4 ms·

Lately Facebook seem all to happy to trade the goodwill and trust of their users for control and monetization over their data. It's getting a little creepy.

by ajg1977 16y ago

codexon 16y ago
They were inevitably headed in that direction. There is no other way to justify their sky-high valuation without exploiting private information.
- nfnaaron 16y ago
  I'd go farther and guess (guess) that major investors have said something like "well, we invested all this money, now we want major returns." What we've seen would then be reaction to that. And if you're a FB employee, no disrespect to you. If nothing in these posts are true, consider then what FB might be doing wrong so that these kinds of reactions can fester.
jessriedel 16y ago
I agree, but the prevalence of FB on the HN front page is a little suspect. There have been at least 10 negative FB posts on HN in the past couple days. I think someone's got an axe to grind...
- codingthewheel 16y ago
  That someone is "people" and the axe they have to grind is "stop trolling the personal data you unscrupulously collected from us in the first place by hoodwinking us into thinking you actually MEANT the meaningless drivel in your privacy policy."
  - ErrantX 16y ago
    I've not fully kept up with all the stories recently (been busy, I have a pretty open FB account anyway etc..) but as far as I was aware the only really problematic thing (from a privacy perspective) was the new favourites/likes etc. thing where certain things can appear on the "fan" page without you really realising. I wasn't aware of anything else specific that was bending the privacy policy to the limit? Anyone care to fill me in on the TL;DR version? (the social graph, as far as I saw, obeys your privacy settings)
    - megablast 16y ago
      Selling all your details to advertisers. Constantly changing what is private and what is public. Getting upset at someone using the data that they provide to the public for research purposes. There is more.
      - kmavm 16y ago
        "Selling all your details to advertisers." Simply, no. There is no check you can write to facebook to in order to get a particular facebook user's, or set of users', information.
        yellowbkpk 16y ago
        Nope, they give it out for free via the graph API.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
    - alex_c 16y ago
      I'm not following Facebook closely either, but two things I'm aware of: - 3rd parties (app developers, Facebook Connect users, etc.) no longer have a 24hr limit on storing user data - Open Graph basically means your Facebook info has the potential to be plastered all over the web if you're browsing without being logged out of Facebook
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- paulbaumgart 16y ago
  They wouldn't be on the front page if it weren't for all the upvotes.
- pg 16y ago
  Apparently not. There are no suspicious patterns in the voting on those stories.
- ErrantX 16y ago
  It happens. Facebook have made a few idiotic decisions recently and it's their turn for the [legitimate] disgruntlement (remember Google were getting it much the same). There will be a plenty of both sensible and silly articles targeting Facebook.
  - jessriedel 16y ago
    Thanks, that is all I meant. People should just take this current wave of FB stories with a grain of salt.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  What a nonsense. Facebook is acting, people are re-acting. It's only natural that facebook should come under some scrutiny, for one they're huge, secondly they behave like a bull in a china shop with respect to other peoples privacy. You've been a HN member for all of three months and 10 days, I think it is a little early to start accusing people here of being in some kind of conspiracy against facebook. There also is no conspiracy against apple, google, microsoft or any other big name company or website.
- JayJays 16y ago
  You got us. This article upvote has been sponsored by MySpace.com
- jessriedel 16y ago
  Yikes, fellas. I wasn't trying to accuse anyone of a conspiracy. I just meant that current wave of negative FB stories in the past week seems out of proportion to the degree to which they have changed anything (privacy-related or otherwise) during that time period. The FB-bashing has become fashionable.
iamdave 16y ago
Trust me, creepy is not the word.
olefoo 16y ago
Remember that facebooks' customers are not the users, they are the advertisers.
- sabat 16y ago
  I'm sure that's the way they see it. A company with more foresight would realize that its users are its lifeblood.
  - olefoo 16y ago
    I'm sure that Facebook looks on it's users much the way that Archer-Daniels-Midland looks upon soybeans, to be fed and watered and destined for harvesting.

