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Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

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Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#191

Post by Levitz »

jakear wrote: post #2

Man I hate these alarmist hit pieces. - "You cant delete Threads without deleting Instagram altogether": but you can deactivate it. What's the difference, and why do I care? Without including that info, you're useless. - "Threads collects sensitive personal information about you": How? Inferred from the things I post? Well I'll just not post those things. - "Threads collects data about your employment": Same. - "Thre…

I'm sorry to be callous but you just don't understand how any of this works.

You can't just "not post those things". If we are on good terms I can literally just post "Saw you working the bakery this morning, did you skip your morning jog?" and the system already knows where you work and that you are physically active, no input from you required at all.

Facebook already did this with shadow profiles. Facebook has information about me and I have never posted there, I don't even have an account there.

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#192

Post by jen20 »

Silhouette wrote: post #164
_cenw wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your app doesn't easily support redaction of personal data, you have a design flaw to fix.

How are you going to "fix" that "design flaw" when the personal data in question is the result of legally required customer age checks? Evidence needed to support your tax filings? Used to identify and block people who are repeatedly trying to defraud you or breach your security? Subject to a legal hold because it might provide relevant evidence in some legal action between other parties or it's been requested as evi…

> How are you going to "fix" that "design flaw" when the personal data in question is the result of legally required customer age checks? Evidence needed to support your tax filings?

This kind of wilfully ignorant argument is extremely tedious and indicative of the fact that you do not understand the actual construction of the GDPR, or choose to misrepresent it.

Let’s put this nonsense to bed once and for all by quoting the Irish summary [1] of articles 17 and 19:

> You have the right to have your data erased, without undue delay, by the data controller, if one of the following grounds applies:

> - Where your personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected or processed.

> - Where you withdraw your consent to the processing and there is no other lawful basis for processing the data.

Information pertinent to tax records is not collected on the basis of consent, and nor is anything else legally required.

Now please, just stop.

[1]: https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/individuals/know-your-right...

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#193

Post by jen20 »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #166
8fingerlouie wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Payments There's really no complexity there. The right to be forgotten doesn't superseed other laws, and it is required by law in most countries, that transaction data be stored for 5 years plus running year, so in case you request to be forgotten, that can only happen once the mandatory data retainment has expired, which can easily be handled by a "transaction date", and simply run a batch job that matches each us…

There's a lot more to payments than raw transaction data. Payments are usually related to the exchange of goods or services. The delivery data of those could be essential for winning a chargeback dispute or a liability for a customer that asked to be forgotten.

You aren’t holding raw transaction data on the basis of consent, so it doesn’t matter.

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#194

Post by signatoremo »

jen20 wrote: post #185
impulser_ wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would bet over 95% of companies don't comply with GDPR. I know some startups don't serve EU because of this. Facebook is under the microscope of the EU, they probably aren't risking getting fined until they can scale the product and implement the thing they need to lower the fine they would get and make being fined worth it. They are going to get fined most likely, but again 95% of the companies in the world could…

It’s exceptionally easy: one just has to not do shitty things with personal information. Complying if you are doing shitty things with personal information is, by design, impossible - and that is good.

Of course it’s not easy, unless you are saying the European Parliament is doing shitty things with personal information:

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#195

Post by superq »

Keirmot wrote: post #173
WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> interesting to see a big international company actually back up their "we just won't do europe then" that's the most interesting things to me. Whether: 1- Threads is dead in the water 2- They figure it out and makes the EU happy 3- EU is irrelevant enough to be ignored 2- still looks like the most likely 1- would be very embarrassing and 3- would be, indeed, an "interesting" development.

Let me give my 2 cents as an EU citizen. The way I see it is a mix of all of that, but number 3 is the biggest. Twitter is not big here. There’s people who use it, sure, but there’s a reason you don’t see that many EU issue trending on Twitter. Here’s an example out of the top of my head: France is rioting and it barely registered on Twitter. The biggest European market for Twitter is the UK and it has 19M users, the…

> France is rioting

Your point is well taken, and if anything that's a significant understatement. This is one of the most significant protests (or nearly civil war) to occur in France since the Revolution.

> and it barely registered on Twitter.

