Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly. This was probably (hopefully) a bug.
Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
151–160 of 430 posts
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need to nip this in the bud. Maybe it's time to create a Hippocratic Oath for developers to publicly commit to? A future Path developer could then refuse to implement an unethical "feature" by pointing out that the company had hired them with the full knowledge that the oath had been undertaken. I don't think the company would pink slip the developer, as they would probably want to avoid any attention being drawn…
>Maybe it's time to create a Hippocratic Oath for developers to publicly commit to? This is silly. Stop trying to add grandeur to writing some code at X,Y startup/company. People don't die or get harmed when some social-messaging application spams someone. Code is a way to implement an idea. Most applications exist to make money. If this a shock to you, read the user agreement before installing/upgrading, uninstall t…
I disagree. As a computer engineer in Canada, I must swear by the Code of Ethics because what I do (or potentially don't do) can cause harm.
Ethics in computer-science-related fields are important and I think we do need a set of rules we can dogmatically follow like the Hippocratic Oath. Of course, the HO is different in that failing to follow can cause physical harm. However, the world is progressing quickly and more and more information is hosted online -- personal information.
I think it's our jobs to make sure we don't promote poor practice and un-ethical behaviour.
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I really cannot blame them Shitty behavior does not stop being shitty behavior because you have bills to pay. And it's not even in the "understandable under duress" area of shitty; Path isn't a person with a starving child and that dude's contact list isn't a loaf of bread. If your company can't exist without being shitty, your company shouldn't exist.
I completely agree with you on "If your company can't exist without being shitty, your company shouldn't exist.". However, here in VC-stanm the behavior like this is considered "hacking the growth" and something which is not considered a bad thing. So unfortunately, you cannot play the game here (ok, you can play but no big money will bet on you) if you not ready to do things like this.
I'm OK with that game not being played. That spam-calling random people at 6AM is not an immediate "get the fuck out of my office" is probably a pretty good indication that something is deeply rotten in, as you put it, "VC-stan."
But you can get on TechCrunch, so it's gotta be okay, right? :(
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those with WordPress installs who want to survive an HN frontpage: 1. if you don't have sudo, use the W3 Total Cache plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/ 2. if you have sudo: 2a. the easy way: apt-get install memcached, add the pecl memcache extension, and use object-cache.php http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/memcached/trunk/object-cache.php and batcache http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/b…
Using CloudFlare or Google Page Speed Service is also a good idea to further optimize!
Or:
# /var/spool/cron/crontabs/apache
*/2 * * * * ( cd /var/www/htdocs && [ ! -e .mlan.lock ] && touch .mlan.lock && wget -q -O tmp.html http://www.mywebsite.com/blogs/my-long-article-name/ && mv -f tmp.html my-long-article-name.html && rm -f .mlan.lock )
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#155At times like these I feel the best I can do is pay with my downloads (or vise versa). I just deleted Path; I recommend others do the same.
I just deleted my account as well. I never really used the app due to a lack of traction within my own circle of friends, but now I have an even better reason to rid myself of the thing.
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's a great idea. Drafting a version of it right now.
I wrote up something quite quickly: http://maxmackie.com/2013/04/30/The-Turing-Oath:-The-Promise... "The Turing Oath" is on Github ( https://github.com/maxmackie/Turing-Oath/blob/master/README.... ) and I recommend people contribute and we grow this to become something people recognize.
While I viscerally agree with this:
But I'm not sure if Turing, who is not well known for having had anything to do with privacy is the right person for this oath.
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#157The article is wrong and a linkbait.
1. Was the feature designed badly? Yes. Friends should be unchecked by default.
2. Did Path call anyone? No. That's a service from phone providers when a text is sent to a landline.
3. Did Path sent texts without permission of the user? No. But the feature was designed in a way that many people just tapped yes and didn't uncheck their contacts.
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#158This is the last straw I am definitely not buying any more stickers from Path.
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
This doesn't sound very difficult to verify. Go to play.google.com. Search for path. First result in the app store. Click on Permissions. "This application has access to the following: ... blah blah blah ... This permission allows the app to use the camera at any time without your confirmation. ... blah blah blah ... read your contacts Allows the app to read data about your contacts stored on your tablet ... blah bla…
Can you actually prevent an app from using one or more of those permissions? Like can I give it permission to my camera but not to the call log?
There is no official support for this AFAIK. Some 3rd party ROMs like Cyanogenmod have this functionality built in, though, and if you root your phone there are apps like "Permissions Denied" that you can run to do this.
I'd assume the reason Google is somewhat hesitant to offer this officially is that many apps don't deal well with this -- some do degrade gracefully, while others end up throwing task-ending exceptions because the app code just never planned for not being able to do some task which requires permissions declared in the manifest.
Re: Path texts my entire phonebook at 6 AM
#160Why is it even possible for this to happen? Did someone really think it was a bright idea to provide an API to access people's personal data, and if so, why doesn't the phone tell them that before letting them install the app? On top of all of that, why wouldn't the phone provide a setting to restrict all personal/identifying information from being accessed by the app?
It most likely does warn users but most people just click 'Accept' on all those "ABC application wants access to X, Y and Z" warnings.
Right, this form of security is completely ineffective. It’s just like Vista’s Universal Access Control modals: after being shown the first few of the day, you would stop reading them. I suspect EULAs are written to exploit this phenomenon: no-one reads EULAs because they go on forever, so you can bury all kinds of outrageous conditions in there.