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

Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

theregister.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 184 posts

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#171

Post by nyantaro1 »

piva00 wrote: post #140
mingus88 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is not practical due to how many essential things run on e.g. whatsapp Where do you live that WhatsApp is essential? I deleted my account when Facebook bought it and I don’t feel like anything of value was lost. Between messages/sms, signal, telegram, discord, I have no shortage of places to chat. WhatsApp only has value because of the network effect. Quit the platform and make your contacts find you elsewher…

> Where do you live that WhatsApp is essential? In Brazil, for example, without WhatsApp you are an outcast of modern society there, businesses communicate with customers on WhatsApp, whole families and friend groups only use WhatsApp. > WhatsApp only has value because of the network effect. Quit the platform and make your contacts find you elsewhere. Every platform dies eventually. The users just need to leave. The…

Same exact case in Mexico. Likely in most other Latin-American countries as well

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#172

Post by bigfatkitten »

RugnirViking wrote: post #15
SecretDreams wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you see how this topic might mirror something like some dudes just working on the Death Star, never having actually met a sith? There's been whole genocidal campaigns waged where people were just treating it as a day job.

yes? this isn't a "just following orders isnt a defence" case. Almost everyone at meta did nothing of the sort of bad stuff. There are nearly a hundred thousand people working at meta. This is a "being a part of an extremely large group of people, some entirely separate members of the group are doing bad stuff" Are there no groups you are a part of where members have done bad things? are you sure? Do you seriously bl…

My great grandfather worked at the V-2 rocket factory near Nordhausen during WW2. This factory used slave labour from the nearby Dora concentration camp to build the rockets.

While he wasn’t SS, and he never pushed anyone into a gas chamber, he did plenty to enable Nazi atrocities during his time there.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#173

Post by bigfatkitten »

troupo wrote: post #41
RugnirViking wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes? this isn't a "just following orders isnt a defence" case. Almost everyone at meta did nothing of the sort of bad stuff. There are nearly a hundred thousand people working at meta. This is a "being a part of an extremely large group of people, some entirely separate members of the group are doing bad stuff" Are there no groups you are a part of where members have done bad things? are you sure? Do you seriously bl…

"I chose to work as a developer for this supranational corporation, but nothing bad this corporation does is any reflection on me personally, I only work there, making sure this supranational corporation keeps existing through my work. It's also the same thing as being born in a country."

“I applied, worked hard and went through an insane interview loop to be born in this country.”

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#174

Post by robotburrito »

ramon156 wrote: post #31
softwaredoug wrote: post #21

This article is just a summary of other articles. Specifically these two more detailed ones: https://www.itnews.com.au/news/meta-to-start-capturing-emplo... https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-new-ai-tool-tracks-staf...

> "This makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out?" was the top-rated comment in response to the internal announcement, according to a post on Meta's internal workplace communications site seen by Business Insider." Have people lost their spine? seriously, quit your job. this is insane. why are americans putting up with this bullshit?

Stuff like this is coming for everyone.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#175

Post by jredwards »

mc32 wrote: post #167
jredwards wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practically speaking, the person who stays has three months salary, plus severance and then unemployment. The person who quits loses their entire income stream immediately. Do you think your small act of defiance has a bigger impact on you, or on the company? Now imagine you have a family at home that depends on your income and do the math again.

If people affected banded together and all defied the company, the company would find itself in a difficult situation. If the then became standard procedure for workers affected by offshoring, companies would hesitate to do this. It would have to be much more organic and would have diminished and drawn out impact on workers. Yes companies could open foreign offices, etc., but it’s more work and fewer companies would…

Of course that's true, and I'll happily join the United Technology Workers Union when it exists. In the meantime, I don't think you can fault people for taking the safest option for their families instead of sticking it to the man.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#176

Post by boogieknite »

rubyfan wrote: post #112

The Zuckerberg quote from the article reads like someone running for class president in high school. > helps you achieve your goals, create what you want to see in the world, experience any adventure, be a better friend to those you care about, and grow to become the person you aspire to be. … If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true. Thank you.

vote for pedro

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#177

Post by justacrow »

cannonpr wrote: post #96
rdevilla wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right on. Meta employees, fuck you for building the surveillance state we live in today. You are the fucking scourge and death of the 2000s internet. Eat shit, I care not for your "privacy concerns."

While I can understand the sentiment, it should be expressed with less vulgarity, and frankly, workers should show more solidarity to one another, not because of “deserving it” or not, but simply because it’s the only way out of the pit they put us in. Otherwise we are forever dragging each other back in.

> workers should show more solidarity to one another, not because of “deserving it” or not, but simply because it’s the only way out of the pit they put us in.

In the same way we shouldn't have any solidarity with scabs, we should have no solidarity with the people who happily built the pit-pushing tools.

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#179

Post by classified »

everdrive wrote: post #124

As much as everyone is rightly dunking on meta employees, it's an interesting slice of the population. Anyone who cared about surveillance and privacy (and addiction, and societal health, etc.) wouldn't be working for meta in the first place. The hypocrisy point is correct to point out, but I do wonder why this is a bridge too far for them.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" -- Upton Sinclair

Re: Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs

#180

Post by dmantis »

cannonpr wrote: post #96
rdevilla wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right on. Meta employees, fuck you for building the surveillance state we live in today. You are the fucking scourge and death of the 2000s internet. Eat shit, I care not for your "privacy concerns."

While I can understand the sentiment, it should be expressed with less vulgarity, and frankly, workers should show more solidarity to one another, not because of “deserving it” or not, but simply because it’s the only way out of the pit they put us in. Otherwise we are forever dragging each other back in.

Just curious, out of your class theory, do we need to have worker solidarity with low-level street drug dealers?

Or the worker must have an official contract?

Post reply on HN