211–220 of 315 posts
It is a strange thing to consider how we view privacy these days. We share so many things and allow our privacy to be invaded in ways that would shock people 30 years ago. On the other hand, everyone used to get a book delivered to their house every year with the information that is contained in this leak. I remember when you were considered a bit of a crank if you had your number as unlisted in the phone book.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unless and until, companies like Facebook are fined appropriate amounts they’ll never stop. Quite literally, every business school on the fucking planet will tell you do something if it’s cheaper. It is cheaper for them to not give a fuck, than to give one. Unless they are fined upwards of $20-50bn it’ll never stop because it’s always going to benefit their bottom line. Full…
They shouldn't be learning about the breaches from the company that has been breached because that gives the company too much power. Instead we should empower watchdog organizations to be our source of news for data breaches.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unless and until, companies like Facebook are fined appropriate amounts they’ll never stop. Quite literally, every business school on the fucking planet will tell you do something if it’s cheaper. It is cheaper for them to not give a fuck, than to give one. Unless they are fined upwards of $20-50bn it’ll never stop because it’s always going to benefit their bottom line. Full…
Its complicated. Some large companies make every effort, but are still plagued by lawsuits. Do everything to the best of your ability, still sometimes somebody will cut themselves shaving or whatever, and sue. I know of one that settles for anything under a quarter million without even determining merit. Because it never ends. I know, Facebook has made an egregious error. But overreacting (kill them all!) is not a go…
But that's clearly not what's happening in this case:
> Facebook Inc did not notify the more than 530 million users whose details were obtained through the misuse of a feature before 2019 and recently made public in a database, and does not currently have plans to do so, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.
...
> Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the European Union’s lead regulator for Facebook, said on Tuesday it had contacted the company about the data leak. It said it received “no proactive communication from Facebook” but was now in contact.
> The July 2019 FTC settlement requires Facebook to report details about unauthorized access to data on 500 or more users within 30 days of confirming an incident.
I'm not sure how that can be categorised as making every effort?
(EDIT: formatting)
This huge leak has definitely killed the SMS text messaging service. Sender can be spoofed and spam/scam/phishing have reached an intolerable level. The fact that they can cross reference you and then produce a more personalized content is huge. Changing password is easy (ok less easy if you recycle it) but changing phone number is something that I am not even relaxed to do.
> This huge leak has definitely killed the
> SMS text messaging service.
As someone who has much friction already convincing people to use SMS with me instead of the WhatsApp account that I've never had (nor a Facebook account), making SMS even more problematic is great for Facebook. Many people assume bad intentions or some other undesirable status when telling them that I don't have WhatsApp and that I'm not willing to install it.
This huge leak has definitely killed the SMS text messaging service. Sender can be spoofed and spam/scam/phishing have reached an intolerable level. The fact that they can cross reference you and then produce a more personalized content is huge. Changing password is easy (ok less easy if you recycle it) but changing phone number is something that I am not even relaxed to do.
Can anyone on HN please explain why, why, WHY are we still using SMS/telephony which has exactly 0 encryption wh---I guess that's the reason? It's insane. I've heard banks using SMS!!!! To send a code. We have TOTP for that! Or even perhaps a push notification or something better than bloody SMS. I refuse to use the networking system altogether. No phones, no calls. Of course you do 'need' a number so I keep one hand…
It sounds like you're incredulous that even banks are being insecure, but history has shown that you can expect banks to be roughly last in terms of competent and secure IT. I trust my Walmart.com account info to be safer than my bank info.
For years companies have been steadily asking, mandating or even trickling users to give them their phone numbers under the excuse of security (while the real reasons were different), now what? How can they be trusted anymore? This also strikes a great point about the data sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp. Linking data between services augments the dangers and the consequences are not obvious to the end user. I…
> I think Facebook should offer their users the option to remove their phone numbers with a real deletion. Man sometimes I think people forget phone books existed for a long time.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unless and until, companies like Facebook are fined appropriate amounts they’ll never stop. Quite literally, every business school on the fucking planet will tell you do something if it’s cheaper. It is cheaper for them to not give a fuck, than to give one. Unless they are fined upwards of $20-50bn it’ll never stop because it’s always going to benefit their bottom line. Full…
If customers do not care enough to stop using the product then there is no harm. Put in another way: the people you are trying to protect don't want your protection, because they don't care enough about the breach to stop using the product. They shouldn't be learning about the breaches from the company that has been breached because that gives the company too much power. Instead we should empower watchdog organizatio…
The answer is probably strong anti-competitive legislation that makes it easier to move service, easier to inter-operate between services, and making services more granular.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unless and until, companies like Facebook are fined appropriate amounts they’ll never stop. Quite literally, every business school on the fucking planet will tell you do something if it’s cheaper. It is cheaper for them to not give a fuck, than to give one. Unless they are fined upwards of $20-50bn it’ll never stop because it’s always going to benefit their bottom line. Full…
You are advocating creating perverse incentives. A specific branch of government, a select agency, to become a profit center through continuous finding and fining of ever more wrongdoings. All morally excused because the victims are faceless multinational corps. We all know how badly that goes with speed traps and red light cameras - instead of improving, the road conditions and sometimes even local rules are tweaked…
How perverse indeed.
> A specific branch of government, a select agency, to become a profit center
So don't directly give them the money from the fines, simple.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unless and until, companies like Facebook are fined appropriate amounts they’ll never stop. Quite literally, every business school on the fucking planet will tell you do something if it’s cheaper. It is cheaper for them to not give a fuck, than to give one. Unless they are fined upwards of $20-50bn it’ll never stop because it’s always going to benefit their bottom line. Full…
If customers do not care enough to stop using the product then there is no harm. Put in another way: the people you are trying to protect don't want your protection, because they don't care enough about the breach to stop using the product. They shouldn't be learning about the breaches from the company that has been breached because that gives the company too much power. Instead we should empower watchdog organizatio…
Facebook users (notably not customers) are the ones being harmed here, and they don't exactly have free reign to choose the platform their communities talk and organize on. If I choose not to use Facebook then I'm isolating myself from my community.