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Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

theguardian.com

191–200 of 418 posts

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#193
post #3

What's utterly horrifying about this whole thing is how the media is acting as if this is some sort of surprise. Like what did you think was happening at a company collecting data about billions of people? Especially at a company that has a CEO who is famous for calling its own users dumb fu * * s? A company that experimented on at risk teens. Like come on. --edit--- Or lordy, didn't expect this comment to blow up th…

> as if this is some sort of surprise Most people don’t think “the data used to sell me milk could be used by politicians.” And those that do didn’t think “political ads today could be replaced by surreptitious foreigners tomorrow.” If your reaction is “they should have known” you are in a Silicon Valley thought bubble. (I was until recently, too.) What you find “horrifying” is that bubble’s edges fraying. * “Of all…

> If your reaction is “they should have known” you are in a Silicon Valley thought bubble. (I was until recently, too.) What you find “horrifying” is that bubble’s edges fraying.

What if your reaction isn't "they should have known" but rather "they should have listened when I told them this!"?

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#194
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're adults here but that doesn't mean we should pursue a higher level of discourse. If you want cursing or other low content, there's always Reddit.

Self-censoring is in no way 'a higher level of discourse'. Not using curse words is one thing, but in some situation (esp. like this where a direct quote is used) there is no real reason to censor swear words in an adult conversation.

[deleted]

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#196
post #58
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. Just media's desperate hunger for any story that paints Trump in a bad light. The recent video evidence on Cambridge Analytica shows that they were at least shady in their operations. But their approach to targeting voters and scraping Facebook userdata would have been described as brilliant data wizzardry if it were done for the other side.

And it was described as brilliant, when Obama did it in his campaigns.

It was also described as "groundbreaking", a "game changer", and "an application that will change the way campaigns are conducted in the future" [1].

When Obama's campaign did it, it was heralded as the future of democracy. Even the social media director for Obama's 2012 campaign acknowledges that they did the exact same thing that CA is being blasted for now [2]. I'm not sure why you're getting downvotes other than people just wanting to suppress the truth.

1: http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/20/friended-how-the-obama-...

2: https://twitter.com/cld276/status/975568130117459975

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as if this is some sort of surprise Most people don’t think “the data used to sell me milk could be used by politicians.” And those that do didn’t think “political ads today could be replaced by surreptitious foreigners tomorrow.” If your reaction is “they should have known” you are in a Silicon Valley thought bubble. (I was until recently, too.) What you find “horrifying” is that bubble’s edges fraying. * “Of all…

> If your reaction is “they should have known” you are in a Silicon Valley thought bubble. (I was until recently, too.) What you find “horrifying” is that bubble’s edges fraying. What if your reaction isn't "they should have known" but rather "they should have listened when I told them this!"?

> What if your reaction isn't "they should have known" but rather "they should have listened when I told them this!"?

Then you, like me, are still figuring out how to message privacy as a priority to non-technical folks. Maybe it’s an issue of timing. My “delete Facebook from your phone and log out, by default, on your desktop” pitch was more productive yesterday than ever before.

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#199
post #32

The cool thing? This "whistleblower" already spoke publicly with an op-ed on the NYT months ago. Again, this is just the top of the newscycle. Let's see what happens in three months from now. My guess: Facebook revenue will go up. This is a PR shitshow, and a great piece of advertising for Facebook's ad department. A lot of marketers right now are thinking "wait, we could do that with all that Facebook data we have?!…

GDPR can't come too soon. That would definitely put an end to these shady practices, as the penalties of several individual infractions would endanger any company.

and how many people are aware of it and will write to companies like FB asking for their data?

Re: Ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

#200
post #3

What's utterly horrifying about this whole thing is how the media is acting as if this is some sort of surprise. Like what did you think was happening at a company collecting data about billions of people? Especially at a company that has a CEO who is famous for calling its own users dumb fu * * s? A company that experimented on at risk teens. Like come on. --edit--- Or lordy, didn't expect this comment to blow up th…

I don't understand how you seem to be surprised some people find this horrifying. /s
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