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Facebook snags Geohot

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Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#31

Post by [deleted] »

proexploit wrote: post #23
mikemaccana wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back. 2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.

1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#32

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Sephr wrote: post #25
proexploit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.

1. Of your friends, you just get a list of names, not any contact information whatsoever.

As is the way it should be; by befriending you on Facebook I'm not saying that you are free to import my contact information into any old service that may use it to spam me.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#33

Post by mikemaccana »

proexploit wrote: post #23
mikemaccana wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can import your data into Facebook. You can't export - all you get is Facebook UUIDs back. 2. Privacy options are made deliberately difficult as Facebook (as they've stated before) want you to share as much as you can. Setting anything to 'me only' is buried under a custom setting you have to repeat for everything you don't want shared.

1. Sure you can, go to Account Settings > Download Your Information (second from bottom). 2. I'm very much with you on this one. The privacy settings should be easier.

Respectfully, I don't think you actually read my comment in its entirety. You can import email addresses into FB, but you can't get them out, along with a whole bunch of other info. FB UUIDs have zero meaning outside Facebook.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#34

Post by MatthewPhillips »

marshray wrote: post #16

Lol! AIUI, Geohot is basically forbidden from working with anything Sony. So to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team at Facebook, I guess Sony just lawsuited their way out of deep partnership opportunities with the biggest social media platform to date.

Facebook would pass over business deals to serve a grudge of one of their low level employees?

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#35

Post by marshray »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #34
marshray wrote: post #16

Lol! AIUI, Geohot is basically forbidden from working with anything Sony. So to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team at Facebook, I guess Sony just lawsuited their way out of deep partnership opportunities with the biggest social media platform to date.

Facebook would pass over business deals to serve a grudge of one of their low level employees?

No, I qualified it with "to the extent he becomes an essential part of the security team", and no, it's not a "grudge" it's a condition of out-of-court settlement as I understand it.

Yes, the comment was a little over-the-top.

But think NDAs. That kind of thing can definitely complicate business deals.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#36

Post by marshray »

redthrowaway wrote: post #20
sylvinus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that Geohot may have some past or future legal bills to pay ;-)

His past legal bills were paid by the thousands of donations he received to "fight the man", which he promptly...didn't. He shouldn't have any future ones unless he plans on engaging in more man-fighting.

He settled without paying Sony and donated the rest to the EFF. That's good enough for me.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#37

Post by redthrowaway »

marshray wrote: post #36
redthrowaway wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His past legal bills were paid by the thousands of donations he received to "fight the man", which he promptly...didn't. He shouldn't have any future ones unless he plans on engaging in more man-fighting.

He settled without paying Sony and donated the rest to the EFF. That's good enough for me.

And for me as well, although I didn't give him any money. He was taking donations for his legal expenses, and had given every indication that he intended to fight the case through to the end. Were I a donor, that's what I would expect him to do with my money. If I wanted to give money to the EFF (a fine organization well deserving of it), I would have done that instead.

Some construe his settlement as a victory of sorts, and others as a betrayal. I can see validity in both portrayals.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#38

Post by cpeterso »

sylvinus wrote: post #5
iamdave wrote: post #2

Become a saint to nerds after taking on a company that wont let you do what you want with products you've paid for ... ends up at a company that in no human decipherable terms owns your social identity. ... Who woulda thunk edit: I think it's worth mentioning, I'm not decrying either he or facebook for their acquisition of talent, it's just an unexpected maneuver. Kind of like a physicist suddenly leaving his craft f…

Facebook has tons of bright developers that other bright developers like to be around, and even if they're not all primarily motivated by the potential value of their options, it does create a self-sustaining black hole...

Not unlike Google.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#39

Post by mikemaccana »

reso wrote: post #26
Sephr wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Of your friends, you just get a list of names, not any contact information whatsoever.

The argument is friends' contact info belongs to your friends, not to you. Its a social grey area that has been created by the internet, the correct protocols have yet to be defined.

I can access my friends contact info (including email addresses and phone numbers) as I like, within FB's platform. FB just restricts me from accessing that once I;m not longer connected to it. Indeed, you're right - that's the argument - but I suspect it's merely used as a justification to FB's commercial benefit.

Re: Facebook snags Geohot

#40

Post by baddox »

redthrowaway wrote: post #18
lhnz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair to discuss any perceived moral problem around this. Facebook pays well and you get to work with some very smart people on a far-reaching product. That's a good job.

How does paying well and being full of nerds obviate a moral dilemma? If working for facebook is morally wrong (feel free to argue on this one), then neither of those conditions changes things. It can be both a smart move for geohot, as well as an immoral one. Again, I'm not saying that working for facebook is bad. I'm saying that it's rightness or wrongness is not determined by how well they pay or how many geeks th…

Working for facebook is not morally wrong. How could anyone think it is?
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