nomercy400 wrote: post #51
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at the same time the UI is awesome. using booking.com on a regular basis and I'm quite happy with it.

When searching for an accomodation, booking.com offers a map, which shows the price of each accomodation, with filters applied. This is so useful and I wish other travel sites also had this. A list of a 200 hotels of $50-100 is simply not enough information when searching in an unknown city. I need to narrow down that list, for example with features like a kitchenette (60 hotels left), but also a location near the ci…

The best hotel search engine I have used to date is kayak.de, a company from Berlin. The offer most if not all of the features you described and compare a variety of different booking portals.

I'm not completely sure how biased they are in their ranking. But I've been using this site for the last few years and never had any problems. I recommended this site to a few of my friends who shared my positive experience.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#59

Post by sumedh »

simonswords82 wrote: post #53

Booking.com is to hotels what Ticketmaster is to live events. Total scumbags, terrible customer service, over charging, false promises. I might use booking.com to find a hotel but I'll always book direct once I find one.

> I'll always book direct once I find one.

Sometimes booking direct is expensive and the hotels most of them have a shitty website.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#60

Post by em500 »

moooo99 wrote: post #58
nomercy400 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When searching for an accomodation, booking.com offers a map, which shows the price of each accomodation, with filters applied. This is so useful and I wish other travel sites also had this. A list of a 200 hotels of $50-100 is simply not enough information when searching in an unknown city. I need to narrow down that list, for example with features like a kitchenette (60 hotels left), but also a location near the ci…

The best hotel search engine I have used to date is kayak.de, a company from Berlin. The offer most if not all of the features you described and compare a variety of different booking portals. I'm not completely sure how biased they are in their ranking. But I've been using this site for the last few years and never had any problems. I recommended this site to a few of my friends who shared my positive experience.

kayak.de is owned by the same company (Booking Holdings): https://www.kayak.de/about
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