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

washingtonpost.com

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

#31

Post by canttestthis »

bluetidepro wrote: post #5

> "We're sorry this happened." That about sums it up for all these privacy breaches these days. It's getting to the same level of "thoughts and prayers" for tragedies. No actual change or consequences for the problems happening, just empty "sorries" and "promises" that it won't happen again/they'll get it fixed. I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start act…

> I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start actually seeing action of these sorts of things.

Sounds like you're suggesting that we criminalize software bugs.

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

#32

Post by ucosty »

ams6110 wrote: post #21
neurobashing wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my response to this is always in the vein of, "how exactly should customers show they care?" "Well, leave!" isn't an option. They can't leave. Quitting Facebook when you're an active user means you lose a huge amount of social contact. I can think of a dozen people I know who are there because it's how they send baby pics and the like to family. They're non-technical and don't care about federated mastodons, they jus…

Most people I know are getting off of Facebook, or were never on it. The only people I know who are really still active are people using it to market themselves/their business, and are not there because they care about Facebook, but because they want to be findable there (and everywhere). I guess I'm old, but I find that email is great for sending baby pics to friends and family, and for planning things.

I had this problem recently, I wanted to get in contact with an old friend I hadn't seen in years. Because it had been so long I no longer had a current phone number or email address. At this stage we didn't even live in the same country as each other. Solving this problem, or problems like it, might go a long way to reducing the appeal of Facebook.

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

#33

Post by PhDuck »

neurobashing wrote: post #19
fullshark wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until consumers reveal that they care this is how it will be unless governments regulate/punish.

my response to this is always in the vein of, "how exactly should customers show they care?" "Well, leave!" isn't an option. They can't leave. Quitting Facebook when you're an active user means you lose a huge amount of social contact. I can think of a dozen people I know who are there because it's how they send baby pics and the like to family. They're non-technical and don't care about federated mastodons, they jus…

Leaving is of course an option.

The fact that they don't leave mearly show that they value the gained social contact higher than the cost of data breaches.

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

#34

Post by UncleMeat »

ColinDabritz wrote: post #30
enjo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely curious on your view: what is an appropriate response?

Not the op, but meaningful fines, executive jail time for gross negligence and especially for intentionally taking inappropriate risks, breaking up or closing companies that are shown over time to be unable to safely handle sensitive information. Proper regulation. Consequences that can't be cynically taken as the cost of doing business.

Jail time for bugs? Have people here every worked on products?

Bugs and security vulns are literally inevitable. Security is important but it this was the standard I'm not sure that any company would still exist.

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

#35

Post by inetknght »

burnt_toast wrote: post #28
bpye wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they aren't actually deleting accounts then they are going to end up with a hefty fine under the GPDR one day...

Given that it's known that Facebook builds shadow profiles of non-users it seems hard to believe that they would give up the data of ex-users. https://www.bustle.com/p/what-are-shadow-profiles-facebook-c...

I am unfortunately not a EU citizen. But I would be very very very sad indeed if my data was not deleted.

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

#36

Post by neurobashing »

ams6110 wrote: post #21
neurobashing wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my response to this is always in the vein of, "how exactly should customers show they care?" "Well, leave!" isn't an option. They can't leave. Quitting Facebook when you're an active user means you lose a huge amount of social contact. I can think of a dozen people I know who are there because it's how they send baby pics and the like to family. They're non-technical and don't care about federated mastodons, they jus…

Most people I know are getting off of Facebook, or were never on it. The only people I know who are really still active are people using it to market themselves/their business, and are not there because they care about Facebook, but because they want to be findable there (and everywhere). I guess I'm old, but I find that email is great for sending baby pics to friends and family, and for planning things.

I feel you but a quick search finds "As of the third quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.27 billion monthly active users"

so solve for that, not your dozen or so social group.

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

#37

Post by inetknght »

canttestthis wrote: post #31
bluetidepro wrote: post #5

> "We're sorry this happened." That about sums it up for all these privacy breaches these days. It's getting to the same level of "thoughts and prayers" for tragedies. No actual change or consequences for the problems happening, just empty "sorries" and "promises" that it won't happen again/they'll get it fixed. I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start act…

> I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start actually seeing action of these sorts of things. Sounds like you're suggesting that we criminalize software bugs.

We criminalize other actions which result in harm to people. Why not software bugs too?

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

#38

Post by lalaithion »

canttestthis wrote: post #31
bluetidepro wrote: post #5

> "We're sorry this happened." That about sums it up for all these privacy breaches these days. It's getting to the same level of "thoughts and prayers" for tragedies. No actual change or consequences for the problems happening, just empty "sorries" and "promises" that it won't happen again/they'll get it fixed. I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start act…

> I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start actually seeing action of these sorts of things. Sounds like you're suggesting that we criminalize software bugs.

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.

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

#39

Post by fullshark »

neurobashing wrote: post #36
ams6110 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people I know are getting off of Facebook, or were never on it. The only people I know who are really still active are people using it to market themselves/their business, and are not there because they care about Facebook, but because they want to be findable there (and everywhere). I guess I'm old, but I find that email is great for sending baby pics to friends and family, and for planning things.

I feel you but a quick search finds "As of the third quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.27 billion monthly active users" so solve for that, not your dozen or so social group.

A huge percentage are browsing but not posting anymore I would guess.

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

#40

Post by ColinDabritz »

canttestthis wrote: post #31
bluetidepro wrote: post #5

> "We're sorry this happened." That about sums it up for all these privacy breaches these days. It's getting to the same level of "thoughts and prayers" for tragedies. No actual change or consequences for the problems happening, just empty "sorries" and "promises" that it won't happen again/they'll get it fixed. I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start act…

> I don't know if this is a GDPR violation or not (as someone else asked), but if it is, I hope we start actually seeing action of these sorts of things. Sounds like you're suggesting that we criminalize software bugs.

software bugs cause mass harm. We can't ask people to never make mistakes, but we can ask that they have appropriate practices, standards, quality controls, and care. Not taking appropriate measures to mitigate risks that can significantly affect millions of users is willful negligence, and should be a crime.
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