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A simple test for figuring out which of Facebook's arguments are sensible is to substitute "Facebook" for a different entity such as, say, a neighborhood associ
by cs702 8y ago
A simple test for figuring out which of Facebook's arguments are sensible is to substitute "Facebook" for a different entity such as, say, a neighborhood association, the phone company, or a government agency. For example, take the subtitle of Zuckerberg's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal: "We need your information for operation and security, but you control whether we use it for advertising." Substituting:
* Would you be OK with your neighborhood association installing spyware on your cellphone because they "need your information for operation and security, but you control whether they use it for advertising?"
* Would you be OK with the phone company installing spyware on your cellphone because they "need your information for operation and security, but you control whether they use it for advertising?"
* Would you be OK with a government agency installing spyware on your cellphone because they "need your information for operation and security, but you control whether they use it for advertising?"
- throwaway2048 8y agoThis exercise shows the ridiculous amount of power people have seceded to companies like Facebook over their personal lives, and how little awareness of it exists.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- kodablah 8y agoIt's not as much of an awareness issue as it is an apathy one. You can't make people care no matter how many of these crap articles are written. People need to just recognize people have different cost/benefit values concerning their data, the companies they give it to, and the services they receive. And that's ok, their opinion is no more wrong than anyone else's.
- Mirioron 8y agoMy problem is that activists and certain politicians want to make these decisions for me. GDPR already has done so to my detriment and the detriment of the online EU sector.
- throwaway2048 8y agoThat's a huge assumption that people are informed on the issues, a thing a lot of people have been dishonestly pushing for a long time.
- kodablah 8y agoNot everyone is completely informed on either side of the issue, and there are those that are informed that simply disagree about the scope of harm and scale/approach of solution. The huge assumption is that being informed makes a difference in people's stance. What those that claim they are informed need to do is recognize that while they are more informed about uses of the data, they are often less informed about the plight of the users and their preferred benefits.
- throwaway2048 8y agoAh yes, very convenient, they aren't informed but they would agree to my use of their data anyways.
- kodablah 8y agoI'm not sure what is unclear about "they don't care"
- KaoruAoiShiho 8y agoYeah but fb didn't install spyware on my phone. I intentionally give data to fb so that they can share it for me...
- beezischillin 8y agoTheir VPN app kinda did function shoddily least https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/22/apple-removes-facebook-onavo-app-from-app-store.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/22/apple-removes-facebook-onavo...
- ohazi 8y agoNo, you intentionally give fb a photo or a piece of text to share. They hoover up everything else. For example, they will record your physical location when you send a message or share a post, as well as randomly several times per day. They will also record which photos, posts, and ads you linger on as you aimlessly browse. This is information that most people are not sharing intentionally, and it's not optional. Fb uses this information to build a profile on you that's separate from anything you share intentionally. It's being referred to as spyware because most users aren't aware that Facebook does this, and wouldn't have agreed to it had they been offered a choice.
- raspasov 8y agoIf I say "no" on iOS when the FB app asks for location how are they exactly recoding my location? P.S. No idea about Android.
- eightysixfour 8y agoHonest question, I don’t know the iOS APIs very well, can they (if you have given the app permission before) check geotags on your photos without you explicitly uploading that photo?
- raspasov 8y agoI believe if you give access to "Photos" on the device, they can. Otherwise by giving GPS/Location permission - no. They are two separate things.
- scarejunba 8y agoI mean, if the phone company said I no longer had to pay the bills, they can have it. If the government agency let me keep my taxes, I'd be fine with it. I haven't interacted with any neighbourhood associations (they sound like a right pain in the ass) so I can't imagine I'd be happy to even listen to them whether or not my data is involved. In fact, I'd also venture to say most people would make the same choices I have here.