3 ms·

What if I don't want you telling folks that you are my friend? Why do you get to divulge this information to a third party that I know nothing about?

mindcrime 6y ago
Can you stop your real-world friends from divulging your friendship to 3rd parties? Would you even presume to have any standing to do so? I think a case could be made that knowledge that <A friend B> belongs to A and B equally and that neither has standing to preclude the other from sharing that fact. Of course they could both mutually agree to such an arrangement ahead of time, but outside of such an agreement, I have a hard time seeing the case for "B prevents A from telling C that A and B are friends". Another aspect of this though, is "how much can A tell C about B without permission from B?" We know that IRL, people do get angry when friends reveal overly personal details about their lives to others, so this is definitely something to consider.
- sogen 6y ago
  Like that Seinfeld episode where George _happily_ gives Jerry's address to the dog owner...
- x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
  So there aren't things known between my friends and I that we wouldn't want divulged to a third-party?
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    Want is different from entitled.
    - x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
      Then we have to dispense away with the whole privacy nonsense that runs rampant on HN concerning things such as ad tracking, location tracking and other data metrics. Because in that case, instead of the friend giving away our data, it's a 3rd party with whom we have a voluntary relationship with who is giving away THEIR data that we generate.
  - mindcrime 6y ago
    So there aren't things known between my friends and I that we wouldn't want divulged to a third-party? I'm not sure how you got that from what I said above. Obviously there are such things. But I do think it's an open question to what extent we can compel our friends to keep things private. Of course if someone is really a "friend" you would expect them to keep confidences if requested... that's part of the definition of "friend" in my mind.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Many states have two party consent for audio recording, for example. Not every interaction is or should be freely licensed to both parties.
  - mindcrime 6y ago
    Not every interaction is or should be freely licensed to both parties. Agreed. And I am not arguing that it is, or should be. But the mere fact that two people are friends seems to me, at first blush, to be something that normally either person would be free to share.
gampleman 6y ago
Surely that could be solved by crypto? I.e. you don't actually get a list of names, but list of asymmetric keys, and when your friend joins their key can match the one in my list?

mindcrime 6y ago

Can you stop your real-world friends from divulging your friendship to 3rd parties? Would you even presume to have any standing to do so? I think a case could be made that knowledge that <A friend B> belongs to A and B equally and that neither has standing to preclude the other from sharing that fact. Of course they could both mutually agree to such an arrangement ahead of time, but outside of such an agreement, I have a hard time seeing the case for "B prevents A from telling C that A and B are friends". Another aspect of this though, is "how much can A tell C about B without permission from B?" We know that IRL, people do get angry when friends reveal overly personal details about their lives to others, so this is definitely something to consider.

sogen 6y ago
Like that Seinfeld episode where George _happily_ gives Jerry's address to the dog owner...
x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
So there aren't things known between my friends and I that we wouldn't want divulged to a third-party?
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Want is different from entitled.
  - x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
    Then we have to dispense away with the whole privacy nonsense that runs rampant on HN concerning things such as ad tracking, location tracking and other data metrics. Because in that case, instead of the friend giving away our data, it's a 3rd party with whom we have a voluntary relationship with who is giving away THEIR data that we generate.
- mindcrime 6y ago
  So there aren't things known between my friends and I that we wouldn't want divulged to a third-party? I'm not sure how you got that from what I said above. Obviously there are such things. But I do think it's an open question to what extent we can compel our friends to keep things private. Of course if someone is really a "friend" you would expect them to keep confidences if requested... that's part of the definition of "friend" in my mind.
alisonkisk 6y ago
Many states have two party consent for audio recording, for example. Not every interaction is or should be freely licensed to both parties.
- mindcrime 6y ago
  Not every interaction is or should be freely licensed to both parties. Agreed. And I am not arguing that it is, or should be. But the mere fact that two people are friends seems to me, at first blush, to be something that normally either person would be free to share.

gampleman 6y ago

Surely that could be solved by crypto? I.e. you don't actually get a list of names, but list of asymmetric keys, and when your friend joins their key can match the one in my list?