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Facebook confirms data-sharing agreements with Chinese firms, including Huawei (2018)
- logicslave 6y agoFunny cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, restricting free speech in America, on the other, sending data to China
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y agoNot dissonance, but consistent cooperation with those currently in power.
- draugadrotten 6y agoArticle is from 2018.
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- imdsm 6y agoalmost makes it worse really
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- throwaway3975 6y agoThe article says this was a deal to have Facebook apps pre-installed on Huawei phones which Facebook also has with other manufacturers. This Reuters article says it was ended in 2019: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-usa-facebook-exclusive/exclusive-facebook-suspends-app-pre-installs-on-huawei-phones-idUSKCN1T80D7 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-usa-facebook-...
- bilekas 6y agoSo this OP's article is obsolete now ?
- throwaway3975 6y agoYes
- kebman 6y agoObsolecense assumes that something has become outdated. If you did something morally reprehensible, then it doesn't become outdated unless you apologize and promise that you'll never do it again, or that you in the least admit that you made a mistake. I do not know if Facebook did that before ending their contract. Either way people and companies who misuse trust like that still deserve criticism. That's the only way we can make sure that things change for the better.
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- drieddust 6y agoExactly and I am sure all the people who logged into FB have not died off or moved into a jungle so they are still targets.
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- twobitshifter 6y agoI think those 2019 phones are most likely still in every day use.
- ecmascript 6y agoFacebook is one of these companies that are so disconnected with their user base they cannot even comprehend why people are upset. The best part about facebook is that they think they're so freaking good, lecturing others about how to speak and act while themselves doing the opposite. Corporate double speak, the main thing I hate about woke culture.
- Nextgrid 6y agoFacebook is absolutely not disconnected from their userbase - their product is great at addressing their user's needs. There are many problems with Facebook, including being disconnected with the law/regulations, ethics and morals, but being disconnected from their userbase is not that. Regarding "wokeness", this is not specific to Facebook per-se and is commonplace in the startup/tech world where the majority of companies make their revenue from intangible things such as "growth and engagement" which bad PR (or just a loud minority) would adversely affect. Wokeness is not usually a thing in companies which have a competitive edge and a real product people buy because their revenue isn't entirely dependent on public opinion and their competitive edge means it's hard/impossible to replace their product with a competitor's (assuming there are competitors even).
- NinjaSaves 6y agoI think what Facebook is very good at is developing features and app elements that Increase User Engagement(TM). Which is some thin PR language on top of the truth: Facebook develops their apps to maximize user addiction and subsequently enact a lot of de-facto peer pressure to constantly expand their install base without them even having to try. Built-in word of mouth plus peer-pressure. Facebook conditions their userbase to need the app in their life, whether because your pictures are all there or because your family is on it, and beyond that it doesn't really matter if they listen to their base. They've got them already. Maybe the userbase thinks facebook addresses their users' "needs" (strong word for it), but that's more of a commentary on FB's propaganda team and black-hat UX than anything else.
- gbersac 6y agoPeople don't use Facebook because it won't share their data. I'm pretty sure most Facebook user suspect Facebook does it more than it actualy does. People use Facebook because it is efficient at connecting people. The "won't share your data" part is very secondary to that.
- londons_explore 6y agoWhat data was shared? Simple data of "users of the facebook app on your devices spent ~1 hour per day on the app" sounds like legitimate data to share to decide how much facebook should pay for the privilege of being preinstalled. I can see how the companies involved need to see the data to audit it. As long as that was the scope, that sounds fine.
- throwaway3975 6y agoThis is answered in the article: > Facebook said all the data collected remained on users' phones not servers. > A Huawei spokesperson said: "Like all leading smartphone providers, Huawei has worked with Facebook to make Facebook's services more convenient for users. Huawei has never collected or stored any Facebook user data."
- griffoa 6y ago> A H̶u̶a̶w̶e̶i̶ CCP spokesperson said: "Like all leading smartphone providers, H̶u̶a̶w̶e̶i̶ CCP has worked with Facebook to make Facebook's services more convenient for users. H̶u̶a̶w̶e̶i̶ CCP has never collected or stored any Facebook user data." How does it sound now?
- izacus 6y agoAbout the same as: "Trumps NSA spokesperson said all the data collected remained on users' phones not servers." Let's not do the moral arguments at the tail end of Trump regime in America, shall we?
- throwaway4good 6y agoIsn't it ironic that the US campaign against Huawei has created a series of highend phones that are completely free from: Google Play Store YouTube Facebook All the companies that are currently censoring and blocking the Trump movement.
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- NinjaSaves 6y agoThis is unbelievably concerning because Facebook is pre-installed on many phones now, and Facebook's apps send your out-of-app SMS messages to Facebook. This is part of the reason I quit the app; Literally gathering up my texts and keeping them on their servers without my knowledge or direct consent is an overwhelmingly huge violation of privacy. This is why I recommend everyone download a copy of their Facebook data. If you still have an account, you shouldn't.
