Privacy Lawyers Sell Out Facebook Users for $10 Million

Post by hackinthebochs » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 5:50 PM UTC

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #7

maxko87 wrote: post #4

I don't see exactly how this is a violation of privacy, since the same friends that see your advertisements can go to your About page and get that same information from your list of likes.

The violation of privacy is Facebook reserving the right to use your photo on ads served on sites other than Facebook. Inside of Facebook, it's just creepy.

Post by hackinthebochs » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 6:05 PM UTC

tedunangst wrote: post #12

hackinthebochs wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no privacy violation here. This is simply people looking for reasons to hate facebook grasping at straws. They're using your like to remind your friends that you like this particular company who is doing an advertisement. Seems like a tasteful bit of social proof if you ask me. I'm honestly surprised facebook lost this case. They need a fresh set of lawyers.

They didn't really lose. Facebook just tossed them some shakedown money to go away.

Post by maxko87 » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 6:19 PM UTC

goggles99 wrote: post #9

maxko87 wrote: post #4

I don't see exactly how this is a violation of privacy, since the same friends that see your advertisements can go to your About page and get that same information from your list of likes.

Just a guess... Maybe because you have an option to turn that off and this you could not.

Post by extension » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

fleitz wrote: post #16

olivercameron wrote: post #2

This is obviously very troubling for Facebook, considering that Sponsored Stories appear to be their main effort to monetize mobile. It's especially troubling because this is yet another breach of privacy on their part. People liking pages or apps don't expect to be spokespeople for these companies, so showing my name next to an advertisement is disingenuous. It's made even worse that this is opt-out, and my name is…

It's not troubling at all, this setting will be buried in the bowels of the privacy page. 1% of users will actually opt-out. "There is going to be hundreds of millions of people who will never even know that they're recommending products to people, and that's bad." Why? Exactly what is the moral outrage that when a person 'likes' Starbucks that that information is displayed to their friends? What did they think was g…

Post by hackinthebochs » Fri, Jun 22, 2012, 6:42 PM UTC

tijs wrote: post #14

hackinthebochs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing as you're on HN, I'm sure you realize that those facebook widgets that show up on CNN.com are in fact served from facebook owned properties. The domain in the address bar means literally nothing here. The outsize vs inside facebook distinction is meaningless.

The context is far from meaningless. While you understand that 'technically' it's the same source, your friends and family using Facebook will have certain expectations when 'liking' something. These expectations will probably be that they like something in the social network context of Facebook (visible to people they know) and not in the context of the web at large (viewable to teachers, bosses, and random stranger…