Live data from Hacker News

Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

mashable.com

131–140 of 164 posts

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#131
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am gonna be completely honest, I am scared to express myself any longer on the Internet in any fashion. I don't trust it any longer. I don't trust the police, I don't trust the FBI, I don't trust the federal government, and I also don't trust, nor have faith, in the justice system in the United States. I moved out of the country four years ago for this very reason. The rule of law is gone. It is unsafe to live th…

Really? That's just kind of ridiculous. Where are you going to hide? The Big Bad Boogey Man is going to get you.

It's not ridiculous, and I'm not hiding.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#132
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't be striving for a low false positive rate, but for a zero false positive rate. "Think of the children" doesn't rationalize even one wrongly accused person - especially in today's society where an accusation is enough to completely ruin ones life.

Maybe they live in the real world where a zero false positive rate simply doesn't exist. And be serious. Getting asked a question from Facebook is hardly going to ruin someone's life is it now ?

>"a zero false positive rate simply doesn't exist."

Laughable. It does when Facebook are going out of their way to read something that is absolutely none of their business. You can easily obtain zero false positives by not turning anything over the the police.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#133
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never had a facebook account. Never have - never will. I distrust everything they do. And while we like to think that other sites are not as bad, I was recently censored on Quora for asking about why a post was censored on Reddit. They threw some "against policy" bullshit at me, and Marc Bodnick attempted to appear sympathetic and that his hands were tied and he didnt like the policy either - but it was a BS r…

Let's take it a step further: every item that you purchase with a credit card is recorded. It wouldn't surprise me if some retail stores use CCTV systems capable of facial recognition to identify cash purchases, too... It's time to create an underground data haven in Kinakuta--the Crypt.

At Home Depot they recently put cameras on the self checkout line, with a little display to show you that you are being recorded.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#134
Decades ago, a friend of mine (call him Mickey) was under a DEA investigation due to some bone-headed thing he did involving one of his acquaintances (call him Ken) asking him to receive a shipment from Colorado for him.

Now the fun part is another friend of ours (call him Jeb) was in the habit of making movie quotes when he started phone calls, so he calls up Mickey and leads in with a Lethal Weapon 2 line about "shipments", completely unknowning that the DEA was potentially tapping the call.

Because of the way the warrant was written, Mickey was able to wave off the tap on Jeb's call since it only covered calls from Ken. But it could just as easily led to all sorts of other problems since between friends, the level of discourse can go far afield of what a non-initiated 3rd party might consider normal.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#135

I'm not a criminal, I am a a pretty mundane guy actually, but of course we live in a society that every single one of us breaks some small law every day. Which is why I stopped using Facebook. I also stopped using Twitter to tweet. I still use it to follow news sources, I just don't actively tweet. I did that after the NYPD won a court case to see all the private messages you send on Twitter. I also don't comment muc…

>but of course we live in a society that every single one of us breaks some small law every day.

I never really understood this line. I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that I have broken no laws, no matter how small, at any time within the past week. Traffic, what have you.

It wasn't difficult either. You sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience, but honestly? It's worth it to have a clean conscience.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#136
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? That's just kind of ridiculous. Where are you going to hide? The Big Bad Boogey Man is going to get you.

It's not ridiculous, and I'm not hiding.

It's the textbook definition of ridiculous. The entire argument you just made is one big collection of fallacies.

I'm openly and viscerally critical of the government, politicians, etc etc etc on many social media outlets, phone calls, emails, other communications yet I have not been impacted in any way. I have not had any of my rights restricted, abridged, etc.

So either I'm the luckiest guy in the "police state", or you're overreacting.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#137

I'm not a criminal, I am a a pretty mundane guy actually, but of course we live in a society that every single one of us breaks some small law every day. Which is why I stopped using Facebook. I also stopped using Twitter to tweet. I still use it to follow news sources, I just don't actively tweet. I did that after the NYPD won a court case to see all the private messages you send on Twitter. I also don't comment muc…

>but of course we live in a society that every single one of us breaks some small law every day. I never really understood this line. I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that I have broken no laws, no matter how small, at any time within the past week. Traffic, what have you. It wasn't difficult either. You sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience, but honestly? It's worth it to have a clean conscience.

That operating system you are using violates 27 of my company's patents, but I'm not telling you which ones.

Reading that book outloud to your children violates the T&C

You do calculate and pay local sales tax on anything you order from out of state?

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#138
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not ridiculous, and I'm not hiding.

It's the textbook definition of ridiculous. The entire argument you just made is one big collection of fallacies. I'm openly and viscerally critical of the government, politicians, etc etc etc on many social media outlets, phone calls, emails, other communications yet I have not been impacted in any way. I have not had any of my rights restricted, abridged, etc. So either I'm the luckiest guy in the "police state", o…

No it's not a police-state where they are actively targeting dissidents.

It's a TSA-state where there is a massive over-reaction to bureaucratic automated scanning of communications.

Post some SMS/Tweet/facebook update with a quote that sounds to an automated script like a terrorist threat. (eg a line from Fightclub or a Clash lyric) and watch the reaction.

Even if the police bursting down your door manage to not accidentally shoot you - hopefully you are white and rich - expect to be dragged through the courts and have your life ruined because THEY can't be wrong.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#139

I'm not a criminal, I am a a pretty mundane guy actually, but of course we live in a society that every single one of us breaks some small law every day. Which is why I stopped using Facebook. I also stopped using Twitter to tweet. I still use it to follow news sources, I just don't actively tweet. I did that after the NYPD won a court case to see all the private messages you send on Twitter. I also don't comment muc…

>but of course we live in a society that every single one of us breaks some small law every day. I never really understood this line. I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that I have broken no laws, no matter how small, at any time within the past week. Traffic, what have you. It wasn't difficult either. You sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience, but honestly? It's worth it to have a clean conscience.

> I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that I have broken no laws, no matter how small, at any time within the past week.

I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that you're wrong (at least if you're in the US).

I'm not saying that you're lying, let alone that you're intentionally doing wrong. It's just that the web of law reaches everywhere and it's almost impossible to not trip over it.

IMHO most of these laws shouldn't exist but that's just me.

Re: Report: Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

#140
post #3

What I find interesting is, that now the but think of the innocent children argument is also getting adapted by the corporate world to justify incredible privacy invasions. Facebook's mass wiretapping and analysis of its users private communication seems almost like the post office scanning each and ever letter and postcard in the vague hope of finding some keywords related to bomb, terror and of cause "children". I…

I am pretty sure "but think of the children" is exactly the sort of thinking that goes into a program designed to stop child predators. I don't get the freakout here. Facebook communication is not private communication and they're clearly targeting child predators. Now obviously it could creep/evolve to target other types of crime but I still think communication over Facebook is not private and it's silly if one is surprised to find that out. Outrage over this feature is a step short of saying "well how come concerned citizens are allowed to notify the police when a man in public is exhibiting the behavior of a child predator?"
Post reply on HN