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There is a big difference between sharing data with companies, and allowing companies to specify as targeting rules. Facebook lets companies bid for ads to sho

There is a big difference between sharing data with companies, and allowing companies to specify as targeting rules. Facebook lets companies bid for ads to show you, based on Facebook’s data about your interests and demographics. If you never engage with the ads there is no information leakage. It’s the difference between telling a random person “I’ll tell my gay friends about your party” and “Did you know that Bob is dating Steve?”.

wdr1 9y ago
> Facebook lets companies bid for ads to show you, based on Facebook’s data about your interests and demographics. If you never engage with the ads there is no information leakage. That's not true.
- threeseed 9y ago
  Please provide evidence then. I have never seen Facebook allowing large scale harvesting of their data. And it would qualify as data breaches in places like EU which do not tolerate this sort of thing.
  - OrganicMSG 9y ago
    Well, they may not officially permit it in public, however they clearly allow it, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
    - scotu 9y ago
      do you understand how this data ended up in CA's hands? Regular facebook app asked persmission to get data to it's users, one by one. It then retained the data and shared without facebook or their users permission (and against FB terms). Then facebook realized this data was shared, required CA to delete all of it. CA agreed. CA didn't delete. That's how we are here I'm no facebook fan by the way, but there's no reason for facebook to sell their most important asset when they can allow you to pay to use it, without ever seeing it
      - scotu 9y ago
        well, this seems to go deeper then I was anticipating. What I wrote above might not be accurate since the story is still evolving....
        OrganicMSG 9y ago
        Fair play for saying.
alangpierce 9y ago
I've heard a lot of people believe otherwise (including a sibling post), so probably best to bring in evidence/sources. Here's Facebook's statement on it: "No, we don't sell any of your information to anyone and we never will." From https://www.facebook.com/help/152637448140583 https://www.facebook.com/help/152637448140583 So if you believe Facebook sells your information, then you also believe that Facebook is directly lying about it on a help page about that specific topic. Sometimes conspiracy theories are true, so it's not impossible that that's what happening, but it's not like Facebook is openly selling your information.
- untog 9y ago
  No, it's worse, they just gave it away for free. Until 2014 or so an app could request permission to view almost any data a user stores on Facebook. That's not great, but hey, you could argue it's not Facebook's fault that people don't understand permission prompts (I'd disagree with you, but...). But those same prompts allowed users to give away their friend's data, so absolutely anyone you're friends with could take some stupid personality test and give away your information in the process, and there was no way you'd even know.
- Spooky23 9y ago
  You always need to parse statements like this very carefully. Pretty much any other company who isn't providing your information to others says "we do not share your data with unaffiliated entities..." Facebook said that they don't sell your information. Which is true -- they aren't a data broker. But they implicitly state that your data is shared, subject to the limited controls available. You cannot stop Amazon and Facebook from sharing, for example.
amelius 9y ago
> If you never engage with the ads there is no information leakage. But what if you do?

wdr1 9y ago

> Facebook lets companies bid for ads to show you, based on Facebook’s data about your interests and demographics. If you never engage with the ads there is no information leakage. That's not true.

threeseed 9y ago
Please provide evidence then. I have never seen Facebook allowing large scale harvesting of their data. And it would qualify as data breaches in places like EU which do not tolerate this sort of thing.
- OrganicMSG 9y ago
  Well, they may not officially permit it in public, however they clearly allow it, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
  - scotu 9y ago
    do you understand how this data ended up in CA's hands? Regular facebook app asked persmission to get data to it's users, one by one. It then retained the data and shared without facebook or their users permission (and against FB terms). Then facebook realized this data was shared, required CA to delete all of it. CA agreed. CA didn't delete. That's how we are here I'm no facebook fan by the way, but there's no reason for facebook to sell their most important asset when they can allow you to pay to use it, without ever seeing it
    - scotu 9y ago
      well, this seems to go deeper then I was anticipating. What I wrote above might not be accurate since the story is still evolving....
      - OrganicMSG 9y ago
        Fair play for saying.

alangpierce 9y ago

I've heard a lot of people believe otherwise (including a sibling post), so probably best to bring in evidence/sources. Here's Facebook's statement on it: "No, we don't sell any of your information to anyone and we never will." From https://www.facebook.com/help/152637448140583 https://www.facebook.com/help/152637448140583 So if you believe Facebook sells your information, then you also believe that Facebook is directly lying about it on a help page about that specific topic. Sometimes conspiracy theories are true, so it's not impossible that that's what happening, but it's not like Facebook is openly selling your information.

untog 9y ago
No, it's worse, they just gave it away for free. Until 2014 or so an app could request permission to view almost any data a user stores on Facebook. That's not great, but hey, you could argue it's not Facebook's fault that people don't understand permission prompts (I'd disagree with you, but...). But those same prompts allowed users to give away their friend's data, so absolutely anyone you're friends with could take some stupid personality test and give away your information in the process, and there was no way you'd even know.
Spooky23 9y ago
You always need to parse statements like this very carefully. Pretty much any other company who isn't providing your information to others says "we do not share your data with unaffiliated entities..." Facebook said that they don't sell your information. Which is true -- they aren't a data broker. But they implicitly state that your data is shared, subject to the limited controls available. You cannot stop Amazon and Facebook from sharing, for example.

amelius 9y ago

> If you never engage with the ads there is no information leakage. But what if you do?