Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#131

Post by Nursie » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 9:41 AM UTC

trhtrsh wrote: post #118

Nursie wrote: post #18

I'm not sure why I would allow Facebook on to my phone in the first place, let alone to run the whole show. Their privacy record isn't exactly great and runs contrary to their business model. I don't trust their app (look at the email address change nonsense), let alone a bigger one, and the page renders just fine in a mobile browser. I also find the whole "ping me when a close friend does or says anything" aspect of…

> I also find the whole "ping me when a close friend does or says anything" aspect of the app as I've seen others use it to be a little obsessive and possibly even creepy. The problem here is in your friendship, not Facebook.

I don't think so, the people I've observed that have this enabled are very good friends of mine and I don't mind that they get pinged when I post something inconsequential. It's also not my call, I'm posting info for them to see and if they want to use a client that notifies them any time I post it then that's their right.

But there is definitely the potential for stalker-ish stuff there. I suppose in that case, yes the friendship would be the problem.

--edit-- But when the friendship isn't in question, I guess I find it a bit weird and overly-reliant on FB to have your phone set up to alert you every time a 'close' friend does anything.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#132

Post by philsnow » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 9:48 AM UTC

coopdog wrote: post #128

trhtrsh wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

FB is utterly careless with your data

For all we know, the difference between google and facebook here is simply maturity of the company, and as facebook matures, it's very possible that they'll recant their privacy evilness, to the extent that they can.

Here's what I mean by that last part: the facebook site/service are all about poking holes in your own privacy (in a controlled manner); it's just that currently, you might be carefully letting out bits of information, but facebook is off to the side hawking all of it to all comers, trying to be profitable.

But yeah I agree, at its current stage of gestation as a company, facebook doesn't give a rat's ass about the privacy of your data.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#133

Post by philsnow » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 9:54 AM UTC

smokinjoe wrote: post #92

ramayac wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, this is "the money quote": "The scary part is that these would be bundled by OEM's and might be harder to stop and even uninstall".

I don't see how an informed consumer can't avoid this. I really started to dislike OEM's and decided to go Nexus. The number of bundled apps that went dead (Blockbuster went bankrupt and yet I was stuck with that app) or unsupported just drove me away. I understand that now instead of worrying about unsupported apps you have to worry about what these apps track in the background, however there are a number of other p…

> I don't see how an informed consumer can't avoid this.

"Informed consumers" make up (at a guess) less than 5% of the overall smartphone market, for some value of being informed about online privacy.

Privacy advocates should raise hell about the potential issues of a facebook-image smartphone now if there's any chance of increasing awareness of the issues outside of "privacy enthusiast" circles.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#134

Post by cbeach » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 10:41 AM UTC

"the problem is that Facebook is going to use all this data — not to improve our lives — but to target better marketing and advertising messages at us"

If "the problem" is more relevant advertising, I for one, welcome Facebook Home. When advertising becomes useful to me I might stop blocking it.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#135

Post by alanctgardner2 » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 11:38 AM UTC

Everything he's complaining about is a feature in Google Now. Google Now does know where my house is based on where I stay during the night. It figured out where my girlfriend lives, and tries to route me there sometimes. It knows where I work. It knows when I'm expecting a package from eBay, where I shop, where I go to eat out. Based on those signals, it probably knows how much disposable income I have. This is just Facebook getting jealous over how well Google has sucked all of this data out of it's userbase.

As an aside, Google Now is pretty awesome, and I trust our Google Overlords to not use my personal information for evil.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#136

Post by klez » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 12:16 PM UTC

zachlatta wrote: post #127

harshreality wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Kubuntu or Xubuntu, AFAIK, don't have the crap

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#137

Post by desas » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 12:59 PM UTC

jcomis wrote: post #19

I want to know how permissions will be handled on Facebook Home when preinstalled. Going through the play store, you will more or less see what you are agreeing to (likely, a huge list of everything possible). But preinstalled?

I doubt it would prompt you for the permissions in a similar way to the play store, I imagine that everything they need legally is probably covered by the facebook ToS, or will be in an extra ToS clicked through on first use.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#138

Post by criley » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 1:02 PM UTC

infinita740 wrote: post #49

_jackwink wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, I don't see this any more privacy invasive than Google Now. It really boils down to how much you trust the company/app.

Yeah, google know your home and where your workplace is but doesn't publish it to everyone. Facebook did that with a lot of information. Plus it may change how things behave without you agreement (think of @facebook.com emails) Google also use that data to provide a service (automatically call the navigation app to came back home at night or just give you a reminder on places you go every week). I doon't think facebo…

Facebook doesn't publish that information for me.

It's PAINFULLY EASY to mark that information private, and to go into the Platform settings and make sure your friends "cannot bring your information with them into apps and websites".

It's two screens and takes about thirty seconds for you to control your Facebook and how much data leaves it.

Seriously guys, don't blame Facebook for your incompetence with their privacy settings.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#139

Post by nathan_long » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 1:34 PM UTC

philsnow wrote: post #132

coopdog wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FB is utterly careless with your data

For all we know, the difference between google and facebook here is simply maturity of the company, and as facebook matures, it's very possible that they'll recant their privacy evilness, to the extent that they can . Here's what I mean by that last part: the facebook site/service are all about poking holes in your own privacy (in a controlled manner); it's just that currently, you might be carefully letting out bits…

>>For all we know, the difference between google and facebook here is simply maturity of the company

Facebook is not some new company struggling to find its way in the world. It's huge.

Nor is it new. Google was started in 1998; Facebook in 2004. So Google is 15 and Facebook is 9.

Is that such a big difference? Has Google ever behaved the way Facebook has?

Facebook has faced multiple privacy scandals. It has not said, "whoops, that was an oversight, we'll ensure it never happens again." It has said "meh," and waited for people to get over it.

This is not about maturity, this is about philosophy and character. Facebook's business model is about harvesting and exploiting your data. They are doing that deliberately, and they're more likely to go out of business than to change.

Re: Facebook Home destroys any notion of privacy

#140

Post by freehunter » Fri, Apr 05, 2013, 1:44 PM UTC

danilocampos wrote: post #66

mattmaroon wrote: post #22

This is idiotic. For one, it's no secret which apps are popular. Facebook doesn't need a trojan horse to figure that out, they just need to look at App Annie. For another, any app with location services permissions can do exactly what he's describing. Also what does "Android allows Facebook to do whatever it wants on the platform, and that means accessing the hardware as well," mean? Unless you're rolling your own ve…

> 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. Except for the part where no other app collects or maintains anywhere near as much data about your personal history, your friends, what you look like, what your friends look like, what you like, what your friends like, who you talk to, what you talk about, what your friends talk abo…

Well, any other app could. Facebook is not exclusive in having access to this information, they're just one of the few asking you for it. Every other app could ask for it as well.