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Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

theregister.com

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Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#111

Post by sbarre »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #48
joe_mamba wrote: post #7

Man, I sure wonder if those engineers building Palantir's, Flock's, and other surveillance SW right now (hello if you're reading this), will have this 20/20 hindsight "oh shit" epiphany moment, when the product they helped build is gonna be used against them or their kids in the future. Kind of like when Dr. Frankenstein finds his end at the hands of his creation. Those SW devs probably think that doing a deal with t…

> ... unless you're part of the insider-trading presidential Epstein Island elite pedo-class, you're also not safe from government overreach But how did that turn out for Ghislaine Maxwell though? We aren't seeing her much in the posh NYC parties anymore are we? And something also has to be said about public shame when sentences like: "Bill Gates got even more STDs than Windows got viruses and that lead to his wife q…

Ghislaine Maxwell is a woman. A fitting proxy for this whole situation, when you realize that she's the only person (so far) to have been put in jail over this whole "powerful men abusing women" situation.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#112

Post by rubyfan »

The Zuckerberg quote from the article reads like someone running for class president in high school.

> helps you achieve your goals, create what you want to see in the world, experience any adventure, be a better friend to those you care about, and grow to become the person you aspire to be.

… If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true. Thank you.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#113

Post by 2ndorderthought »

notTheLastMan wrote: post #75
mellosouls wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monitor output. No need for surveillance. Surveillance = lack of trust and poor understanding of what counts as productivity. Essentially it's a great indicator of poor management.

I agree with this kind of... I did automate $4.5M/yr in labor, but I probably only worked 10 hours a week and billed for 40. For 5 years everyone was happy, but I kind of knew what I was doing was wrong. Not that I think I could have automated $16M/yr, but I def knew I was billing for doing dishes.

You saved the company you worked for 4.5 million a year and I presume your salary was less than 300,000? Who cares how much you worked? You more than 10x'd their investment in you, possibly 45x'd it. I've worked with people at the computer all day who 0.1'd their salary in a year and they were promoted. I have also worked nearby guys at their computer for 80hrs who tanked entire teams by making terrible decisions at 2am when no one else was around.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#114

Post by etrautmann »

sheepscreek wrote: post #74
leetrout wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money, of course. Both greed and comfort.

And existing obligations. Most people I know, myself including, stretch our current situation as the paycheque grows. Some of it is intentional. A lot of it is slow creep (“ah, I can afford a, b, c now..that Maserati/Porche Cayenne GTS/Urus-lol I’ve always wanted!”). While you’re doing this, your spouse and kids are doing it 2x - “oh dad got that fancy new car! I guess I can ask him for the special edition Jordans no…

I think it can be radically more pedestrian than this. Just affording basic life in a high COL area is insane. Getting an apt in NY and paying for childcare for two kids can already be a 16k/mo endeavor, no porche entering the equation.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#115

Post by GJim »

breppp wrote: post #85
bell-cot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would imply that Zuck is being surveilled.

He is using a mobile phone, his location is sold by the mobile company and can be bought for relatively cheap

> his location is sold by the mobile company

Citation please.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#116

Post by rubyfan »

ramon156 wrote: post #31
softwaredoug wrote: post #21

This article is just a summary of other articles. Specifically these two more detailed ones: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/meta-to-start-capturing-emplo... https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-new-ai-tool-tracks-staf...

> "This makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?" was the top-rated comment in response to the internal announcement, according to a post on Meta's internal workplace communications site seen by Business Insider." Have people lost their spine? seriously, quit your job. this is insane. why are americans putting up with this bullshit?

My guess is people put up with this shit because the job market is terrible right now and most other workplaces in big tech will follow suite soon.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#117

Post by 2ndorderthought »

isodev wrote: post #59
notTheLastMan wrote: post #53

Fam, what should we actually do about this? If you want to be real for a minute, we all lived through the freedom of Covid WFH. We all did dishes and billed for it. We all told ourselves 'I needed a break, it helps me think about the problem'. (And that was true, one day I was stuck on an 8 queens problem and I ran a half marathon, when I finished I had the solution) But... common everyone... we are humans. We take t…

> its my manager's job to supervise No it isn’t. The fault with your logic is that you assume people work because they’re supervised.

If I was hiring anyone for a job over 75k usd I should know very well that they can produce with very few touch points. I would also expect my team to speak up if someone wasn't producing. I wouldn't care about hours worked because they are a salary employee. I would care that the team could contact them and they contributed meaningfully to projects.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#118

Post by JKCalhoun »

ben_w wrote: post #43
ramon156 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?" was the top-rated comment in response to the internal announcement, according to a post on Meta's internal workplace communications site seen by Business Insider." Have people lost their spine? seriously, quit your job. this is insane. why are americans putting up with this bullshit?

> Have people lost their spine? Yes, but this being Meta who are one of the several poster-children for surveillance capitalism, this comes across as more a face-leopard than a missing spine: https://old.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/ > seriously, quit your job. this is insane. why are americans putting up with this bullshit? Have you seen the job market lately? Not just in the USA, but also in the USA, there's a lo…

I wonder though if we're not approaching a time when even those who clung to their jobs will be joining those out of work. My wife, anecdotally, was just laid off from Agilent after having worked there for close to three decades. We were fortunate to see that as an opportunity for her to take her (albeit early) retirement.

I don't doubt there are plenty at Meta who, if not nearing retirement age, might have been harboring some desire to take some time off to hike the Big Three hiking trails in the U.S. Or perhaps write a novel.

Seriously.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#119

Post by Traubenfuchs »

rob74 wrote: post #87
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of people working at Meta will never ever again in their lives get a job offer that good. Meta knows this and doesn't care about many of them quitting. They can currently scoop up an endless supply of developers that have memorized every single leetcode hard, system design and """behavioral""" interview question.

Ok, so this spyware is another step in the "either they comply with what we force them to do, or they quit, whichever way, for us it's a win-win" strategy, after Return To Office? And, just to make sure the employees get the point, they concurrently announce a further 10% round of layoffs? Yeah, makes sense...

Nothing planned at Meta that can not be achieved with the decently competent engineers who will accept this insane surveillance and don't give a shit about whether they build weapons of mass destruction/surveillance/whatever. Plenty of willing replacements ready at any time.

Long term strategically planned reduction of average salary by replacing uppity rockstars/activists with the groveling creme de la creme of codemonkeys is part of the plan.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#120

Post by everdrive »

ramon156 wrote: post #31
softwaredoug wrote: post #21

This article is just a summary of other articles. Specifically these two more detailed ones: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/meta-to-start-capturing-emplo... https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-new-ai-tool-tracks-staf...

> "This makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?" was the top-rated comment in response to the internal announcement, according to a post on Meta's internal workplace communications site seen by Business Insider." Have people lost their spine? seriously, quit your job. this is insane. why are americans putting up with this bullshit?

>Have people lost their spine? seriously, quit your job. this is insane. why are americans putting up with this bullshit?

I don't know why, but it's endemic. You have ICE, quite literally purchasing your surveillance data so they can sweep people off the streets. But getting people to delete some apps? It's effectively impossible. However you feel about the ICE issue, and future government program could deem you the enemy. And your data is out there just waiting to be weaponized against you. But will people actually do anything about it? Delete their apps? Stop using a smartphone? Write their congressman? Nope, nope, nope, and nope. They will complain online a bit and otherwise change _no_ behavior. The only positive movement I've seen in this regard is people moving away from flock. Otherwise, people are tripping over themselves to allow surveillance into their lives.

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