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FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

myhealthyapple.com

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Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#11

Post by ldrndll »

dessant wrote: post #4

Facebook's concept of informed consent is a cynical joke, and we can only laud companies and governments that rein in on their bordeline-illegal practices. I've recently signed up for Facebook to use Wit.ai, and have gone through account settings to lock down the account as much as possible. It took me about an hour to set everything to private in this new account, and I'm still not sure what would happen if I start…

Careful. I opened a Facebook account to help my wife with administering FB ads for her business. Everything was fine, until I went through and locked down my privacy settings, and within 24 hours my account got suspended.I had to provide a phone number to unlock my account. Within a day or two it got suspended again. This time I had to upload a photo to unlock it. The cynic in me believes that this was just so that they had enough information to identify me and match me to my shadow profile.

Needless to say after that they declined to reinstate my account - without any recourse or right of reply - due to community policy violations. Given that my only contribution was managing ads - and my wife’s account remains unsuspended despite managing the same ads - I’m left drawing conclusions from my own anecdata that they very much don’t like having overly privacy focused accounts.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#12

Post by dessant »

ldrndll wrote: post #11
dessant wrote: post #4

Facebook's concept of informed consent is a cynical joke, and we can only laud companies and governments that rein in on their bordeline-illegal practices. I've recently signed up for Facebook to use Wit.ai, and have gone through account settings to lock down the account as much as possible. It took me about an hour to set everything to private in this new account, and I'm still not sure what would happen if I start…

Careful. I opened a Facebook account to help my wife with administering FB ads for her business. Everything was fine, until I went through and locked down my privacy settings, and within 24 hours my account got suspended.I had to provide a phone number to unlock my account. Within a day or two it got suspended again. This time I had to upload a photo to unlock it. The cynic in me believes that this was just so that t…

That is exactly what happened to my Facebook account, and it only got reinstated after this issue: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/30395

Though mine was probably locked solely because of the way I've metodically checked out every configuration option, and used Firefox with fingerprint protection enabled.

This whole ordeal made me realize that Facebook is sitting on personal data from possibly millions of profiles that are banned. I've read several reports about people logging in years after the account got suspended, and their personal data is still downloadable, but they are not offered further control of the data, such as deletion, which is illegal in the EU.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#13

Post by Despegar »

jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

I haven't gotten that popup. Are you sure that's actually a meaningful choice you can make and not just a test to see how many people are going to opt-in when this finally rolls out in iOS?

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#14

Post by snapetom »

baybal2 wrote: post #6

What business does FTC has with internet advertising?

In case anyone is thinking the FTC is sticking its nose where it doesn't belong, the article doesn't illustrate that. It seems like the FTC basically came in and asked Apple "What's going on here?" All was apparently well when Apple doubled down on their position after that FTC meeting.

The title is a bit click-baitey.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#15

Post by stingraycharles »

jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

Yeah I’m honestly not sure how anyone can make a case against giving users a choice with a straight face. We’re already conditioned to all these annoying GDPR pop ups anyway, so it’s not like another one would disrupt the status quo. Besides, contrary to the GDPR “consent” pop-ups, this upcoming iOS one actually has a useful impact.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#17

Post by jedberg »

Despegar wrote: post #13
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

I haven't gotten that popup. Are you sure that's actually a meaningful choice you can make and not just a test to see how many people are going to opt-in when this finally rolls out in iOS?

No idea. Since I said yes my experience didn't change. Could be a test of some sort.

I'm on the iOS beta so that might have something to do with it.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#18

Post by monocularvision »

Despegar wrote: post #13
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

I haven't gotten that popup. Are you sure that's actually a meaningful choice you can make and not just a test to see how many people are going to opt-in when this finally rolls out in iOS?

Have you maybe turned off the ability for apps to ask at all? I have.

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#19

Post by overlordalex »

Despegar wrote: post #13
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

I haven't gotten that popup. Are you sure that's actually a meaningful choice you can make and not just a test to see how many people are going to opt-in when this finally rolls out in iOS?

I'm on Android and I get this popup in Instagram every few months (I'm assuming because I decline every time), so I doubt it's iOS related

Re: FTC commissioner met with Apple regarding Facebook’s iOS 14 complaints

#20

Post by macjohnmcc »

Despegar wrote: post #13
jedberg wrote: post #10

I was recently met with a new popup in the Instagram app, asking me to allow it to track me across applications. I actually said yes, because I get great targeted ads in Instagram and Facebook. I've clicked on multiple ads and actually even made purchases of things that I didn't know about that looked interesting. But the important part is that I do it willingly. I'm glad they were forced to ask -- not everyone is ok…

I haven't gotten that popup. Are you sure that's actually a meaningful choice you can make and not just a test to see how many people are going to opt-in when this finally rolls out in iOS?

The App showed a message asking if I would prefer targeted ads. It just asked me yesterday so there is hope for you!
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