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Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

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Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#341

Post by justtopost »

tombert wrote: post #301

It upsets me that the "normal" way to keep in touch with people now seems to be to use some kind of big-brother-esque system. I try and evangelize Signal over WhatsApp and most of my friends won't budge. I deleted my Facebook four years ago, and as a result I have lost contact with a lot of friends.

As someone who still makes phone calls and writes letters, it seems like a step backward. Most people have nothing to even discuss once they 'get together' as they have shouted everything remotely interesting about themselves and their lives into the void already.

I have letters I treasure and will keep to my death. Emails? Not so much. The impression, the personal touch is missing. We as humans notice that sort of thing even when we pretend its all the same.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#342

Post by mav3rick »

ergothus wrote: post #305

recently interviewed at Facebook (didn't pass the in-person) and one thing I was looking for was a job that WASN'T based on ads. I didn't want to come across negative so I was circumspect in my asking ("Tell me about the positions at Facebook that I as an outsider don't know about - I know ads, messaging, and events"). I wasn't really excited by the answers I got - ads seemed worked into everything they brought up, b…

There's Oculus and Building 8. Also, backend infra stuff.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#343

Post by da02 »

justtopost wrote: post #330
krageon wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need his crazy stories, really. All you need to do is accept that Facebook isn't behaving exceptionally poorly, this is industry standard. Lo and behold - the entire sector is suddenly a cesspool of disrespect and money grabbing at the cost of your data, your privacy, anything they will be able to get away with. And they can get away with a lot, because you are not allowed to talk when you work anywhere. On…

》Facebook isn't behaving exceptionally poorly I think we are at an impasse. Most in the know do not share this opinion.

Can you elaborate on what their opinion is about Fb and other companies?

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#344

Post by marnett »

zethraeus wrote: post #336
beaconstudios wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's already taken by Uber's self-driving car division.

Not remotely funny.

Understanding HN is not a place for jokes and quips, I understand your sentiment. But it is pretty humorous.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#345

Post by nirelBRACITOS »

adpirz wrote: post #239

What's facebook's boiling point? My guess is they'll respond, they'll no longer use 2FA #'s for ads, the damage will have been done, and 99% of the population won't know any of it occurred. We'll repeat this cycle when a fresh revelation occurs months from now, as facebook continues to test how much they can leverage for more ad revenue. But none of it is actually slowing FB down. Its biggest dip in value came from d…

FB seems to be the favorite punching bag for HN, probably because it’s full of people who have tried to set up 600 different startups and raised exactly $0 where as Zuckerberg made more money than all the people here combined in 100 years.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#346

Post by NiekvdMaas »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #297
NiekvdMaas wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you hinting that FB advertisers are throwing 50 billion (expected 2018 revenue) at ads that are poorly performing? Obviously that is not correct, the result of all this detailed targeting is campaigns that are performing very well for experienced marketeers.

okay so… - not all people buying FB ads are experienced marketers - companies throw tons of money at ineffective ads, that should be obvious… - we have no idea what the ratio of "successful" to unsuccessful campaigns is - even if that ratio is negative, Facebook is still one of the only remaining "games" in town, so people _will_ continue throwing money at it. “Least worst” is a fine and lucrative place to be in. - c…

I'm in ad tech, and believe me: FB advertising works. The vast majority of their ad revenue is coming from experienced ad buyers that are spending immense amounts on direct response campaigns, not branding.

If you want to see how things work, start a small ad campaign yourself of FB. It's all about ROI, attribution, cost per action, super detailed targeting, etc. It's the opposite of "throwing money at it hoping that it'll work", unlike offline advertising or even traditional display ads.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#347

Post by abalone »

> They found that when a user gives Facebook a phone number for two-factor authentication or in order to receive alerts about new log-ins to a user’s account, that phone number became targetable by an advertiser within a couple of weeks.

I have always been suspicious of the aggressive "give us your phone number to secure your account" campaigns that so many sites/apps are running. And I think this is a HUGE disservice to users.

At first I was like, cool, companies are being responsible and encouraging good security practices, good on them. But there was something a touch too.. aggressive and "marketing-y" about it. It raised my spidey sense. Maybe the form and frequency and placement of them just was too familiar to previous campaigns to grab your email for "opt in" spam.

All of these companies should be shamed to high hell. Getting people to adopt 2FA is so important and here they are shamelessly exploiting it to market to you for undisclosed purposes.. well, buried in the privacy policy, but you know how that goes. The prompt is 100% about securing your account and nothing mentioned there about using it for targeting.

Seriously F these companies for breaking user trust.

ALSO: Did Zuckerberg lie to Congress?[1]

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/11/facebook-shadow-profiles-h...

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#348

Post by kevin_b_er »

ummonk wrote: post #17

As a security engineer, I cannot overstate just how horrible this is. Phone numbers might not be an ideal 2nd factor for authentication, but to punish users for setting up 2FA by using the provided phone number for ad targetting is incredibly unethical.

Ethics do not matter vs profit, so long as the elected representatives can be properly paid off and the public lied to that regulation is always bad.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#349

Post by njarboe »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #255
wmeredith wrote: post #251

It’s a cycle. Facebook has been doing nasty shit and apologizing for it since 2003. I’m starting to think they aren’t actually sorry. https://www.wired.com/story/why-zuckerberg-15-year-apology-t...

Right, because Move fast and break stuff is their mantra. I'm surprised that articles doesn't even mention it. Perhaps Move fast and hurt people would be more honest. I think it's rather catchy.

It is probably still the mantra for people who work there, as corporate culture is slow to change, but Zuck changed it in 2014 to "Move Fast With Stable Infra"[1].

[1]https://mashable.com/2014/04/30/facebooks-new-mantra-move-fa...

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#350

Post by kevin_b_er »

jzl wrote: post #224
fosco wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can we do about it? I realize this is probably not answerable in this thread but I find myself asking this question more frequently lately and I still cannot answer it. would be happy to see this discussion split into an Ask HN: or other, I think this topic should be debated quite a bit more than it is with the goal of attaining real results on fixing these issues.

Simple: delete your Facebook account. Many of us already have. Nothing will send a stronger message than people doing this en masse. Even if they don't get the message or don't care, it's the only way to protect yourself from their never-ending privacy violations.

Facebook will still harvest your personal information to profit from. They'll just do without your involvement. They'll get it from anyone or anything you've ever revealed information about yourself to.
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