5 ms·

What's the name of the Facebook equivalent?

by maxme3 7y ago

ditonal 7y ago
Google scares me much more, for me, my data on Facebook is nothing compared to the amount of my personal data on Gmail and Docs. Having worked at Google, a regular cog in the wheel engineer getting access to sensitive user data is carefully monitored and logged for appropriate usage, but I also strongly suspect that if a powerful player like Schmidt/Brin wanted to get the dirt on private user data they would have no problem, because there is a strong culture of secrecy that labels any sort of whisteblowing as "leaking", considered the most cardinal of sins by most Googlers.
- rhacker 7y ago
  It definitely scares me that someone like Schmidt would have access to that personal data. Brin, Page - meh but I would still rather them not.
  - ditonal 7y ago
    I agree that Schmidt is a good example of someone who's already demonstrated willingness to use his power to bully those he perceives as political opponents, but the principle that access to such an incredibly dangerous power exists, and that existing regulation can barely if at all limit it, is really the problem. Forget any specific individual and ask yourself if we can trust every high level Alphabet exec who could pull some strings and make sure it doesn't get "leaked" that those strings were pulled in decades to come.
- mevile 7y ago
  Was this meant to be a reply to another comment? How does this answer the question your parent comment asked?
  - ditonal 7y ago
    This might help you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question If Facebook has such a tool, it's certainly not public knowledge. The parent comment was clearly meant to make a point that Facebook could have such a tool, even if it's not public knowledge. I was expanding on that point that Google could as well. Hope that helps.
exfbthrowaway 7y ago
It was called ‘super’ and it was most famously abused by an intern that blabbed to the press about using it. They then added more restrictions and auditing to ‘super’ which was supposed to be mostly for investigations and user operations teams to help users with their own account issues. Also at that time Zuck’s own account was always super so...
- coderintherye 7y ago
  Auditing sure, but almost any Facebook software engineer has permission to still take super user actions. The ability to abuse is still there, it's just a question if they actively audit well enough to catch the abuse.
  - sonnyblarney 7y ago
    "but almost any Facebook software engineer has permission to still take super user actions" If this is true, I find it shocking in light of all of the recent allegations especially.
  - kerng 7y ago
    Really? Any intern could just request access and get it, and maybe get caught abusing the access? Not sure if you can share more, but this seems way to easy and auditing is, well, to late.
    - gnu8 7y ago
      At a real company you have to write up something saying what you are planning on doing before taking any action, eg change control. I don't think that type of thing fits into the "move fast and break things" culture though.
    - darkwizard42 7y ago
      When I was at FB you had to go through two confirmation modals and at least from my team (biz intelligence on ads side) it said an email would be sent to my manager if I proceeded. I never worked in a role that required me to go further, but the penalty of losing my job deterred me just fine.
bduerst 7y ago
Not sure about FB, but Uber's was called God View - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/13/uber-employees-spying-ex-partners-politicians-beyonce https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/13/uber-empl...
angel_j 7y ago
Facebook

What's the name of the Facebook equivalent?

by maxme3 7y ago

What's the name of the Facebook equivalent?

Google scares me much more, for me, my data on Facebook is nothing compared to the amount of my personal data on Gmail and Docs. Having worked at Google, a regular cog in the wheel engineer getting access to sensitive user data is carefully monitored and logged for appropriate usage, but I also strongly suspect that if a powerful player like Schmidt/Brin wanted to get the dirt on private user data they would have no problem, because there is a strong culture of secrecy that labels any sort of whisteblowing as "leaking", considered the most cardinal of sins by most Googlers.

rhacker 7y ago
It definitely scares me that someone like Schmidt would have access to that personal data. Brin, Page - meh but I would still rather them not.
- ditonal 7y ago
  I agree that Schmidt is a good example of someone who's already demonstrated willingness to use his power to bully those he perceives as political opponents, but the principle that access to such an incredibly dangerous power exists, and that existing regulation can barely if at all limit it, is really the problem. Forget any specific individual and ask yourself if we can trust every high level Alphabet exec who could pull some strings and make sure it doesn't get "leaked" that those strings were pulled in decades to come.
mevile 7y ago
Was this meant to be a reply to another comment? How does this answer the question your parent comment asked?
- ditonal 7y ago
  This might help you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_question If Facebook has such a tool, it's certainly not public knowledge. The parent comment was clearly meant to make a point that Facebook could have such a tool, even if it's not public knowledge. I was expanding on that point that Google could as well. Hope that helps.

exfbthrowaway 7y ago

It was called ‘super’ and it was most famously abused by an intern that blabbed to the press about using it. They then added more restrictions and auditing to ‘super’ which was supposed to be mostly for investigations and user operations teams to help users with their own account issues. Also at that time Zuck’s own account was always super so...

coderintherye 7y ago
Auditing sure, but almost any Facebook software engineer has permission to still take super user actions. The ability to abuse is still there, it's just a question if they actively audit well enough to catch the abuse.
- sonnyblarney 7y ago
  "but almost any Facebook software engineer has permission to still take super user actions" If this is true, I find it shocking in light of all of the recent allegations especially.
- kerng 7y ago
  Really? Any intern could just request access and get it, and maybe get caught abusing the access? Not sure if you can share more, but this seems way to easy and auditing is, well, to late.
  - gnu8 7y ago
    At a real company you have to write up something saying what you are planning on doing before taking any action, eg change control. I don't think that type of thing fits into the "move fast and break things" culture though.
  - darkwizard42 7y ago
    When I was at FB you had to go through two confirmation modals and at least from my team (biz intelligence on ads side) it said an email would be sent to my manager if I proceeded. I never worked in a role that required me to go further, but the penalty of losing my job deterred me just fine.

bduerst 7y ago

Not sure about FB, but Uber's was called God View - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/13/uber-employees-spying-ex-partners-politicians-beyonce https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/13/uber-empl...

angel_j 7y ago

Facebook