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OK but in isolation there’s nothing wrong with going after malware developers. They might be "weak, non-customer defendants" but I’m certainly not going to feel

OK but in isolation there’s nothing wrong with going after malware developers. They might be "weak, non-customer defendants" but I’m certainly not going to feel sorry for them. Also it’s not clear what fb is supposed to be doing then? Just let people write malware and steal user’s data? Be damned if you do and damned if you don't.

1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
No, I think you are misunderstanding the point of the comment. It is the news releases. It is that Facebook is publishing about these cases on its website. Facebook is always involved in litigation to protect its business. It is that they are now highlighting these cases as if they are acts of "stewardship" or some defence of user privacy. It is generally good that Facebook is taking these actions.^1 But the point I am making is that it is likely to be used as an argument by Facebook to try to hide the fact that Facebook created the problem in the first instance. And they have historically failed miserably as "stewards". And they are the much larger threat to user privacy than anyone they are suing. Their interests are not aligned with users. Facebook has reasons to keep others from obtaining user data that have nothing to do with user "privacy", a concept Zuckerberg is in fact actively trying to destroy. 1 But I am wondering what Facebook would do if a user was "scraping" her own data and the data their friends have shared with her. In other words, imagine the user writes her own "bot" to automate her Facebook usage and reduce the amount of behavioural data she gives to Facebook, i.e., the data she does not get if she "downloads her data" from Facebook. Clearly this is not "malware". TOS would surely be interpreted by Facebook to not allow any sort of automation. As anyone can see reading the public filings they make with courts and regulators, Facebook lawyers are heavy on the over-the-top rhetoric and arguments that border on the absurd. The user is not the customer so no reason for them to hold back on going after users.
- totalZero 6y ago
  I don't care what FB's motivations are as long as they scare the living daylights out of people who trick users into installing spyware. It's the least they can do, considering what their company embodies.
- laurent123456 6y ago
  Who knows what their exact motivations are, we can only make a guess. Yes in any case it's still a company and they are going to do whatever is good for their business, and it turns out that this time it's also good for their users.

1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago

No, I think you are misunderstanding the point of the comment. It is the news releases. It is that Facebook is publishing about these cases on its website. Facebook is always involved in litigation to protect its business. It is that they are now highlighting these cases as if they are acts of "stewardship" or some defence of user privacy. It is generally good that Facebook is taking these actions.^1 But the point I am making is that it is likely to be used as an argument by Facebook to try to hide the fact that Facebook created the problem in the first instance. And they have historically failed miserably as "stewards". And they are the much larger threat to user privacy than anyone they are suing. Their interests are not aligned with users. Facebook has reasons to keep others from obtaining user data that have nothing to do with user "privacy", a concept Zuckerberg is in fact actively trying to destroy. 1 But I am wondering what Facebook would do if a user was "scraping" her own data and the data their friends have shared with her. In other words, imagine the user writes her own "bot" to automate her Facebook usage and reduce the amount of behavioural data she gives to Facebook, i.e., the data she does not get if she "downloads her data" from Facebook. Clearly this is not "malware". TOS would surely be interpreted by Facebook to not allow any sort of automation. As anyone can see reading the public filings they make with courts and regulators, Facebook lawyers are heavy on the over-the-top rhetoric and arguments that border on the absurd. The user is not the customer so no reason for them to hold back on going after users.

totalZero 6y ago
I don't care what FB's motivations are as long as they scare the living daylights out of people who trick users into installing spyware. It's the least they can do, considering what their company embodies.
laurent123456 6y ago
Who knows what their exact motivations are, we can only make a guess. Yes in any case it's still a company and they are going to do whatever is good for their business, and it turns out that this time it's also good for their users.