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Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

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Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#51

Post by intricatedetail »

benlivengood wrote: post #30
still_grokking wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the EU enforce the deletion of said data from Facebook servers standing on US ground? How do I enforce deletion if I have unwittingly only a "shadow account" in Facebook?

Fine the Facebook subsidiaries incorporated in the EU. Or completely ban them from doing business, which prevents advertisers in the EU from giving them money.

This is impossible - the fine would have to be absurdly high to matter and if they disabled their business in the EU there would be riots. Facebook can essentially do whatever they want as they are also likely sending information to services.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#53

Post by rcoveson »

awestley wrote: post #26
passivate wrote: post #25

Can Facebook legitimately pivot into any other service/product and still make money? It seems like they're always going to be at odds with privacy/public trust. One one hand, it is extremely sad to see talented engineers at Google/FB work hard on products designed to spy on people, but OTOH, I suppose it could be far worse if these were companies who simply sold our data.

Would it be worse? A big part of what companies like FB and Google do is get people "hooked" (A good book on this very topic) on sharing that data. In effect willingly revealing more and more data about themselves. If it were simply being sold I don't think people would divulge as much information.

Agreed. If entity A makes billions of dollars by selling everything they know about you, and entity B makes billions of dollars by merely knowing everything they know about you, I much prefer entity A. Entity B and its investors terrify me with the confidence they have in the future returns on that knowledge.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#54

Post by captainclam »

lprd wrote: post #23

Color me surprised. I kept hoping that with one of these privacy leaks, or any of the other atrocities that FB has committed, it would've triggered the beginning of their demise...but nope. Their stock prices just keep rising, and people continue to use the platform.

... and people continue to use the platform

I imagine that the number of people who even hear or read about these privacy leaks represent a minuscule fraction of the user base.

And of those that are aware of these leaks, a small fraction are concerned about internet privacy.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#55

Post by aardvarkr »

rcoveson wrote: post #53
awestley wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be worse? A big part of what companies like FB and Google do is get people "hooked" (A good book on this very topic) on sharing that data. In effect willingly revealing more and more data about themselves. If it were simply being sold I don't think people would divulge as much information.

Agreed. If entity A makes billions of dollars by selling everything they know about you, and entity B makes billions of dollars by merely knowing everything they know about you, I much prefer entity A. Entity B and its investors terrify me with the confidence they have in the future returns on that knowledge.

So you’d rather me be able to purchase information about everything you’ve done, down to your gps location from five minutes ago? Even “anonymized” data is trivially easy to de-anonymize with publicly available information. It makes me shudder to think how many apps (like weather channel) are on everyone’s phones that allow companies to sell your current location to the highest bidder. It’s shockingly pervasive.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#56

Post by stevehawk »

passivate wrote: post #25

Can Facebook legitimately pivot into any other service/product and still make money? It seems like they're always going to be at odds with privacy/public trust. One one hand, it is extremely sad to see talented engineers at Google/FB work hard on products designed to spy on people, but OTOH, I suppose it could be far worse if these were companies who simply sold our data.

as a ~40yr old it feels like the greatest disappointment of my generation is that most of our brain power went towards making better spyware, click tracking, etc, all in the name of maximizing ad revenue and click through.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#57

Post by sildur »

intricatedetail wrote: post #51
benlivengood wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine the Facebook subsidiaries incorporated in the EU. Or completely ban them from doing business, which prevents advertisers in the EU from giving them money.

This is impossible - the fine would have to be absurdly high to matter and if they disabled their business in the EU there would be riots. Facebook can essentially do whatever they want as they are also likely sending information to services.

> This is impossible - the fine would have to be absurdly high to matter

Fines here are proportional to profits, so it would be absurdly high for Facebook.

> and if they disabled their business in the EU there would be riots.

Not really. In the last five years I've seen an ever growing anti American sentiment around here. I guess it's because all the antics that were coming from the angry Cheeto.

America is now seen as unstable and unreliable. The sentiment around here is basically (generally speaking): "and what happens of they decide to elect (another) Trump again?"

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#58

Post by nicbou »

EastSmith wrote: post #47
nicbou wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uBlock has a blocklist for cookie notices and other annoyances. Turning it off feels like watching cable TV after a decade of Netflix. It's crazy that we need to go through so much crap (tracking, cookie notices, ads, newsletter prompts, SEO keyword soup) to get the simplest answers. The website I run is deliberately annoyance-free. I see it as a competitive advantage.

Which blacklist is this?

There's a few of them, labelled "annoyances". You can also subscribe to I Don't Care About Cookies' list.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#59

Post by alexvoda »

samatman wrote: post #48
skybrian wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was it ever? Anyone could write an article about you. Articles about specific people are discussed all the time on Hacker News. Usually the person being written about doesn’t get a say about their reputation.

Sadly, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment, from my utterly amateur legal armchair. We need new laws for this. GDPR is a good start, if one happens to be an EU citizen, if a bit toothless. We need new laws because automated collection of vast amounts of personal data, at scale, is a thing different in kind from manually collecting personal data about a specific person. Due to the expense and difficulty, the ea…

> We need new laws for this. GDPR is a good start, if one happens to be an EU citizen, if a bit toothless.

It actually has a better bite than most. The problem is that the one suposed to do the biting doesn't do a lot of it.

Re: Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (2020)

#60

Post by zelphirkalt »

tyingq wrote: post #46
devenblake wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What law specifically?

I would guess the "Telecommunications Act of 1996". https://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/tcom1996.txt Probably the text starting here: SEC. 702. PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION. Title II is amended by inserting after section 221 (47 U.S.C. 221) the following new section: SEC. 222. PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION

If it is about customer (!) information, does it still apply to people simply visiting websites, and due to not knowing better, not blocking Google and FB trackers? It would not seem like they are automatically Google's or FB's customers.
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