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Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

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Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#32

Meta continuing to be the most shameless (and shameful to work for) company around. I can't think of a single product of theirs that hasn't made the world a markedly worse place. Even their recent hardware foray is managing to find a way to ruin trust in everyday interactions (guys filming drunk girls with Ray Bans, surveillance, etc.). Have several friends at the more 'thoughtful' frontier labs that bin meta applica…

WhatsApp

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#34
I'll be the contrarian here.

I think the program was legal and morally fine.

Take into account that these are corporate computers, and the tracking is of work that the company is paying for, so the telemetry, which is highly valuable for analysis and automation, is rightfully theirs.

I also don't think that the purpose of the move was to manage workers and see if they slack off, it was to gather training data, but even if it were, I think that's normal? In any other job managers can, and are expected to, monitor employee productivity, they are paying for it, they need to ensure they are getting something worth. But again, I don't think that was the main goal here.

The computers are not intended for personal usage, if the employee wants to watch netflix, or porn, they are free to do so in their personal computers.

Imagine if this were a construction company, and there's a foreman watching the employees output, and the machine operators have their actions logged so that the machines can be automated in the future. Doesn't it sound reasonable? Is this very different at all?

So yeah, maybe a lot of people see Meta and computer tracking and immediately jump to 1984, but I kind of like nuance more than knee jerk reactions, or jumping into a narrative that we enjoy being angry about.

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#35
post #34

I'll be the contrarian here. I think the program was legal and morally fine. Take into account that these are corporate computers, and the tracking is of work that the company is paying for, so the telemetry, which is highly valuable for analysis and automation, is rightfully theirs. I also don't think that the purpose of the move was to manage workers and see if they slack off, it was to gather training data, but ev…

> I also don't think that the purpose of the move was to manage workers and see if they slack off, it was to gather training data, but even if it were, I think that's normal?

This is the cost of losing consumer trust over two decades of untrustworthy acts.

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#36
post #32

Meta continuing to be the most shameless (and shameful to work for) company around. I can't think of a single product of theirs that hasn't made the world a markedly worse place. Even their recent hardware foray is managing to find a way to ruin trust in everyday interactions (guys filming drunk girls with Ray Bans, surveillance, etc.). Have several friends at the more 'thoughtful' frontier labs that bin meta applica…

WhatsApp

I think OP’s point is that it was bought not made similar to Instagram.

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#37
post #22
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your options are: 1. Find another job 2. Don’t find another job You can’t say “where else can I work” like you have no agency over your life. Everyone chooses every day to do what they do that day. You don’t get to be morally absolved because you’re choosing the easy path and you’re “stuck”. I’m sure there are plenty of places that pay less that would love to have talented remote employees.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. Maybe a little preachy, but the gist of the point isn't incorrect

People don’t particularly care for platitudes from anonymous people on the internet. Even less so when they reduce a complex dilemma in your life to a binary choice between an “easy and amoral” option and a “difficult but righteous” one.

Most people make compromises inside imperfect systems. The person casting judgment almost certainly has their own moral compromises too, except those they understand, contextualize, rationalize, and forgive themselves for.

It’s just tiresome. There may not be a ton of context, but even knowing that someone is bound to a particular place because of caregiving responsibilities should be enough to invite a little more empathy and grace, and a lot less judgment.

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#38
post #34

I'll be the contrarian here. I think the program was legal and morally fine. Take into account that these are corporate computers, and the tracking is of work that the company is paying for, so the telemetry, which is highly valuable for analysis and automation, is rightfully theirs. I also don't think that the purpose of the move was to manage workers and see if they slack off, it was to gather training data, but ev…

As it turns out, they did watch porn: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/meta-says-porn-d...

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#39
post #32

Meta continuing to be the most shameless (and shameful to work for) company around. I can't think of a single product of theirs that hasn't made the world a markedly worse place. Even their recent hardware foray is managing to find a way to ruin trust in everyday interactions (guys filming drunk girls with Ray Bans, surveillance, etc.). Have several friends at the more 'thoughtful' frontier labs that bin meta applica…

WhatsApp

[deleted]

Re: Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak

#40
post #32

Meta continuing to be the most shameless (and shameful to work for) company around. I can't think of a single product of theirs that hasn't made the world a markedly worse place. Even their recent hardware foray is managing to find a way to ruin trust in everyday interactions (guys filming drunk girls with Ray Bans, surveillance, etc.). Have several friends at the more 'thoughtful' frontier labs that bin meta applica…

WhatsApp

Nitpick: Facebook bought WhatsApp, it didn't make it.
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