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Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

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Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#121

Post by jemfinch »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #71

Years ago I worked with a guy who used to sell computer equipment to businesses. He told me that when he went to different divisions in each company, they all had org/structure charts somewhere around the office. And in every one of them, their section was in the middle and everybody else was serviced by them. No matter what you did, you were the center of the universe to you. Likewise, I've had experience building a…

> They are becoming the center of the information universe to their customers. This is not a good thing.

Why isn't it?

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#122

Post by [deleted] »

davux wrote: post #113
pnathan wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a link? I'm curious now!

http://www.google.com/ads/preferences See "Your categories" Edit - Sorry, I copied the link from the Google results page, it acutally shows up as adspreferences in the ad, but ads/preferences below. Kind of strange.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#123

Post by omegaworks »

kang wrote: post #117
davux wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.google.com/ads/preferences See "Your categories" Edit - Sorry, I copied the link from the Google results page, it acutally shows up as adspreferences in the ad, but ads/preferences below. Kind of strange.

gives me a 404

google.com/ads/preferences

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#124

Post by nitrogen »

drats wrote: post #35
JonnieCache wrote: post #19

The important thing to take away from this: If they can make guesses this accurate about your photos, imagine they guesses they're making behind the scenes about your life, your personality and your innermost thoughts. If there was a page on fb where it showed all the inferences they had made about you, sexuality, income, religion, philosophical viewpoints, mental health, etc. then people would run screaming. Of cour…

Indeed, with all the Facebook sharing buttons around the web they have more than your bookmarks too, they have the equivalent of uploading your browser history each day to them. With current machine learning technology, let alone improvements over the coming years, they'd know more or less what someone would know if they stood behind every time you were browsing for the last few years. Even if you were to cancel your…

While people like to think that it's more or less anonymized clusters and demographics that are being passed to advertisers to target ads better - not a terribly scary thought, just more relevant ads - I think we need to be far more cautious.

How do you go about convincing the "I have nothing to hide" majority of the population that giving away such vast quantities of information is not in their best interests? I'm thinking of friends, family members, etc. who honestly don't care whether the TSA sees them naked at the airport, or how much the other agencies know about them. Where does such extreme deference to authority come from in the first place?

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#125

Post by rhizome »

zombielifestyle wrote: post #92
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #71

Years ago I worked with a guy who used to sell computer equipment to businesses. He told me that when he went to different divisions in each company, they all had org/structure charts somewhere around the office. And in every one of them, their section was in the middle and everybody else was serviced by them. No matter what you did, you were the center of the universe to you. Likewise, I've had experience building a…

i can't manage fb to share location information from friend accounts. if 2 accounts upload an (similar) image including one active check-in fb only suggests locations based on the check-ins of that active account. this is even true for public images. until someone provides a POC that states the opposite it's just YOUR data that YOU freely give to fb. no magic behind, just FUD. responded to top post for karmawhoring.…

I've been working for some time (solo) on a concept that could manage to alleviate some of your concerns. There are ways around them today (API), but who knows if they'll be foreclosed upon in the future.

Like many old farts, I imagine, I see your post in terms of the thick-client/thin-client battles of years past. I don't think FB will ever see it in their interests to completely close their garden, which would really be remaking the mistakes of the past, but stranger things have happened.

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#126

Post by rhizome »

safetyscissors wrote: post #96
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #71

Years ago I worked with a guy who used to sell computer equipment to businesses. He told me that when he went to different divisions in each company, they all had org/structure charts somewhere around the office. And in every one of them, their section was in the middle and everybody else was serviced by them. No matter what you did, you were the center of the universe to you. Likewise, I've had experience building a…

Its also not a good thing that we don't know who Facebook or Google is selling this or giving this information to. The advertising agencies, meh kinda. The organisations with acronyms, they are more worrisome. I also wonder, to what extent the amount of information they have about the average user.

FYI: "The Carlyle Group" = CIA

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#127

Post by rhizome »

nitrogen wrote: post #124
drats wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, with all the Facebook sharing buttons around the web they have more than your bookmarks too, they have the equivalent of uploading your browser history each day to them. With current machine learning technology, let alone improvements over the coming years, they'd know more or less what someone would know if they stood behind every time you were browsing for the last few years. Even if you were to cancel your…

While people like to think that it's more or less anonymized clusters and demographics that are being passed to advertisers to target ads better - not a terribly scary thought, just more relevant ads - I think we need to be far more cautious. How do you go about convincing the "I have nothing to hide" majority of the population that giving away such vast quantities of information is not in their best interests? I'm t…

Where does such extreme deference to authority come from in the first place?

Gilles Deleuze said it comes from a desire to be led.

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#128

Post by Xavi »

safetyscissors wrote: post #96
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #71

Years ago I worked with a guy who used to sell computer equipment to businesses. He told me that when he went to different divisions in each company, they all had org/structure charts somewhere around the office. And in every one of them, their section was in the middle and everybody else was serviced by them. No matter what you did, you were the center of the universe to you. Likewise, I've had experience building a…

Its also not a good thing that we don't know who Facebook or Google is selling this or giving this information to. The advertising agencies, meh kinda. The organisations with acronyms, they are more worrisome. I also wonder, to what extent the amount of information they have about the average user.

BTW, Google seems to be pretty open with what they know about you. Here are two links where they display an explicit list: https://www.google.com/dashboard/ and http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#129

Post by giulivo »

nmunson wrote: post #83
giulivo wrote: post #22

I think it's just GPS positioning by the smart phone. I wouldn't be fooled by a liar.

Quite a few people mention the pictures were taken with a camera and uploaded at a later date, so GPS wouldn't have been a factor. With the amount of data Facebook has I wouldn't be surprised that they could do more than just use GPS information to place locations.

I'm sure there are other technologies which can be used for geolocalization and can achieve similar "performances" (I'm thinking about WIFI networks or IP, in some cases).

Still, I wouldn't expect a digital camera to put those informations in the EXIF (assuming it does have a WIFI and/or an IP address)

Also, to me Facebook doesn't seem to be using any magical machine learning algorithm capable to recognize the location of a PIC from a face, it never did on my PICs, not even when there were landscapes in it.

The guy could instead have uploaded the photo using a smartphone which added the GPS coordinates.

But what do YOU think instead? How does that work? Is it working also for your uploads?

Re: Facebook machine learning technology improves; Redditors alaramed.

#130

Post by r00fus »

nitrogen wrote: post #124
drats wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, with all the Facebook sharing buttons around the web they have more than your bookmarks too, they have the equivalent of uploading your browser history each day to them. With current machine learning technology, let alone improvements over the coming years, they'd know more or less what someone would know if they stood behind every time you were browsing for the last few years. Even if you were to cancel your…

While people like to think that it's more or less anonymized clusters and demographics that are being passed to advertisers to target ads better - not a terribly scary thought, just more relevant ads - I think we need to be far more cautious. How do you go about convincing the "I have nothing to hide" majority of the population that giving away such vast quantities of information is not in their best interests? I'm t…

> How do you go about convincing the "I have nothing to hide" majority of the population that giving away such vast quantities of information is not in their best interests?

Continuing and possibly gruesome examples where such data mining ruins lives.

I spoke with a recruiter who prided himself on their HR department's willingness to deny entry based on FB profile (unsure if was public or obtained through some "secret friends" policy, or through a backdoor).

Furthermore, it's becoming almost a certainty that some foolish judge will set precedent somewhere that essentially makes FB account data public (or forces publicity of formerly private data).

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