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Can someone explain to me a mechanism for having JSON data describing a user and all their information downloaded and then displayed on the screen of either an

by adas17 8y ago

Can someone explain to me a mechanism for having JSON data describing a user and all their information downloaded and then displayed on the screen of either an Android or iOS phone without the app or OS involved then having the ability to send that data to a server later on? The sentence “only available on the device” makes no sense to me as an engineer. What? Did Facebook code review every app and OS they gave this access to? Even then, would they be able to garauntee that an update couldn’t be made to the app or some library it relied on to prevent it from harvesting the data? If that data was encrypted, how did it get displayed on a screen without being unencrypted first and this made vulnerable to scraping? I was an iOS and Android applications developer and I can’t think of any way to do it (at least on iOS) short of (a) keeping it completely encrypted the entire time (b) only allowing an application signed by Facebook and belonging to Facebook and controlled by Facebook completely (in iOS, at least) to get this data since iOS apps are well sandboxed from one another or (c) relying vaguely on a legal agreement that the other party not be naughty with the data contractually which means jack shit to the Chinese. On Android - Jesus, forget about it.

bo1024 8y ago
Exactly. All the issues these reporters are up in arms about would still be a problem if Facebook gave these companies access to their regular API instead of a specialized one. In the end, a user is responsible for whom they give their username and password to. That includes typing it into an app. I hope we can redirect the publicity around this issue to scrutinizing the security of software, operating systems, and hardware. And promoting open source!
- majjam 8y ago
  I understood that facebook shares a persons data if a friend of theirs has given permission to an app. Thus a person can be vigilant about their own account, and still have their data compromised.
- mkirklions 8y ago
  >a user is responsible for whom they give their username and password to. In 2009, when I signed up for facebook, I was signing up for facebook. Not sharing with political groups and enterprises. No one reads ToS and at that point, it should be nullified. Everyone loses their FB accounts because YOU didnt read the ToS. Facebook loses their business because they lied about people reading and accepting their ToS. Its important to be reasonable, FB definitely went full corruption and blaming the billions of customers is laughable.
  - ApolloFortyNine 8y ago
    You're blaming facebook because people don't read ToS? And then you try to tell people to be reasonable? That's like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?
    - jkaplowitz 8y ago
      In many countries, like Germany, surprising provisions in consumer terms of service are unenforceable for exactly this reason (and other reasons). In my opinion, it's American over-adherence to legal formalism to the benefit of powerful companies and the detriment of consumers that is unreasonable, not the German approach. And I say this as an American myself.
      - gowld 8y ago
        USA has very similar laws and legal tradition about what makes a contract valid.
        jkaplowitz 8y ago
        The German (civil law) and US (common law) legal traditions are pretty disparate, including their approaches to contract law - but in this case the difference is due to consumer protection rules in Germany and Europe, not anything longstanding about either tradition.
deleted 8y ago
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by adas17 8y ago

bo1024 8y ago

Exactly. All the issues these reporters are up in arms about would still be a problem if Facebook gave these companies access to their regular API instead of a specialized one. In the end, a user is responsible for whom they give their username and password to. That includes typing it into an app. I hope we can redirect the publicity around this issue to scrutinizing the security of software, operating systems, and hardware. And promoting open source!

majjam 8y ago
I understood that facebook shares a persons data if a friend of theirs has given permission to an app. Thus a person can be vigilant about their own account, and still have their data compromised.
mkirklions 8y ago
>a user is responsible for whom they give their username and password to. In 2009, when I signed up for facebook, I was signing up for facebook. Not sharing with political groups and enterprises. No one reads ToS and at that point, it should be nullified. Everyone loses their FB accounts because YOU didnt read the ToS. Facebook loses their business because they lied about people reading and accepting their ToS. Its important to be reasonable, FB definitely went full corruption and blaming the billions of customers is laughable.
- ApolloFortyNine 8y ago
  You're blaming facebook because people don't read ToS? And then you try to tell people to be reasonable? That's like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?
  - jkaplowitz 8y ago
    In many countries, like Germany, surprising provisions in consumer terms of service are unenforceable for exactly this reason (and other reasons). In my opinion, it's American over-adherence to legal formalism to the benefit of powerful companies and the detriment of consumers that is unreasonable, not the German approach. And I say this as an American myself.
    - gowld 8y ago
      USA has very similar laws and legal tradition about what makes a contract valid.
      - jkaplowitz 8y ago
        The German (civil law) and US (common law) legal traditions are pretty disparate, including their approaches to contract law - but in this case the difference is due to consumer protection rules in Germany and Europe, not anything longstanding about either tradition.

deleted 8y ago

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