9 ms·

Which is kind of funny, comparing GOOG's privacy with Facebook's privacy.

recoiledsnake 15y ago
Not really, because when I go to FaceBook(a social network website) I have a totally different expectation of privacy compared to when i go to Gmail.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  I think he's referring to the lack of privacy and information control even within Facebook - there are persistent claims from former engineers there that user privacy isn't taken seriously, and that breaches of user privacy by employees occurs often and with relative impunity.
  - recoiledsnake 15y ago
    Still, my point stands, when it comes to email and chatting, I expect 100% privacy, which Google already violated once with Buzz and now seems to be doing the same thing again with Social Circle or whatever. With Facebook, I just assume everything could be made public, so I don't put private info that I don't want others to know.
  - kmavm 15y ago
    As a current engineer at Facebook, I would be really surprised to read anyone claiming we don't "take it seriously." It absorbs an enormous amount of engineering effort, thought around new products, and even cap ex: computing visibility for objects whose permissions are "friends of friends", for example, is computationally expensive.
    - potatolicious 15y ago
      What of the claims that information control is extremely loose internally - i.e., an employee can easily gain access to users' private data without sufficient gating, and that accesses such as these are not easily auditable?
    - orangecat 15y ago
      When Zuckerberg is running around saying that wanting to share things with only certain people shows a "lack of integrity" (http://eparnell.net/?p=169 http://eparnell.net/?p=169), it's not an unreasonable preconception.
epistasis 15y ago
Google has far more sensitive information on me than Facebook. Facebook only has publicly facing information, stuff that you've already shared with other people. Google has my searches, and what I've clicked on. And good luck trying to get them to forget those logs.
- r00fus 15y ago
  Unfortunately, you are not representative of the average Facebook user. The average Facebook user is much less privacy savvy. Not everyone uses Google (most do), and Gmail surprisingly isn't the most popular internet mail. Facebook may not know as much about you, but they often know much more detailed information (ie, where you were last night). Most of Facebook's users don't consider their "wall" to be public despite the fact that Facebook defaults it to be so (and has repeatedly reset privacy settings in the past to be "more public"). Complicate this with the fact that others can "implicate" you with their messages written on your wall. Despite you hiding them, they are there, in Facebook's servers just like your Google searches... except you didn't write them.
  - erikpukinskis 15y ago
    Unfortunately, you are not representative of the average Facebook user. The average Facebook user is much less privacy savvy. Facebook doesn't know anything about anyone that they're not comfortable sharing with at least one other person. Google knows things about people they would never share with anyone. That's a fundamental difference, not related to privacy savvy. Facebook does have lots of dirt people only want to share with a few people, however.
- praptak 15y ago
  "Facebook only has publicly facing information, stuff that you've already shared with other people." Ummm, and maybe every site you ever visited whose owners display those funny "like" buttons.
  - epistasis 15y ago
    The "like" button is for publicly sharing your interest in a web page. And for tracking where I've been, Facebook is no worse than any other ad agency; that they show me that they're tracking me is no worse than DoubleClick's or Google Ads' tracking.

Not really, because when I go to FaceBook(a social network website) I have a totally different expectation of privacy compared to when i go to Gmail.

potatolicious 15y ago
I think he's referring to the lack of privacy and information control even within Facebook - there are persistent claims from former engineers there that user privacy isn't taken seriously, and that breaches of user privacy by employees occurs often and with relative impunity.
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  Still, my point stands, when it comes to email and chatting, I expect 100% privacy, which Google already violated once with Buzz and now seems to be doing the same thing again with Social Circle or whatever. With Facebook, I just assume everything could be made public, so I don't put private info that I don't want others to know.
- kmavm 15y ago
  As a current engineer at Facebook, I would be really surprised to read anyone claiming we don't "take it seriously." It absorbs an enormous amount of engineering effort, thought around new products, and even cap ex: computing visibility for objects whose permissions are "friends of friends", for example, is computationally expensive.
  - potatolicious 15y ago
    What of the claims that information control is extremely loose internally - i.e., an employee can easily gain access to users' private data without sufficient gating, and that accesses such as these are not easily auditable?
  - orangecat 15y ago
    When Zuckerberg is running around saying that wanting to share things with only certain people shows a "lack of integrity" (http://eparnell.net/?p=169 http://eparnell.net/?p=169), it's not an unreasonable preconception.

epistasis 15y ago

Google has far more sensitive information on me than Facebook. Facebook only has publicly facing information, stuff that you've already shared with other people. Google has my searches, and what I've clicked on. And good luck trying to get them to forget those logs.

r00fus 15y ago
Unfortunately, you are not representative of the average Facebook user. The average Facebook user is much less privacy savvy. Not everyone uses Google (most do), and Gmail surprisingly isn't the most popular internet mail. Facebook may not know as much about you, but they often know much more detailed information (ie, where you were last night). Most of Facebook's users don't consider their "wall" to be public despite the fact that Facebook defaults it to be so (and has repeatedly reset privacy settings in the past to be "more public"). Complicate this with the fact that others can "implicate" you with their messages written on your wall. Despite you hiding them, they are there, in Facebook's servers just like your Google searches... except you didn't write them.
- erikpukinskis 15y ago
  Unfortunately, you are not representative of the average Facebook user. The average Facebook user is much less privacy savvy. Facebook doesn't know anything about anyone that they're not comfortable sharing with at least one other person. Google knows things about people they would never share with anyone. That's a fundamental difference, not related to privacy savvy. Facebook does have lots of dirt people only want to share with a few people, however.
praptak 15y ago
"Facebook only has publicly facing information, stuff that you've already shared with other people." Ummm, and maybe every site you ever visited whose owners display those funny "like" buttons.
- epistasis 15y ago
  The "like" button is for publicly sharing your interest in a web page. And for tracking where I've been, Facebook is no worse than any other ad agency; that they show me that they're tracking me is no worse than DoubleClick's or Google Ads' tracking.