Indeed. I saw videos of what was happening in Wuhan in late 2019, but tbh it was mostly linked by comments on (where else) HN, so I may not have discovered it via Twitter's own tools.

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#196

Post by superq »

impulser_ wrote: post #151
mellosouls wrote: post #44

Tbh if you are concerned about the privacy and ethics concerns here the biggest red flag is in the subtitle: Meta's Twitter rival launched in over 100 countries today—but not in the EU Anything more is simply detail - if a major launch of this sort of service omits the EU we immediately know exactly why.

I would bet over 95% of companies don't comply with GDPR. I know some startups don't serve EU because of this. Facebook is under the microscope of the EU, they probably aren't risking getting fined until they can scale the product and implement the thing they need to lower the fine they would get and make being fined worth it. They are going to get fined most likely, but again 95% of the companies in the world could…

What's interesting about the GDPR is that it's ambiguous and vague and it seems like "we're ok with that", whereas in the U.S. ambiguity works against the legislators because a court is supposed to rule on the side of the defense if a law is too vague.

In the EU, it's basically expected that the courts will apply the law on a case-by-case basis, which opens the door to inconsistent application of the law and ultimately to selective prosecution.

In the case of Meta, it definitely seems inconsistently applied (even though I hate Meta and would never trust them again). They simply choose the seemingly worst offender (Meta) and try to kick it out of the EU, while leaving alone the actual worst offender (ByteDance). Prosecution becomes a case of politics rather than justice.

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#197

Post by superq »

jen20 wrote: post #185
impulser_ wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would bet over 95% of companies don't comply with GDPR. I know some startups don't serve EU because of this. Facebook is under the microscope of the EU, they probably aren't risking getting fined until they can scale the product and implement the thing they need to lower the fine they would get and make being fined worth it. They are going to get fined most likely, but again 95% of the companies in the world could…

It’s exceptionally easy: one just has to not do shitty things with personal information. Complying if you are doing shitty things with personal information is, by design, impossible - and that is good.

This is an exceptionally charitable interpretation of how easy it is to comply with the GDPR, even if your intentions are good.

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#198

Post by superq »

Keirmot wrote: post #175
Zealotux wrote: post #144

I'm wondering something here, and I humbly ask for feedback: to anyone hyped about Threads, why? Has Meta ever displayed any particular quality regarding content moderation, freedom of speech, privacy, information control, transparency, or mental health? Not implying Twitter is any better, Musk Tweeted, "It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than to indulge in the false happiness of hide…

Im someone who doesn’t have a Facebook account for years, and because I still have the same phone number I had back when I deleted my account I can’t even create a new one. But I still want to check it out when it comes out in the EU. Just to see what it is like. I will probably not use it, because the lack of proper chronological feed irks me, but as an iOS developer I want to check out new apps all the time to see…

As soon as you do, you will accept (and can not change your mind later) the new terms of service (and privacy policy, that is: what this post is about) which also are designed to prohibit you from developing an alternative app.

Just look at screenshots or videos of how it works to satisfy your curiosity.

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#199

Post by [deleted] »

oska wrote: post #140
prox wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we don’t need Twitter for that do we? We have 4chan, parts of the fediverse and so on for unfiltered. Threads is for mainstream. I don’t see that as bad. As someone who was a moderator, sometimes you want that sandwich and not Joe Schmoe stupid verbal trash he thought less than 3 seconds about.

I want to be able to read (former UN weapons nspector) Scott Ritter on twitter. A man with a huge amount of experience and someone who is able to give very informed commentary. On pre-Musk twitter I couldn't read him, now I can. And I could give quite a number of similar examples.

[deleted]

Re: Red flags in the Threads privacy policy

#200

Post by superq »

mongol wrote: post #86
threeseed wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No my problem with Twitter is that the quality of the discourse is poor and getting worse every day. Which is a direct result of Musk deciding to prioritise blue check comments over others. If you're having to pay to have people listen to you then that means you typically don't have something worth saying. And we see this manifest in many ways e.g. pages of laughing emojis in response to a tweet.

> If you're having to pay to have people listen to you then that means you typically don't have something worth saying. This basically invalidates all of advertising in one stroke.

Jimmy James on Advertising (from the 90's sitcom NewsRadio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhrnMbhMgmw
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