Lately Facebook seem all to happy to trade the goodwill and trust of their users for control and monetization over their data. It's getting a little creepy.

by ajg1977 16y ago

Lately Facebook seem all to happy to trade the goodwill and trust of their users for control and monetization over their data. It's getting a little creepy.

codexon 16y ago

They were inevitably headed in that direction. There is no other way to justify their sky-high valuation without exploiting private information.

nfnaaron 16y ago
I'd go farther and guess (guess) that major investors have said something like "well, we invested all this money, now we want major returns." What we've seen would then be reaction to that. And if you're a FB employee, no disrespect to you. If nothing in these posts are true, consider then what FB might be doing wrong so that these kinds of reactions can fester.

jessriedel 16y ago

I agree, but the prevalence of FB on the HN front page is a little suspect. There have been at least 10 negative FB posts on HN in the past couple days. I think someone's got an axe to grind...

codingthewheel 16y ago
That someone is "people" and the axe they have to grind is "stop trolling the personal data you unscrupulously collected from us in the first place by hoodwinking us into thinking you actually MEANT the meaningless drivel in your privacy policy."
- ErrantX 16y ago
  I've not fully kept up with all the stories recently (been busy, I have a pretty open FB account anyway etc..) but as far as I was aware the only really problematic thing (from a privacy perspective) was the new favourites/likes etc. thing where certain things can appear on the "fan" page without you really realising. I wasn't aware of anything else specific that was bending the privacy policy to the limit? Anyone care to fill me in on the TL;DR version? (the social graph, as far as I saw, obeys your privacy settings)
  - megablast 16y ago
    Selling all your details to advertisers. Constantly changing what is private and what is public. Getting upset at someone using the data that they provide to the public for research purposes. There is more.
    - kmavm 16y ago
      "Selling all your details to advertisers." Simply, no. There is no check you can write to facebook to in order to get a particular facebook user's, or set of users', information.
      - yellowbkpk 16y ago
        Nope, they give it out for free via the graph API.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
  - alex_c 16y ago
    I'm not following Facebook closely either, but two things I'm aware of: - 3rd parties (app developers, Facebook Connect users, etc.) no longer have a 24hr limit on storing user data - Open Graph basically means your Facebook info has the potential to be plastered all over the web if you're browsing without being logged out of Facebook
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
paulbaumgart 16y ago
They wouldn't be on the front page if it weren't for all the upvotes.
pg 16y ago
Apparently not. There are no suspicious patterns in the voting on those stories.
ErrantX 16y ago
It happens. Facebook have made a few idiotic decisions recently and it's their turn for the [legitimate] disgruntlement (remember Google were getting it much the same). There will be a plenty of both sensible and silly articles targeting Facebook.
- jessriedel 16y ago
  Thanks, that is all I meant. People should just take this current wave of FB stories with a grain of salt.
jacquesm 16y ago
What a nonsense. Facebook is acting, people are re-acting. It's only natural that facebook should come under some scrutiny, for one they're huge, secondly they behave like a bull in a china shop with respect to other peoples privacy. You've been a HN member for all of three months and 10 days, I think it is a little early to start accusing people here of being in some kind of conspiracy against facebook. There also is no conspiracy against apple, google, microsoft or any other big name company or website.
JayJays 16y ago
You got us. This article upvote has been sponsored by MySpace.com
jessriedel 16y ago
Yikes, fellas. I wasn't trying to accuse anyone of a conspiracy. I just meant that current wave of negative FB stories in the past week seems out of proportion to the degree to which they have changed anything (privacy-related or otherwise) during that time period. The FB-bashing has become fashionable.

iamdave 16y ago

Trust me, creepy is not the word.

olefoo 16y ago

Remember that facebooks' customers are not the users, they are the advertisers.

sabat 16y ago
I'm sure that's the way they see it. A company with more foresight would realize that its users are its lifeblood.
- olefoo 16y ago
  I'm sure that Facebook looks on it's users much the way that Archer-Daniels-Midland looks upon soybeans, to be fed and watered and destined for harvesting.