4 ms·

Facebook's Engineers Spied on Women

26 points by arkadiyt 5y ago

nullc 5y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27479971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27479971
babelfish 5y ago
https://archive.is/dO4un https://archive.is/dO4un
ampdepolymerase 5y ago
This is table stakes for any mass surveillance and data collection system. The same thing happened with big government agencies if you see the Snowden leaks. I am not sure what is the reason for this delayed outrage aside from the article being a hit piece. Ultimately, personal data willingly given is just not as valued and protected as financial data.
- akshayshah 5y ago
  In at least some parts of tech, it's common to view Facebook as a "mass surveillance and data collection system." But even after Cambridge Analytica and all the ensuing scandals, I don't think that this view is common among the general public. More commonly, I meet people who think of Facebook as a well-intentioned but sometimes careless product development company. The shocking part of this article, and many similar articles, is how deeply misuse of user data and cavalier privacy practices are baked into Facebook.
- atatatat 5y ago
  > The same thing happened with big government agencies if you see the Snowden leaks. LOVEINT
Agingcoder 5y ago
I didn't expect engineers to have global access to user data, which is what the article seems to say. Is it actually the case?
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  As an engineer I very often have access to private data. The only thing protecting it was that most engineers understand privacy and the implication of modern data collection that is slowly undermined by companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and co and the education the newer generation tend to enjoy. I worked on medical devices and with sensitive medical data. In this case even pictures of naked people for skin diagnostics. This data cannot be leaked so enhanced security mechanisms were in place. Wouldn't have hindered an engineer really wanting to leak the data and I think there is no way to prevent them from doing so while analyzing data. So yes, it is actually the case. Ironically, user data access might be most restrictive in companies like Facebook, especially because their business model is somewhat opposed to restricting access to private information and they know they need to make up for it. They also have employees that aren't really trimmed on the importance of privacy, which is showing in my opinion. A lot of administrators usually have access to all data in small and medium sized companies. And everywhere else there is at least someone who has. The only exception are end-to-end encrypted blobs for storage applications, but you cannot be sure of that since governments are currently working to get rid of that and the provider could easily lie to you and verification is almost impossible.
raxxorrax 5y ago
It is inevitable for every place where humans work. Companies, government agencies and everywhere else. The only solution is to not collect the data. It is also an easy and cheap solution if you really need additional incentives here...
- SahAssar 5y ago
  I agree that the easiest solution is to not collect the data, but I've worked at places that dealt with sensetive data and those limited who could see that data and when. Having procedures whereby anyone accessing sensetive data for oncall debugging work needs to inform at least one other person helps (and people not running production apps should not have access at all). Besides that it feels like facebook never tried to create a culture within its company that respected customers privacy, so that will lead to people with already shaky moral compasses having a easier way to justify (for themselves) this sort of violation. Your suggestion that the only solution is to not collect the data makes a lot of services impossible, including all banking, mapping, social media, and so on. Some services need that data to provide services that we want to be possible so lets make sure those are run in ethical ways.

26 points by arkadiyt 5y ago

nullc 5y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27479971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27479971

babelfish 5y ago

https://archive.is/dO4un https://archive.is/dO4un

ampdepolymerase 5y ago

This is table stakes for any mass surveillance and data collection system. The same thing happened with big government agencies if you see the Snowden leaks. I am not sure what is the reason for this delayed outrage aside from the article being a hit piece. Ultimately, personal data willingly given is just not as valued and protected as financial data.

akshayshah 5y ago
In at least some parts of tech, it's common to view Facebook as a "mass surveillance and data collection system." But even after Cambridge Analytica and all the ensuing scandals, I don't think that this view is common among the general public. More commonly, I meet people who think of Facebook as a well-intentioned but sometimes careless product development company. The shocking part of this article, and many similar articles, is how deeply misuse of user data and cavalier privacy practices are baked into Facebook.
atatatat 5y ago
> The same thing happened with big government agencies if you see the Snowden leaks. LOVEINT

Agingcoder 5y ago

I didn't expect engineers to have global access to user data, which is what the article seems to say. Is it actually the case?

raxxorrax 5y ago
As an engineer I very often have access to private data. The only thing protecting it was that most engineers understand privacy and the implication of modern data collection that is slowly undermined by companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and co and the education the newer generation tend to enjoy. I worked on medical devices and with sensitive medical data. In this case even pictures of naked people for skin diagnostics. This data cannot be leaked so enhanced security mechanisms were in place. Wouldn't have hindered an engineer really wanting to leak the data and I think there is no way to prevent them from doing so while analyzing data. So yes, it is actually the case. Ironically, user data access might be most restrictive in companies like Facebook, especially because their business model is somewhat opposed to restricting access to private information and they know they need to make up for it. They also have employees that aren't really trimmed on the importance of privacy, which is showing in my opinion. A lot of administrators usually have access to all data in small and medium sized companies. And everywhere else there is at least someone who has. The only exception are end-to-end encrypted blobs for storage applications, but you cannot be sure of that since governments are currently working to get rid of that and the provider could easily lie to you and verification is almost impossible.

raxxorrax 5y ago

It is inevitable for every place where humans work. Companies, government agencies and everywhere else. The only solution is to not collect the data. It is also an easy and cheap solution if you really need additional incentives here...

SahAssar 5y ago
I agree that the easiest solution is to not collect the data, but I've worked at places that dealt with sensetive data and those limited who could see that data and when. Having procedures whereby anyone accessing sensetive data for oncall debugging work needs to inform at least one other person helps (and people not running production apps should not have access at all). Besides that it feels like facebook never tried to create a culture within its company that respected customers privacy, so that will lead to people with already shaky moral compasses having a easier way to justify (for themselves) this sort of violation. Your suggestion that the only solution is to not collect the data makes a lot of services impossible, including all banking, mapping, social media, and so on. Some services need that data to provide services that we want to be possible so lets make sure those are run in ethical ways.