36 ms·

Somebody explain this to me, as I've never worked at a large company. Facebook has tens of thousands of employees. How is more not known about the extent that t

Somebody explain this to me, as I've never worked at a large company. Facebook has tens of thousands of employees. How is more not known about the extent that they track you like this (and other slimy practices)? I imagibe if somebody leaks something it would be impossible to pinpoint who exactly did so. Does really nobody whistleblow?

petmon 7y ago
Because the company is large and the churn in the app is very high, it is hard to keep track of what's happening across the app. Does Facebook activate the camera during feed? The answer may depend on which user is logged in (A/B test), which device is being used, which version of the app (weekly releases), etc. A definitive answer may depend on when you ask, or not exist at all. Maybe this is the default behavior, but it's possible that this is an experiment that Maddux happened to fall into. You can imagine that Facebook would be interested in gauging facial reactions to feed items. It also may legitimately be a bug. It's reasonable that if you navigate to a camera surface, and then back, that the camera is not turned off. Because Facebook releases so often, the cost of bugs is reduced, so the number of bugs rises. (Not trying to defend Fb here, simply answering the question.)
- brenden2 7y ago
  Another factor is that for a lot of people the value of their comp is much greater than any reward they might receive as a whistleblower. Why rock the boat when you can keep your head down and keep getting $500k/year? At that rate you can retire comfortably after 5 years.
aylmao 7y ago
I read a thread on Twitter about this. It's an interesting take by the guy who used to be CSO at Facebook, has since resigned, and at some point commented that Zuckerberg should step down [1]: https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1185954967086981125 https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1185954967086981125 [1]: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/24/18637823/alex-stamos-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-ceo-kara-swisher-decode-podcast-interview-collision-conference https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/24/18637823/alex-stamos-fa...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
throwaway987666 7y ago
I work for Facebook. Most of internet articles about Facebook is complete trash and over exaggeration. And most HN commenters are paranoids. There are no leaks because there’s actually nothing to leak. Thousands of engineers routinely perform thousands of experiments on different features (including both UI and data), and there’s no mastermind who designs or even approves all these changes. Sometimes bugs happen, sometimes bug in data handling happen (like tables joined which are not supposed to be joined). Also, I don’t know about Facebook’s significantly slimy practices. Facebook collected my phone number and matched it to something? I don’t care, because the worst can happen is I will get more interesting ads. I know that Facebook (despite these endless accusations on HN) does not sell data, my credit card won’t be stolen, I won’t get unwanted phone or email spam, and that’s good enough for me.
- ahartmetz 7y ago
  Besides refuting some maybe overly dramatic criticism, you also have nothing to hide. Why are you using a throwaway account?
  - throwaway334488 7y ago
    Company policy (literally almost any company) prohibits talking about the company publicly. Simply because any words can be misinterpreted by bad journalists looking for the next sensation.
    - ahartmetz 7y ago
      So Facebook has something to hide. And you are exercising civil disobedience, which means that you also have something to hide. This argument isn't just sophistry. Think about it.
      - dang 7y ago
        It was fine to ask a sincere question about a throwaway account, but please don't push the point. People shouldn't be hounded for sharing information about situations they know a lot about, such as their employers. We don't want to disincentivize people from showing up to add information, and if they feel a need to create a temporary account to do that with, that's fine. Routinely using throwaways is not fine, though. All this is in the site guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

petmon 7y ago

Because the company is large and the churn in the app is very high, it is hard to keep track of what's happening across the app. Does Facebook activate the camera during feed? The answer may depend on which user is logged in (A/B test), which device is being used, which version of the app (weekly releases), etc. A definitive answer may depend on when you ask, or not exist at all. Maybe this is the default behavior, but it's possible that this is an experiment that Maddux happened to fall into. You can imagine that Facebook would be interested in gauging facial reactions to feed items. It also may legitimately be a bug. It's reasonable that if you navigate to a camera surface, and then back, that the camera is not turned off. Because Facebook releases so often, the cost of bugs is reduced, so the number of bugs rises. (Not trying to defend Fb here, simply answering the question.)

brenden2 7y ago
Another factor is that for a lot of people the value of their comp is much greater than any reward they might receive as a whistleblower. Why rock the boat when you can keep your head down and keep getting $500k/year? At that rate you can retire comfortably after 5 years.

aylmao 7y ago

I read a thread on Twitter about this. It's an interesting take by the guy who used to be CSO at Facebook, has since resigned, and at some point commented that Zuckerberg should step down [1]: https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1185954967086981125 https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1185954967086981125 [1]: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/24/18637823/alex-stamos-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-ceo-kara-swisher-decode-podcast-interview-collision-conference https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/24/18637823/alex-stamos-fa...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

throwaway987666 7y ago

I work for Facebook. Most of internet articles about Facebook is complete trash and over exaggeration. And most HN commenters are paranoids. There are no leaks because there’s actually nothing to leak. Thousands of engineers routinely perform thousands of experiments on different features (including both UI and data), and there’s no mastermind who designs or even approves all these changes. Sometimes bugs happen, sometimes bug in data handling happen (like tables joined which are not supposed to be joined). Also, I don’t know about Facebook’s significantly slimy practices. Facebook collected my phone number and matched it to something? I don’t care, because the worst can happen is I will get more interesting ads. I know that Facebook (despite these endless accusations on HN) does not sell data, my credit card won’t be stolen, I won’t get unwanted phone or email spam, and that’s good enough for me.

ahartmetz 7y ago
Besides refuting some maybe overly dramatic criticism, you also have nothing to hide. Why are you using a throwaway account?
- throwaway334488 7y ago
  Company policy (literally almost any company) prohibits talking about the company publicly. Simply because any words can be misinterpreted by bad journalists looking for the next sensation.
  - ahartmetz 7y ago
    So Facebook has something to hide. And you are exercising civil disobedience, which means that you also have something to hide. This argument isn't just sophistry. Think about it.
    - dang 7y ago
      It was fine to ask a sincere question about a throwaway account, but please don't push the point. People shouldn't be hounded for sharing information about situations they know a lot about, such as their employers. We don't want to disincentivize people from showing up to add information, and if they feel a need to create a temporary account to do that with, that's fine. Routinely using throwaways is not fine, though. All this is in the site guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.