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Because Equifax was a hack, Facebook's situation was WAI. Your bank putting a bad lock on the safe is different from the bank creating a back door where others

Because Equifax was a hack, Facebook's situation was WAI. Your bank putting a bad lock on the safe is different from the bank creating a back door where others get a red carpet to the safe.

ReverseCold 9y ago
Equifax's "safe" holds information about money that you borrowed, and some PII to tie it back to you. Facebook's "safe" probably holds enough information to change your perspectives on a variety of issues, sway elections, break democracies, etc. While both are undoubtedly important, Facebook should be objectively more important than Equifax due to the nature of the information that Facebook holds. Who cares about money when so much more is at stake?
- ucaetano 9y ago
  > Equifax's "safe" holds information about money that you borrowed, and some PII to tie it back to you. It also contains address, SSN, account numbers, etc. Which, for most people, is far more damaging than your FB profile. But again, Equifax's hack wasn't WAI, it was a hack. Facebook's "leak" wasn't even a leak, it was WAI.
  - ReverseCold 9y ago
    > It also contains address, SSN, account numbers, etc. This is money. > FB profile This contains information about who you are (psychologically and physically). It can be used to change your mind about things with/without you realizing. Though I'm not disagreeing with your point that one was an accident/bad practice while the other one was willful malice. What I do disagree with (that OP mentioned) is that you can opt out of Facebook. They do keep shadow profiles of non-users as well. It's just as easy to opt out of SSNs as it is to opt out of Facebook.
    - ucaetano 9y ago
      "This is money." x "This contains information about who you are (psychologically and physically)." Well, that becomes a personal opinion call about what you care more about, not a objective comparison. > It's just as easy to opt out of SSNs as it is to opt out of Facebook. Yeah, no, it isn't. You can easily isolate yourself from Fb, even if you still use it. And I think you've never went through identity theft, to think that. Identity theft can easily lead to bankruptcy, losing a job, tens of thousands in debt, etc.
    - khedoros1 9y ago
      Money is what allows me to provide a good lifestyle to my family. Facebook, well...I don't get my news there. Most of my profile is blank, false, or misleading. A decade ago, I used it for more. Now, it's a couple of technical discussion groups and the event calendar. Facebook is a blip. Equifax is the reason that I spent a lot of last week defending my bank account and cell service from takeover.
- zaroth 9y ago
  > Facebook's "safe" probably holds enough information to change your perspectives on a variety of issues, sway elections, break democracies, etc. This is sarcasm, right?
  - ReverseCold 9y ago
    Nope. Why do you think it is? A large use case for collecting all the data about everything is what I just mentioned. Even if they themselves do not do these things, they allow others to do it using their platform. I don't like linking to Stallman because it sounds like I'm a conspiracy theorist - but here you go: https://stallman.org/facebook.html#psych https://stallman.org/facebook.html#psych
dsacco 9y ago
What is WAI? I searched for “WAI” by itself and with “Facebook” and got nothing useful. You’re the only person using this acronym and no one else seems to be responding to it; do you mind clarifying it?
- chadcatlett 9y ago
  I believe they are referring to "works as intended".
- drewm1980 9y ago
  I feel old every time I have to look something like this up on urban dictionary.
- chatmasta 9y ago
  This happens a lot on HN. Personally I don’t mind it, but it is problematic for discussion. I enjoy the puzzle of guessing acronyms based on context. Apparently it’s part of my MBTI personality type... and I think I got this one right as “working as intended,” but I only have the context in this case because I share the OP’s opinion on the matter at hand. That illustrates the problem that using unidentifiable acronyms limits discussion by constraining your audience to those who already agree with you or share your expertise.
  - tudelo 9y ago
    It's interesting that you realize they are problematic for discussion, yet continue on to use the acronym "MBTI".
    - chatmasta 9y ago
      I don't know what it stands for.
- ucaetano 9y ago
  Sure, my apologies! WAI = working as intended. That is a common reason for closing a bug report, for example. Sometimes known as "that's not a bug, it's a feature".

