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I was at a party with an early FB employee once and he was bragging about how they would spy on people to see who's profiles they were looking at. He thought it

I was at a party with an early FB employee once and he was bragging about how they would spy on people to see who's profiles they were looking at. He thought it was hilarious, I never used FB again. I think his exact quote was "Hot girls are like celebrities, we watch people refresh their profiles all day long LOL".

hipadev23 2y ago
I see you also have met zuck
- lostlogin 2y ago
  Zuckerberg seems like a normal human after the shit-show we have seen over the last few years.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - agubelu 2y ago
    Nice try, Zuck
    - lostlogin 2y ago
      It was a point badly made. Compared to other tech billionaires in the news, Zuckerberg’s infractions seem less alarming now days.
      - rbanffy 2y ago
        [flagged]
        immibis 2y ago
        It's interesting how people only cared when he made the salute.
        rbanffy 2y ago
        The excuses are what amazed me the most. But you are right. For anyone who's been paying attention, it wasn't surprising at all.
        mschuster91 2y ago
        Many of us cared ever since Musk announced to buy Twitter. But we were shitstormed and downvoted into oblivion here and on Reddit for sounding the alarm bells... and now, look where we stand. The salute made people care because it was completely and utterly undeniable evidence. Of course, people still try to excuse even that, but a lot of the Musk apologists got pretty silent after it.
        blurbleblurble 2y ago
        Even before the Twitter buyout, that guy has exhibited questionable behavior for decades.
        mschuster91 2y ago
        Not that much to be honest. Yeah, he cycled through spouses, smoked pot live on a podcast and had a sometimes ... reckless attitude, but constantly delivered in exchange - without Musk, we'd still be stuck getting fleeced by ULA/EADS, ICE car manufacturers bribing politicians to soften emissions regulations and satellite internet being GEO only. "Old Musk" was a bit much at times, but acceptable in exchange for how society profited from his unwillingness to accept a "no". "New Musk" has that same unwillingness but is willing to destroy democracy itself, and that makes him orders of magnitude more dangerous.
        blurbleblurble 2y ago
        I beg to differ. The way he bullied business partners has always been trash.
      - otteromkram 2y ago
        Excluding Elon Musk, which tech billionaire(s)?
        lostlogin 2y ago
        Mainly Musk, but Ellison and Thiel too.
      - zelphirkalt 2y ago
        What a timeline! We only need ever more corrupt and criminal people, to normalize all kinds of behavior and ultimately justify everything! I think Zuck likes the riches, but not the supposed responsibility of being the boss of it all. Very typical for management actually. Very few ever stand up and say: "It was my mistake! I should have managed this better! I should have placed better safeguards.". Instead Zucky goes in front of the court and acts all stupic uninformed android. Basically, a master class in denial and lying. Not a shred of taking responsibility for what happened.
      - UncleEntity 2y ago
        Pretty low bar if you ask me...
j16sdiz 2y ago
luckily(?), this kind of access is now very restrictive. Most of the employees can't do that.
dzink 2y ago
I thought the people who look up your profile show in the friend suggestions section.
- genewitch 2y ago
  This is a poor signal, at least in my experience. It is possible that no one looks at my profile, but I have a semi-famous acquaintance (we've had dinner but not at one's house) and 80% of my friend suggestions are 1 mutal with that person. I do interact a lot so maybe people click to see if I also look touched? Either way I have a unique enough name that I'd notice if anyone was viewing my profile via that side-channel.
etrautmann 2y ago
This will get you immediately fired at Meta today.
- musicale 2y ago
  Today they only allow creepy surveillance if it makes money.
  - qrsjutsu 2y ago
    if it stops someone from making money who does not share their values, it's used, too ... or when they have enough oil to fix the markets
- avs733 2y ago
  Because it’s unethical or because it’s inefficient to do this manually as opposed to algorithmically?
  - lazide 2y ago
    Because too many stories like this started to get them bad PR, which is a liability, so they put processes in place. Every large company ends up with these types of situations. The Snowden dumps showed a widespread culture of the NSA doing this on girlfriends, ex’s, and ‘potential love interests’. Among many other things. Why do you think he got hunted to the ends of the earth?
    - bigbacaloa 2y ago
      Better to make it law and enforce the law than to trust large companies to do anything ethical.
      - toolz 2y ago
        Ethics aren't objective anyway, so it's not useful to rely on them. The US prides itself on being a melting pot full of diverse entrepreneurs. Diversity means different sets of ethics, sometimes varying greatly. I'm hopeful the US can get to a place where we expect everyone to agree on ethics and only reward those that operate with american ethics in mind. Which interestingly enough, I find the ethics that america loves to espouse with their words, more often reflects the enacted ethics of many immigrants when compared to the people who have many generations in this country.
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
I have heard that the NSA has such a chronic problem with employees spying on their Significant Others, that they have a code word for it: LOVEINT. I admit, in one of my very first jobs, I accessed the company DB, to find out about celebrities. I almost got fired, and learned a hard (and early) lesson about the importance of privacy and being careful about admin dashboards. Overpowered admin dashboards are a problem. I tend to spend a lot of time on backends, locking down permissions. These days, I am so anal about privacy and security, that it pisses people off. I just know that there’s plenty of knuckleheads like me, out there. "Any proposal must be viewed as follows. Do not pay overly much attention to the benefits that might be delivered were the law in question to be properly enforced, rather one needs to consider the harm done by the improper enforcement of this particular piece of legislation, whatever it might be." -Lyndon B. Johnson
nickfromseattle 2y ago
I was talking to I believe an FB engineer and this must have been 10+ years ago at this point, he said, - FB found restricting access was difficult because engineers do sometimes bump into incidental user data while doing their job - And engineers, being sufficiently motivated, can find a way around security measures - So instead of reducing productivity with ineffective security measures, FB logs all access to private user info, and a separate team will request a reason, and if you don't have a 100% legitimate work related reason to be viewing it, you're terminated immediately - And it does occasionally happen - And best practice if you might incidentally see private user data is to do it on an FB profile of a dev friend also working at FB
- busterarm 2y ago
  Not only was this true at the time but it was kind of an open secret that some of the data scientists were stalking people and using "I'm a data scientist, I need unfiltered access to the production data" as a cover.
  - busterarm 2y ago
    This was afterall the same time where sketchy dudes working at IG were doing the whole "I can verify you on Instagram" thing to hook up with girls.
    - xp84 2y ago
      That’s so wild. Not to downplay the dudes’ grossness which is at 100%, but also imagine the shallowness of someone who would trade sex for a blue checkmark that signify arbitrarily-granted clout on social media. I miss when “influencer” wasn’t anybody’s career goal.
mu53 2y ago
It is still a problem today. I lived in SF for a stretch working at non-FANG tech companies, and I met a lot of people who worked for Apple, Facebook, and Google. After meeting some of those people at a meditation group, they began being creepy by making obtuse, but oddly specific comments on things that I was doing online to suggest they were. I got creeped out and stopped going to that class. I began meeting friends or friends of their friends at different places. Ultimately, it escalated to the point that an employee at Apple was leaving poisoned treats outside of my door and then listening me dealing with my dog being sick. You cannot talk about any of this because its really easy for the stalkers to deny its happening. There are no laws in this area yet. If you try to complain or get anyone's attention, guess who is watching your every move. The exact same people that are committing the crimes. People will look back at today at the political or social strife, and they will wonder how we never connected the dots.
- nosefrog 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - mu53 2y ago
    i got receipts, but this is exactly the type of attitude that is so problematic
  - lesuorac 2y ago
    Seems easier to just get a camera to actually catch people leaving poisonous treats.
    - trod1234 2y ago
      Not so easy. New WiFi Camera's show up in the location maps that these people may have access to. Desperate homeless may be coerced to do the deed, while the malevolent person sits back and watches. Some people seem to think these things don't happen, but they do. Just look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal for a perfect example, there are plenty of things that never make it to this level of harassment where there is no proof.

