Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

consumerreports.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 148 posts

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#51

Post by 15457345234 »

thoraway3127 wrote: post #23

Recently been inundated with “People you may know” which are old flings, people I went on one date with/slept with once, etc… I met them on tinder or CL, and it’s very strange to see that. I can only guess maybe I was still in their phone, but I haven’t had a facebook app on my phone in many years, and I don’t believe they were all even on my contacts list. I did have whatsapp, so I can only guess that’s where it’s c…

People who are in happy relationships/marriages probably disengage from the platforms and focus more on the real world. There is an incentive here to be reprehensible.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#52

Post by nico »

Just tried creating a fb account to manage some ads

It let me create the account, but then to manage the ads they had me create a business account, and a few seconds later, they blocked my fb account

Exactly the same thing happened to someone else I’m working with

We are trying to appeal, but seems like it might go nowhere

Any tips would be appreciated

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#53

Post by kornhole »

nico wrote: post #52

Just tried creating a fb account to manage some ads It let me create the account, but then to manage the ads they had me create a business account, and a few seconds later, they blocked my fb account Exactly the same thing happened to someone else I’m working with We are trying to appeal, but seems like it might go nowhere Any tips would be appreciated

I don't have a solution, but I tried to do something similar and asked my friend who is a manager in data and identity management at Facebook how I could create an account for some experimentation. He explained to me that they are very strict on identification nowadays and the only way to get back into a locked out account is to show ID next to your face on camera.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#54

Post by Krasnol »

legitster wrote: post #5

Link to the actual Consumer Reports report: https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/each-fac... So most of the data provided is probably coming in via the FB tracking pixel. I think the references to FB's "custom audiences" is a red herring - it's a very manual process and very few companies use that feature in any sort of scale. FB hashes the data that gets uploaded and specifically throws out extraneous…

> it's a very manual process and very few companies use that feature in any sort of scale

Is it because it's manual?

Since all those data collections which has been to be used manual are slowly turning into training data for models atm.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#55

Post by sirpunch »

Zelphyr wrote: post #33
Cheer2171 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess: you don't have a kid that goes to a school that only posts crucial news and updates to their Facebook page and you don't have a friend group that uses a WhatsApp group to plan events. Try explaining to the average human that you have a moral objection which means you can't install the same app everyone else has, and that everyone else needs to do a lot of work to accommodate you. One of my friend groups…

I have kids that go to school and they don't use Facebook. They don't want to. I didn't even ask them to not have an account. (that one kind-of surprised me, honestly) My Jiu Jitsu gym heavily uses Facebook but they're smart enough to recognize that not everyone (even the people that have an account) checks it regularly so they notify the members through other means. Lately they've been telling people to be on the lo…

Do your kids not use TikTok as well?

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#56

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

Havoc wrote: post #3

Has anyone tried doing a deep dive on their own data from FB? Is it fairly accessible to crunch this?

Briefly, before I requested they deleted it all(GDPR jurisdiction).

They had logs of pretty much every website I'd been to going back several years.

Fucking creeps.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#57

Post by namaria »

enraged_camel wrote: post #50
yedava wrote: post #39

Earlier today, this[1] was on the HN front page, a blog post on how Meta processes trillions of serverless functions. All that impressive tech exists for one single reason - massive surveillance at scale. [1] https://read.engineerscodex.com/p/meta-xfaas-serverless-func...

Surveillance isn't the reason. It's a means to a goal, which is to sell people stuff.

The problem is not selling people stuff. The problem is surveilling them.

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#58

Post by mplewis »

enraged_camel wrote: post #50
yedava wrote: post #39

Earlier today, this[1] was on the HN front page, a blog post on how Meta processes trillions of serverless functions. All that impressive tech exists for one single reason - massive surveillance at scale. [1] https://read.engineerscodex.com/p/meta-xfaas-serverless-func...

Surveillance isn't the reason. It's a means to a goal, which is to sell people stuff.

And?

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#59

Post by beezlewax »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #44
legitster wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. FB's tracking pixel can be both first and third party: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/471978536642445?id=12... Getting rid of third-party support will mean FB doesn't get anonymous data from random website users - but if you are logged into FB or hit the page from a FB link, it would still be trackable as a first-party cookie.

The camera app on my Android phone pings Facebook every time it starts up despite me not having an account to use any of the Facebook integration. Presumably the lib does the same in many other apps.

That seems like it should be illegal

Re: Each Facebook user is monitored by thousands of companies

#60

Post by denvaar »

Couple days ago I logged into Facebook for the first time in about 2-3 years because I wanted to download a video that I had saved there. What a hot mess.

I needed to reset my password, but the form was seemingly unresponsive. Then suddenly a message appeared in a dialog popup letting me know that I had been temporarily locked out. I eventually managed to log in.

Inside the app, I had a handful of messages from various friends who were obviously hacked, asking me to click a some sketchy link. Several posts on my feed had comments from users who seem like bots.

I found the thumbnail of the video that I was looking for, clicked it, and got a plain-text page that read: "Gone." So, I guess the video doesn't exist anymore.

It felt like some sort of dystopia.

I couldn't stop thinking to myself about how many smart people work there, and how much money the company has, yet still it was one of the worst online experiences that I've had.

Post reply on HN