Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

gigaom.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 158 posts

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#21

Post by orangethirty »

yalogin wrote: post #10

The article brings up a very good point about FB getting access to a lot more user data on the phone outside of their app since they essentially are replacing the app launcher as well. Google gets access to all this data by owning the OS. FB in that sense made a brilliant play. It kind of corrupts google's data collection as well since all user interaction will be going through the FB Home app now. Also its kind of n…

You think Google will let that happen? They are enemies competing for the same market. What I think will happen is that Facebook will fork Android, offer facebook edition phones, and simply one up google. How come? Google is awfully bad at marketing, and Facebook is not.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#22

Post by mattmaroon »

This is idiotic. For one, it's no secret which apps are popular. Facebook doesn't need a trojan horse to figure that out, they just need to look at App Annie.

For another, any app with location services permissions can do exactly what he's describing.

Also what does "Android allows Facebook to do whatever it wants on the platform, and that means accessing the hardware as well," mean? Unless you're rolling your own version of Android (is that what's on the HTC First?) that's simply not true. You have access to a few things you don't on iOS but it's not "whatever you want" if you're putting it in the Play app store.

As far as I can tell this is just another third party launcher with the same privacy implications as any app that has GPS permissions.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#23

Post by SkittlesNTwix »

I know this doesn't ring true for most people, but I'm actively looking to distance myself from facebook. It doesn't make me "happy" for the most part. It doesn't add to my overall level of fulfillment. Most of my "friends" on fb aren't real friends and often I'm not truly interested in what they're doing. These are all common complaints - nothing new here, but they're all the reason why I'm not interested in incorporating what fb already does, more deeply into my life.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#24

Post by Noted »

dsfasfasf wrote: post #6
jfernandez wrote: post #2

"This future is going to happen – and it is too late to debate. However, the problem is that Facebook is going to use all this data — not to improve our lives — but to target better marketing and advertising messages at us." A little sensationalized? It's most definitely a strong mix of both sides, not everyone at Facebook is "evil". Honestly I think most of us can agree Facebook on average is useful service that has…

>>It's most definitely a strong mix of both sides, not everyone at Facebook is "evil". Devil's Advocate: Note everyone in the third reich was evil. p.s. No need to mention Godwin's law. I know about it.

Duly noted

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#25

Post by rayiner »

jfernandez wrote: post #2

"This future is going to happen – and it is too late to debate. However, the problem is that Facebook is going to use all this data — not to improve our lives — but to target better marketing and advertising messages at us." A little sensationalized? It's most definitely a strong mix of both sides, not everyone at Facebook is "evil". Honestly I think most of us can agree Facebook on average is useful service that has…

I don't use the word "evil" pretty much for anybody, but I think the business model is at the very least screwed up. If it's a valuable service, why do they have to be so shady? I'd happily pay facebook $10/month or whatever (I can't imagine they make more than that on ads on me) to use their service. The problem is that they make it seem free, and people just don't understand the extent to which it tracks you. It's the same business model car dealerships use when they try to steer you towards negotiating in terms of monthly payments to avoid your focusing on the bottom line cost--you can get more out of people when you hide the ball about how much your service actually costs them.

Indeed, my non-technical friends have only the vaguest idea that their usage has a correlation with the ads (Facebook isn't exactly full-disclosure about how their targeted ad model works). This is especially true with kids. You think my 13 year old nephew understands the privacy implications of using Facebook?

There is also the worry of what happens when Facebook stops being "the good guys" (which is a possibility for any corporation). What happens when the constant push to meet analyst expectations causes them to monetize user data in more and more insidious ways? I don't think anyone thought at first that the credit card companies were "evil", but the whole credit card/credit score mafia is doing legitimately devestating things to many peoples' lives now. Some people can't get jobs because of their credit scores. What happens when Facebook starts selling user data to employers doing background checks? Do we just assume that Facebook is full of "people like us" so they would never do that?

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#26

Post by untog »

u2328 wrote: post #16

It's concerning to me, because I'm worried about this social network creep over our phones. Of course, I'm not going to install this crap, but if Facebook Home proves successful for Facebook, will Google move in the same direction? (Yes.) We've already seen Google kill off Google Reader in hopes of driving more traffic to Google Plus. This is what prevents me from getting too invested in a mobile ecosystem like Andro…

will Google move in the same direction?

They could already have if they wanted to- they own the code for the stock launcher, after all.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#27

Post by wting »

orangethirty wrote: post #21
yalogin wrote: post #10

The article brings up a very good point about FB getting access to a lot more user data on the phone outside of their app since they essentially are replacing the app launcher as well. Google gets access to all this data by owning the OS. FB in that sense made a brilliant play. It kind of corrupts google's data collection as well since all user interaction will be going through the FB Home app now. Also its kind of n…

You think Google will let that happen? They are enemies competing for the same market. What I think will happen is that Facebook will fork Android, offer facebook edition phones, and simply one up google. How come? Google is awfully bad at marketing, and Facebook is not.

Not too long ago when iOS was released users jumped ship to Android due to the maps fiasco.

If Facebook forks Android, do you think people are willing to give up Google's ecosystem in exchange for Facebook's?

Even if you find Facebook chat / messages a viable replacement for Gtalk / Gmail, this still means no access to Google Play Store.

Amazon was willing to create a second competing marketplace and sell its devices as media players, but Facebook will not have those in place if they fork Android. Do you think Facebook has enough leverage to pull this off?

I don't think so, but since the phone is already in the works time will tell.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#28

Post by LeeHunter »

orangethirty wrote: post #21
yalogin wrote: post #10

The article brings up a very good point about FB getting access to a lot more user data on the phone outside of their app since they essentially are replacing the app launcher as well. Google gets access to all this data by owning the OS. FB in that sense made a brilliant play. It kind of corrupts google's data collection as well since all user interaction will be going through the FB Home app now. Also its kind of n…

You think Google will let that happen? They are enemies competing for the same market. What I think will happen is that Facebook will fork Android, offer facebook edition phones, and simply one up google. How come? Google is awfully bad at marketing, and Facebook is not.

I'm not aware of any significant amount of Facebook marketing (outside of Facebook itself) but quite a lot of good Google marketing. I would have said Google was far more experienced and capable in that area.
Post reply on HN