4 ms·

The Facebook blog post would probably be a better source, since it explains the nature of the data: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2019/11/05/change

by jsnell 7y ago

The Facebook blog post would probably be a better source, since it explains the nature of the data: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2019/11/05/changes-groups-api-access/ https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2019/11/05/changes... I.e. apps added to a group by an admin could get some metadata about members of the group. (That blog post would also have been harder to mis-interpret than the NBC article. Half the early comments seem to think that this was about Facebook engineers improperly accessing data.)

jonny_eh 7y ago
In the context of a Facebook user, what is the difference between data and metadata?
- jsnell 7y ago
  I guess it depends on whether you view this as a continuum or have an absolute "anything the user touched is user data" take. Compare it to a couple of security issues they had last year: First, the one where the attackers would have had full access to the accounts. Photos, posts, private messages, likes, contacts, etc: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/ https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/ Or the one where some apps could read photos that they were not given access to, or in some cases that the user hadn't shared at all: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/12/14/notifying-our-developer-ecosystem-about-a-photo-api-bug/ https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/12/14/notifyi...
dang 7y ago
If we do that, people will say that we're trying to protect FB by replacing a news article with a corporate press release. Is there a better third-party article?
- knzhou 7y ago
  Obviously there isn't! I don't know what goes into running this site, but personally, if I know I'm guaranteed to get a totally one-sided take, I'd rather have the one from the people who actually know how to code.
  - randomb_1979 7y ago
    >>I don't know what goes into running this site, but personally, if I know I'm guaranteed to get a totally one-sided take, I'd rather have the one from the people who actually know how to code. In other words, if you don't know how to code, you are probably not intelligent enough to write about a technical topic?
    - knzhou 7y ago
      No, there are intelligent people everywhere. But intelligent people are often catastrophically wrong when writing on a topic about which they know nothing.
      - randomb_1979 7y ago
        The key word, of course, is "often" and not "always". How would you know the difference?
        pellucidar 7y ago
        It’s not about knowing the difference; it’s about recognizing the pattern and applying the appropriate measure of skepticism. It happens with complicated topics in other fields as well.
      - fit2rule 7y ago
        People who think they always know best are often catastrophically wrong when it comes to writing about the topic they think they know better than anyone else. At some point, you've got to let people decide for themselves what is true. A single source of information is an unreliable source.
dbbk 7y ago
I'm confused as to how this is 'improper', if Facebook made this data available why are the developers at fault?

by jsnell 7y ago

jonny_eh 7y ago

In the context of a Facebook user, what is the difference between data and metadata?

jsnell 7y ago
I guess it depends on whether you view this as a continuum or have an absolute "anything the user touched is user data" take. Compare it to a couple of security issues they had last year: First, the one where the attackers would have had full access to the accounts. Photos, posts, private messages, likes, contacts, etc: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/ https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/ Or the one where some apps could read photos that they were not given access to, or in some cases that the user hadn't shared at all: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/12/14/notifying-our-developer-ecosystem-about-a-photo-api-bug/ https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2018/12/14/notifyi...

dang 7y ago

If we do that, people will say that we're trying to protect FB by replacing a news article with a corporate press release. Is there a better third-party article?

knzhou 7y ago
Obviously there isn't! I don't know what goes into running this site, but personally, if I know I'm guaranteed to get a totally one-sided take, I'd rather have the one from the people who actually know how to code.
- randomb_1979 7y ago
  >>I don't know what goes into running this site, but personally, if I know I'm guaranteed to get a totally one-sided take, I'd rather have the one from the people who actually know how to code. In other words, if you don't know how to code, you are probably not intelligent enough to write about a technical topic?
  - knzhou 7y ago
    No, there are intelligent people everywhere. But intelligent people are often catastrophically wrong when writing on a topic about which they know nothing.
    - randomb_1979 7y ago
      The key word, of course, is "often" and not "always". How would you know the difference?
      - pellucidar 7y ago
        It’s not about knowing the difference; it’s about recognizing the pattern and applying the appropriate measure of skepticism. It happens with complicated topics in other fields as well.
    - fit2rule 7y ago
      People who think they always know best are often catastrophically wrong when it comes to writing about the topic they think they know better than anyone else. At some point, you've got to let people decide for themselves what is true. A single source of information is an unreliable source.

dbbk 7y ago

I'm confused as to how this is 'improper', if Facebook made this data available why are the developers at fault?