Because Equifax was a hack, Facebook's situation was WAI. Your bank putting a bad lock on the safe is different from the bank creating a back door where others get a red carpet to the safe.

ReverseCold 9y ago

Equifax's "safe" holds information about money that you borrowed, and some PII to tie it back to you. Facebook's "safe" probably holds enough information to change your perspectives on a variety of issues, sway elections, break democracies, etc. While both are undoubtedly important, Facebook should be objectively more important than Equifax due to the nature of the information that Facebook holds. Who cares about money when so much more is at stake?

ucaetano 9y ago
> Equifax's "safe" holds information about money that you borrowed, and some PII to tie it back to you. It also contains address, SSN, account numbers, etc. Which, for most people, is far more damaging than your FB profile. But again, Equifax's hack wasn't WAI, it was a hack. Facebook's "leak" wasn't even a leak, it was WAI.
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  > It also contains address, SSN, account numbers, etc. This is money. > FB profile This contains information about who you are (psychologically and physically). It can be used to change your mind about things with/without you realizing. Though I'm not disagreeing with your point that one was an accident/bad practice while the other one was willful malice. What I do disagree with (that OP mentioned) is that you can opt out of Facebook. They do keep shadow profiles of non-users as well. It's just as easy to opt out of SSNs as it is to opt out of Facebook.
  - ucaetano 9y ago
    "This is money." x "This contains information about who you are (psychologically and physically)." Well, that becomes a personal opinion call about what you care more about, not a objective comparison. > It's just as easy to opt out of SSNs as it is to opt out of Facebook. Yeah, no, it isn't. You can easily isolate yourself from Fb, even if you still use it. And I think you've never went through identity theft, to think that. Identity theft can easily lead to bankruptcy, losing a job, tens of thousands in debt, etc.
  - khedoros1 9y ago
    Money is what allows me to provide a good lifestyle to my family. Facebook, well...I don't get my news there. Most of my profile is blank, false, or misleading. A decade ago, I used it for more. Now, it's a couple of technical discussion groups and the event calendar. Facebook is a blip. Equifax is the reason that I spent a lot of last week defending my bank account and cell service from takeover.
zaroth 9y ago
> Facebook's "safe" probably holds enough information to change your perspectives on a variety of issues, sway elections, break democracies, etc. This is sarcasm, right?
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  Nope. Why do you think it is? A large use case for collecting all the data about everything is what I just mentioned. Even if they themselves do not do these things, they allow others to do it using their platform. I don't like linking to Stallman because it sounds like I'm a conspiracy theorist - but here you go: https://stallman.org/facebook.html#psych https://stallman.org/facebook.html#psych

dsacco 9y ago

What is WAI? I searched for “WAI” by itself and with “Facebook” and got nothing useful. You’re the only person using this acronym and no one else seems to be responding to it; do you mind clarifying it?

chadcatlett 9y ago
I believe they are referring to "works as intended".
drewm1980 9y ago
I feel old every time I have to look something like this up on urban dictionary.
chatmasta 9y ago
This happens a lot on HN. Personally I don’t mind it, but it is problematic for discussion. I enjoy the puzzle of guessing acronyms based on context. Apparently it’s part of my MBTI personality type... and I think I got this one right as “working as intended,” but I only have the context in this case because I share the OP’s opinion on the matter at hand. That illustrates the problem that using unidentifiable acronyms limits discussion by constraining your audience to those who already agree with you or share your expertise.
- tudelo 9y ago
  It's interesting that you realize they are problematic for discussion, yet continue on to use the acronym "MBTI".
  - chatmasta 9y ago
    I don't know what it stands for.
ucaetano 9y ago
Sure, my apologies! WAI = working as intended. That is a common reason for closing a bug report, for example. Sometimes known as "that's not a bug, it's a feature".