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

Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 230 posts

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#71

Post by wicket »

heinrichhartman wrote: post #68
wicket wrote: post #65

Meanwhile... Google, Microsoft and Apple* _receive_ money from their users to harvest the same personal data that Facebook is willing to pay their users for and nobody bats an eyelid. * Apple is probably the least guilty here, however as long as their OS remains closed, we don't actually know how much personal data they are harvesting.

You can easily verify using Wireshark on a router, that neither Google, Microsoft or Apple are redirecting ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC through their servers. This is quite a step up from sending home some telemetry data.

Wireshark won't decrypt encrypted traffic.

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#72

Post by danso »

nelsonic wrote: post #61

Fb is only "shutting down" it's iOS Spyware due to "bad press" not due to a sudden realisation that spying on children who are incapable of understanding the long-term consequences of the privacy invasion is fundamentally wrong/evil. Fb only stop doing things that are obviously morally reprehensible when they get caught or called out in the media. They never proactively doing the right thing. :-(

Almost by definition, we're only going to notice the "right things" they've done that they don't get called out on (i.e. have attention drawn to beforehand).

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#73

Post by maxxxxx »

mrweasel wrote: post #19
11sdmb8m wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caught doing what? What they did was perfectly fine. Legal even under the GDPR, and people were being paid for it, which is the usual lament here ("nobody is paying me for my data"). Admit it, you just hate Facebook.

What Facebook, politicians, and many others fail to understand is that there's a difference between legal and morally right. Facebook makes it exceedingly easy for people to hate them, while technically doing nothing wrong. Well sometimes they break the law, but then Zuckerberg just says he's sorry and we all move on. It's getting tiresome to watch our industry behave recklessly in the pursuit of ad revenue and the p…

I am slowly turning into a Luddite. Whenever new devices come out I immediately wonder how they are used to spy on people as main purpose and helping people is secondary.

The ad-supported business model really has corrupted tech to the core.

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#74

Post by kuhhk »

maxxxxx wrote: post #67
RobLach wrote: post #45

If I tried something like this I’d have my developer account totally revoked and all my apps pulled; but I can’t imagine that happening to Facebook. It makes sense but it’s interesting that there’s a systemic de-risking of the way big players operate while simultaneously being in a position to do the most damage.

From a certain size on they need each other. Apple can’t afford to lose Facebook and Facebook can’t afford to lose apple.

... so they allow themselves to abuse each other? Maybe enterprises should have % penalties built into their contracts here to effect the appropriate behavior if the normal rules don’t (or can’t) apply.

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#75

Post by dijit »

sjilo wrote: post #44
dijit wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN also heavily penalises posts which have a high number of comments.

Why is that?

To avoid controversial topics and flame wars (and likely to prevent heavy load on the servers since large threads cause significant strain on HN it seems)

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#76

Post by maxxxxx »

kuhhk wrote: post #74
maxxxxx wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a certain size on they need each other. Apple can’t afford to lose Facebook and Facebook can’t afford to lose apple.

... so they allow themselves to abuse each other? Maybe enterprises should have % penalties built into their contracts here to effect the appropriate behavior if the normal rules don’t (or can’t) apply.

They don’t abuse each other but their users.

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#77

Post by gaius »

nelsonic wrote: post #61

Fb is only "shutting down" it's iOS Spyware due to "bad press" not due to a sudden realisation that spying on children who are incapable of understanding the long-term consequences of the privacy invasion is fundamentally wrong/evil. Fb only stop doing things that are obviously morally reprehensible when they get caught or called out in the media. They never proactively doing the right thing. :-(

I would love to be a fly-on-the-wall at some of their meetings when someone says “So we are going to do data collection on minors without parental consent now” and all the developers just say “great I’ll code that up straight away”. Like is there no dissent at all? Is there no one at all who says “guys this is not OK”?

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#78

Post by aorth »

> The Research app requires that users install a custom root certificate, giving Facebook the ability to see users’ private messages, emails, web searches, and browsing activity.

Ouch. Yes that's really bad, even if it wasn't a violation of Apple's terms of service (it was, apparently).

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#79

Post by krapp »

wilkskyes wrote: post #64
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the slow break down of society. Let's not cheer that on, shall we.

This is literally what every generation seems to say about the behavior and habits of the next generation. I think it's pretty clear "break down" just means changes you don't like.

You haven't gotten to the point of proving that the "teens" would be correct to disregard their privacy, or that the "old generation" would be wrong to care about it.

I don't believe the behavior you're describing actually falls along generational lines, though, rather than technical competence or awareness. It isn't only "teens" who use social media, nor is it only "old people" who are concerned about privacy. In fact, younger generations are leaving Facebook and social media because of privacy concerns and the negative effect it has on their lives.

Your arguments here are stereotypical ageism and lack enough nuance to be convincing.

Re: Facebook will shut down its controversial market research app for iOS

#80

Post by MorrisofOrange »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #52

I really hope people remember all the ways Facebook is being scummy for when Zuckerberg decides to enter politics. We don't need more people like him in government.

I dont want this to happen. But I want to see it happen.
Post reply on HN