Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 280 posts

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#171

Post by abrahamepton »

mav3rick wrote: post #162
ucarion wrote: post #156

Facebook is a global database of political dissidents, queer persons, apostates, and other categories of people whose physical safety is put in peril when their personal lives are leaked. Facebook surely must be heavily fined and regulated for their misbehavior, because to fail to keep Facebook data safe is to put lives at risk.

These people have an option to not use Facebook.

You never know when, one day, you'll find yourself in a similar group of targeted people based on some otherwise-mundane characteristic. And by then it'll be too late for you to "not use Facebook".

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#172

Post by tracker1 »

jasonkester wrote: post #16

“Private” photos that people uploaded to Facebook. Sounds like a good time to reiterate the advice: Don’t upload things to the internet that you don’t want to be on the internet. That way there won’t be any of your things on the internet that you didn’t want to be there.

Also, never take nude photos with your face/head in the photo. Never let someone take photos/video of you drunk. Unless you want kids with this person, always use a condom.

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#173

Post by denlekke »

mav3rick wrote: post #162
ucarion wrote: post #156

Facebook is a global database of political dissidents, queer persons, apostates, and other categories of people whose physical safety is put in peril when their personal lives are leaked. Facebook surely must be heavily fined and regulated for their misbehavior, because to fail to keep Facebook data safe is to put lives at risk.

These people have an option to not use Facebook.

they track and keep data on non-users as well though

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#174

Post by sonnyblarney »

Barrin92 wrote: post #161
sonnyblarney wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When houses fall they fall they kill people. And houses are not free.

Need I remind you of the genocide in Myanmar organised to a large degree on social media, or the threat to political dissidents all over the world when authorities or malicious actors can get their hands on leaked, private data of individuals? Are you seriously suggesting that information in this day and age does not have the power to directly cause harm, including lethal harm, to people?

I am suggesting that Facebook is free, fleeting software, and that people shouldn't put a huge host of stock in it. Even legally.

Also - that it can be used for organizing bad behaviours is an entirely different subject that has little to do with quality or security.

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#175

Post by nradov »

newsopt wrote: post #139
EpicEng wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems pretty clear to me that anyone suggesting that software bugs in applications that have no risk of causing physical harm should have criminal liability has no idea what they are talking about and what damage such a law would cause. So you're fine with financial losses, loss of privacy, and the material harm that goes along with both? Disregarding the impact that data breaches imply is just naive. > Case in…

> and the material harm please, if there is provable material harm they can take it to civil court.

It's not practical for individual users to litigate, but hopefully someone will bring a civil class action suit.

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#176

Post by dqhAR »

Mc_Big_G wrote: post #82

Why is anyone still using FB/Whatsapp/Instagram? It seems the vast majority just don't care at all about privacy.

Too big to avoid.

Data leaks happen to every tech company. As users/customers, won't have knowledge of the leaks unless they are publicly reported.

How can you "socialize" these days without using at least one of these internet social/media platforms?

Ways to avoid givin them your data are either to be totally reclusive or to be a tech geek who relies only on niche tech products that aren't mainstream.

What if they are used as highly valuable networking platforms for your job? Some people live off some kind of business model taking advantage of the sites. Also they work hard at maintaining their audience captivated and engaged.

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#177

Post by spiderPig »

bad_user wrote: post #170
ucarion wrote: post #156

Facebook is a global database of political dissidents, queer persons, apostates, and other categories of people whose physical safety is put in peril when their personal lives are leaked. Facebook surely must be heavily fined and regulated for their misbehavior, because to fail to keep Facebook data safe is to put lives at risk.

Going to play the devil’s advocate. If you fine Facebook, you have to fine the small companies too, and even individual developers developing OSS, since the law should apply to everyone equally. Of course the fines have to be proportional to the number of affected users. So would you like a fine for your bugs? And note that contrary to other professions, software development doesn’t have generally agreed recipes for…

Hoarding data is different from OSS. We’re talking about infra providers. IMO, they should be regulated like public utility companies.

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#178

Post by WA »

megous wrote: post #169
WA wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? You get fined under GDPR for a breach. If you don’t report it, the fine will be a lot higher if they find out. We will see how this plays out, but there should be a fine nevertheless (because others have been fined and they reported it).

Based on what article?

If you process personal data, you must make sure to protect the data. If you fail to protect the data, you can get a fine. How high it is depends on various factors. Reporting the breach timely to the authorities can help to have a lower fine.

But reporting it doesn’t make the fine go away. After all, you started to process personal data and are responsible for it. Alternatively, you could’ve opted for not processing personal data if you think you can’t protect the data adequately.

You can read all this here: https://gdpr-info.eu/issues/fines-penalties/

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#179

Post by Retra »

vernie wrote: post #83
lalaithion wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a plane crashed, and the company that manufactured the plane was fined because they had an engineering bug, no one would blink an eye.

Many programmers like to insist that they're engineers and at the same time come up with excuses for why they shouldn't be held to the same standards as other types of engineers.

Some of us just want to be engineers but know full well how difficult that actually is and want to be paid well enough to seriously research that problem. Thus most of us are experimentalists and prototype engineers, not ones making claims strong enough to be liable for.

Re: Facebook says new bug allowed apps access to private photos of up to 6.8M users

#180

Post by EpicEng »

newsopt wrote: post #139
EpicEng wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems pretty clear to me that anyone suggesting that software bugs in applications that have no risk of causing physical harm should have criminal liability has no idea what they are talking about and what damage such a law would cause. So you're fine with financial losses, loss of privacy, and the material harm that goes along with both? Disregarding the impact that data breaches imply is just naive. > Case in…

> and the material harm please, if there is provable material harm they can take it to civil court.

Additionally, you can't always show a direct link between a data breach and e.g. subsequent bank fraud.
Post reply on HN