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Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

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Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#121
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how Firefox OS vs Android OS really factors into the discussion. If Firefox OS is fully-featured and open enough to become an alternative to Android, FB Home could conceivably be built to run just as well on Firefox OS as on Android.

yes, but i'm expecting mozilla will have vastly more granular and privacy-first oriented permissions than android. since google wants your data, and mozilla does not. ideally, i would like to hook and script a conditional firewall of sorts between any apps and my hardware or data. for example, i dont want any app querying my location when i am at home or at work. how awesome would it be to set rules like this? some i…

You know how Mozilla makes their money, right?

https://www.google.com/search?q=ok&rls=org.mozilla:en-US...

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#122

Google Now already does all of this. It deduced my address by scraping my emails, and somehow it knows where I work, too. When my airline tickets were emailed to me, it brought up flight tracker information and weather for both arrival and destination cities. Creepy.

Yeah, and they make like 6 copies of every email you send or receive also. Creepy.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, but i'm expecting mozilla will have vastly more granular and privacy-first oriented permissions than android. since google wants your data, and mozilla does not. ideally, i would like to hook and script a conditional firewall of sorts between any apps and my hardware or data. for example, i dont want any app querying my location when i am at home or at work. how awesome would it be to set rules like this? some i…

You know how Mozilla makes their money, right? https://www.google.com/search?q=ok&rls=org.mozilla:en-US...

and? are you suggesting that google, by some logical extension, is influencing mozilla's privacy decisions in their OS?

18% of internet users use firefox. thats a lot of eyeballs google would be missing out on without the search deal in place. they gets much more out of that arrangement than mozilla does to have any leverage. MS would be equally happy to pay mozilla for that 18%. moz can easily find many other avenues to make money while goog cannot find an extra 18% user base elsewhere.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#124
post #55
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Google's business model screwed up as well?

Well, to the extent that Google+ is a wannabe Facebook, it can't be any better, right? Without getting into an argument of which is worse, I think ultimately Facebook is more dangerous. Facebook has tremendous network effects and lock-down effects. I can switch from Google to DDG easily, but as long as my family in Bangladesh uses Facebook to post pictures of my nieces and nephews, my ability to switch away from Face…

You know advertisers collect data about what you watch on TV? Certain channels cater to certain type of people so ad buyers would buy ads based on demographics of a certain show (for example, Shark Tank has one of the highest avg income audiences in the country, so it would make sense for Mercedes to advertise when the show airs) .

People seem to forget that it was the original targeted advertising. You subliminally got targeted by demographic specific ads based on the type of shows you were interested in. It just so happens that the way Google and Facebook do it is way more high tech.

The data goes into their platform, they dont' sell it. I think maintaining a healthy paranoia is good and we should pressure the companies to be better with our data. However, as long as they maintain security as a strong value, I think it'll be ok. At least I myself personally don't mind them holding my data as long as it is secure and private to me.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#125

I have an iphone and even if I had an android, I'd never install this app or get an HTC First. I cannot say the same for everyone I'm fb friends with. Question: if one of my fb friends installs this or buys that phone, will fb have any additional access to MY personal data?

No.

Unless you SMS or call that person. Then maybe.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? I still care about major parts of a society being that recklessly dumb. I live on this planet, it's my problem, too. I cannot afford to live in a "democracy" full of people who are so easily influenced and/or blackmailed. Their votes count as much as mine, so this is a bug.

How do you blackmail someone who has nothing to hide?

Even people with nothing to hide can suffer the effects of making a mistake:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57565408-71/teacher-faces-...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354515/Teacher-sack...

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As well as Ubuntu phone/tablet.

Because Ubuntu would never do anything shady... like having desktop search search Amazon...

I haven't been liking the direction Ubuntu's been heading for a while. Do you know of any other Linux distros I could recommend to beginners similar to Ubuntu but without the crap?

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#128
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> As far as I can tell this is just another third party launcher with the same privacy implications as any app that has GPS permissions. No, it doesn't. I was, till recently, using Nova Launcher and its permissions would pale in comparison with Facebook Messenger's permissions. Mind it, I am not mentioning the full fledged Facebook app here but just the messenger. I am just uninstalling it, to hell with those in my…

What's the privacy difference between G+ and FB?

FB is utterly careless with your data

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#129
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with OM, Facebook Home is not just one app but a suite of apps running on your phone. The scary part is that these would be bundled by OEM's and might be harder to stop and even uninstall :( Think about the scenarios when you start to see all kinds of ad's popping up on your home screen and impossible to remove? . Remember, fb still needs to solve the problem of serving ad's on mobile well.

FB was already pre-installed and non-removable on many Anroid devices (including first-party Google devices!), so that's not a big change.

Recent Android versions include the ability to disable built-in applications. I've got an S3, and I've successfully disabled all of the bundled stuff I don't want as well as most of TouchWiz. There are some Samsung services I can't disable, but they're bits that are non-UI or are hot-swapable and that would break the phone if disabled but not replaced. The stock keyboard and the TouchWiz launcher fall into this category, neither of which I see unless I go out of my way to re-enable them.

My phone didn't come with Facebook installed, although it did have a link in the accounts section to install the application.

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