Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#141

Post by freehunter » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 1:46 PM UTC

criley wrote: post #138

infinita740 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, google know your home and where your workplace is but doesn't publish it to everyone. Facebook did that with a lot of information. Plus it may change how things behave without you agreement (think of @facebook.com emails) Google also use that data to provide a service (automatically call the navigation app to came back home at night or just give you a reminder on places you go every week). I doon't think facebo…

Facebook doesn't publish that information for me. It's PAINFULLY EASY to mark that information private, and to go into the Platform settings and make sure your friends "cannot bring your information with them into apps and websites". It's two screens and takes about thirty seconds for you to control your Facebook and how much data leaves it. Seriously guys, don't blame Facebook for your incompetence with their privac…

A few years ago it was easy to blame Facebook for their privacy settings. They would make a privacy change and override your previous settings. Then the federal government stepped in and forced them to honor your explicitly chosen settings.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#142

Post by dmlorenzetti » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 1:47 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #77

scott_meade wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to consider if it's really your or my job to call on the government to "protect" other people that don't think about the implications. My answer would be sorry, but no.

Who said anything about the government??

The original post ends with this: "We need to ask our legislative representatives to understand that Facebook wants to go from our desktops and browsers right into our home-- the place where we need to be private."

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#143

Post by Nursie » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 1:55 PM UTC

dmlorenzetti wrote: post #142

Nursie wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said anything about the government??

The original post ends with this: "We need to ask our legislative representatives to understand that Facebook wants to go from our desktops and browsers right into our home-- the place where we need to be private."

LOL. I guess the 7 people who upvoted me didn't read to the end of the article either :)

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#144

Post by freehunter » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 2:00 PM UTC

cbeach wrote: post #134

"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" If "the problem" is more relevant advertising, I for one, welcome Facebook Home. When advertising becomes useful to me I might stop blocking it.

It's a controversial topic, but I agree. If the privacy issue is handled properly (advertisers are not allowed to access any data about you) and the ads are not terribly intrusive, advertising based on what I'm actually interested in and looking for is useful. I'm not the kind of person who gets irrationally angry about any advertising at all, only if it gets in the way of what I'm trying to do at the moment.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#145

Post by leephillips » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 2:03 PM UTC

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #135

Everything he's complaining about is a feature in Google Now. Google Now does know where my house is based on where I stay during the night. It figured out where my girlfriend lives, and tries to route me there sometimes. It knows where I work. It knows when I'm expecting a package from eBay, where I shop, where I go to eat out. Based on those signals, it probably knows how much disposable income I have. This is just…

"I trust our Google Overlords to not use my personal information for evil."

What do you consider "evil"? You must already accept that they are, or plan to, sell your personal information to advertisers - because why else would they bother setting this service up? Purely for your convenience? So you've made your peace with that, and don't consider it evil, which is entirely up to you. But someone else may feel very differently about this.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#146

Post by mattmaroon » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 2:11 PM UTC

ashleyblackmore wrote: post #110

mattmaroon wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention most OEMs put a custom launcher of some sort on their Android devices already and pretty much always have. I don't see Facebook as being any more odious than Samsung just because they know I like The Black Keys and Mad Men too. My phone's manufacturer could collect much more personal information about me than Facebook does. For all I know they're recording all my calls and uploaded them somewhere. Real…

Once again, "Black Keys and Mad Men" is different to "your personal history, your friends, what you look like, what your friends look like, what you like, what your friends like, who you talk to, what you talk about, what your friends talk about, which services you subscribe to, where you went to school, where you worked, when you worked, when you graduated, when you began a relationship, when you ended a relationshi…

This wasn't a useful critique though, it was idiotic scaremongering. If the article gave some useful reasons why you maybe shouldn't install this (they can track your movements and sell ads to people near you in real time) that'd be one thing. But it was idiocy like "they'll see what apps you use and clone them!" or gibberish like "they can access the hardware!"

It's pure linkbait and Om should be ashamed for writing something so poor.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#147

Post by mattmaroon » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 2:13 PM UTC

andrewaylett wrote: post #129

trhtrsh wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FB was already pre-installed and non-removable on many Anroid devices (including first-party Google devices!), so that's not a big change.

Recent Android versions include the ability to disable built-in applications. I've got an S3, and I've successfully disabled all of the bundled stuff I don't want as well as most of TouchWiz. There are some Samsung services I can't disable, but they're bits that are non-UI or are hot-swapable and that would break the phone if disabled but not replaced. The stock keyboard and the TouchWiz launcher fall into this categ…

If you really care, root your phone and then you can get rid of anything with Titanium Backup. Or you can do what I do and just install CyanogenMod on it. (Both are admittedly too much effort for the general public but not much for many people here.)

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#148

Post by danilocampos » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 4:24 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #140

danilocampos wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Except for the part where no other app collects or maintains anywhere near as much data about your personal history, your friends, what you look like, what your friends look like, what you like, what your friends like, who you talk to, what you talk about, what your friends talk abo…

Well, any other app could. Facebook is not exclusive in having access to this information, they're just one of the few asking you for it. Every other app could ask for it as well.

> Every other app could ask for it as well.

They really couldn't. Facebook benefits from network effects they've spent years building. You pour data into Facebook because your friends are there. Other apps would find the same data much harder to collect at scale.

Regardless, this isn't a hypothetical could situation. Facebook is real. And Facebook does these things. More successfully than anyone else. And now they want to saddle up on your phone's most-used piece of UI. All that data, floating past that one crucial screen. Now.

That's a big responsibility for a company with a less-than-stellar track record on privacy.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#149

Post by rayiner » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

onedev wrote: post #124

rayiner wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to the extent that Google+ is a wannabe Facebook, it can't be any better, right? Without getting into an argument of which is worse, I think ultimately Facebook is more dangerous. Facebook has tremendous network effects and lock-down effects. I can switch from Google to DDG easily, but as long as my family in Bangladesh uses Facebook to post pictures of my nieces and nephews, my ability to switch away from Face…

You know advertisers collect data about what you watch on TV? Certain channels cater to certain type of people so ad buyers would buy ads based on demographics of a certain show (for example, Shark Tank has one of the highest avg income audiences in the country, so it would make sense for Mercedes to advertise when the show airs) . People seem to forget that it was the original targeted advertising. You subliminally…

> You know advertisers collect data about what you watch on TV?

Not unless you have a Nielsen box.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#150

Post by dreamdu5t » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 5:26 PM UTC

I am so... so... fucking sick of Facebook privacy articles. Don't want Facebook? Don't install their app and use their service. End of discussion - years ago.