- FirstLvR 6y agothe data is already up there, everywhere... instead of deleting facebook account just be a regular joe; never post personal stuff, just memes or scientific things, news this way wherever they data mine your data it will only return crap
- Lucasoato 6y agoThis is not enough in my opinion: even if you are not sharing anything important, the fact that you are playing a role in a social network means you are pushing your friends into sharing more data.
- NotPavlovsDog 6y agoLong-overdue legislation and increased activism, including activism by the tech community, and ongoing informing of consumers about dangers of sharing their data, are some of the possible mitigation steps. A simple first step: send an article on digital privacy, that you like, to your network and invite them to get back to you with questions they have. A possible start: EFF have an excellent privacy hub https://www.eff.org/issues/privacy https://www.eff.org/issues/privacy I have taken a case study with my teen about people loosing careers after facebook flame-wars; and being hauled in by police on face-recognition and geolocation data. We have a discussion at least once a month about the cyber-dystopia we find ourselves in. As I posted before, I'll just leave this here: 1. "It turns out that Facebook also buys data about your offline purchases. The next time you pay for a burrito with your credit card, Facebook will learn about this transaction and match this credit card number with the one you added in Messenger. In other words, Messenger is a great Trojan horse designed to learn everything about you." [1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/23/facebook-knows-literally-everything-about-you/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/23/facebook-knows-literally-e... From 2018! 2. "Google now knows when its users go to the store and buy stuff. Google has begun using billions of credit-card transaction records to prove that its online ads are prompting people to make purchases – even when they happen offline in brick-and-mortar stores [...] Privacy advocates said few people understand that their purchases are being analyzed in this way" [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/05/23/google-now-knows-when-you-are-at-a-cash-register-and-how-much-you-are-spending/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/05/23... From 2017! Consumer data is the gold the consumer appears to be giving away, unwittingly or carelessly, regardless of the regime or geographic location.
- fsflover 6y ago> 1. "It turns out that Facebook also buys data about your offline purchases. Off-Facebook activity (https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/ https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/) 710 points by bigbaguette 11 months ago | un‑favorite | 382 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22178917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22178917
- McDyver 6y agoThis is a good idea. I'm assuming you're in the US; in Europe, how to talk to people who are not "privacy-inclined", and who think GDPR was the silver bullet that automagically stopped all privacy abuse by each and every company? I feel I'm fighting a losing battle where everyone is Winston Smith, and [spoiler]loves Big Brother[/spoiler]
- williesleg 6y agoHow does a company that charges nothing have such a big infrastructure?
- pjmlp 6y agoI would like to see this anti-Facebook activism also apply to FOSS technologies built with Facebook money selling data. Or free beer gets a free pass no matter how it was produced? So much for moral values.
- pferde 6y agoUnless said technologies are for stealing user data, what would be the point? At the risk of angering Godwin, did post-WW2 Germany tear down the incredibly useful "Autobahn" highway system that the Nazi party built during their reign?
- pjmlp 6y agoEach one has to decide which morals they are willing to accept, not blasting Facebook on HN and then do a git clone of React 5 minutes later. At least the autobahn is acknowledged to have been built with blood, if you want to go down that route.
- secondcoming 6y agoI wonder if it helped Huawei build to their audience segments for their ads product? [0] [0] https://ads.huawei.com/usermgtportal/home/index.html#/product https://ads.huawei.com/usermgtportal/home/index.html#/produc...
- Miner49er 6y agoWasn't the reported reason for the Tik Tok ban that we don't want them to have our data? Yet an American company with some of the most data on American citizens was already info with China. So this begs the question, what is the real reason for the Tik Tok ban?
- pluc 6y agoLikely because they wouldn't play ball with the then-Tweeter-in-Chief.
- kube-system 6y agoThis article was from 2018. Since this article, Huawei has also been sanctioned.
- jonp888 6y agoOnly on Hacker News could an out of date 2 year old article about Facebook be the no.1. story. Less popular articles posted around the same time include Intel's announcement of a new processor, a new prototype operating system, and a plan to create a vaccine against AIDS.
- hoka-one-one 6y agoMost of us are just coming from Reddit and trying to feel smart, don't be hard on us.
- sebastianconcpt 6y agoSo, as all chinese companies have communist party members in their board of directors, this is effectively like making your personal profile go and be shared to "the KGB". Is the "a new chinese KGB" but you get the idea. Change my mind. The finger on top of the facebookcide button feels heavier for some reason...
- kerng 6y agoSounds like Facebook is trying hard to be allowed to operate in China one day. Imagine all those ads they can sell then
- svdree 6y agoSo China is getting data from both phones and Facebook?