hipadev23 2y ago

I see you also have met zuck

lostlogin 2y ago
Zuckerberg seems like a normal human after the shit-show we have seen over the last few years.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- agubelu 2y ago
  Nice try, Zuck
  - lostlogin 2y ago
    It was a point badly made. Compared to other tech billionaires in the news, Zuckerberg’s infractions seem less alarming now days.
    - rbanffy 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - immibis 2y ago
        It's interesting how people only cared when he made the salute.
        rbanffy 2y ago
        The excuses are what amazed me the most. But you are right. For anyone who's been paying attention, it wasn't surprising at all.
        mschuster91 2y ago
        Many of us cared ever since Musk announced to buy Twitter. But we were shitstormed and downvoted into oblivion here and on Reddit for sounding the alarm bells... and now, look where we stand. The salute made people care because it was completely and utterly undeniable evidence. Of course, people still try to excuse even that, but a lot of the Musk apologists got pretty silent after it.
        blurbleblurble 2y ago
        Even before the Twitter buyout, that guy has exhibited questionable behavior for decades.
        mschuster91 2y ago
        Not that much to be honest. Yeah, he cycled through spouses, smoked pot live on a podcast and had a sometimes ... reckless attitude, but constantly delivered in exchange - without Musk, we'd still be stuck getting fleeced by ULA/EADS, ICE car manufacturers bribing politicians to soften emissions regulations and satellite internet being GEO only. "Old Musk" was a bit much at times, but acceptable in exchange for how society profited from his unwillingness to accept a "no". "New Musk" has that same unwillingness but is willing to destroy democracy itself, and that makes him orders of magnitude more dangerous.
        blurbleblurble 2y ago
        I beg to differ. The way he bullied business partners has always been trash.
    - otteromkram 2y ago
      Excluding Elon Musk, which tech billionaire(s)?
      - lostlogin 2y ago
        Mainly Musk, but Ellison and Thiel too.
    - zelphirkalt 2y ago
      What a timeline! We only need ever more corrupt and criminal people, to normalize all kinds of behavior and ultimately justify everything! I think Zuck likes the riches, but not the supposed responsibility of being the boss of it all. Very typical for management actually. Very few ever stand up and say: "It was my mistake! I should have managed this better! I should have placed better safeguards.". Instead Zucky goes in front of the court and acts all stupic uninformed android. Basically, a master class in denial and lying. Not a shred of taking responsibility for what happened.
    - UncleEntity 2y ago
      Pretty low bar if you ask me...

j16sdiz 2y ago

luckily(?), this kind of access is now very restrictive. Most of the employees can't do that.

dzink 2y ago

I thought the people who look up your profile show in the friend suggestions section.

genewitch 2y ago
This is a poor signal, at least in my experience. It is possible that no one looks at my profile, but I have a semi-famous acquaintance (we've had dinner but not at one's house) and 80% of my friend suggestions are 1 mutal with that person. I do interact a lot so maybe people click to see if I also look touched? Either way I have a unique enough name that I'd notice if anyone was viewing my profile via that side-channel.

etrautmann 2y ago

This will get you immediately fired at Meta today.

musicale 2y ago
Today they only allow creepy surveillance if it makes money.
- qrsjutsu 2y ago
  if it stops someone from making money who does not share their values, it's used, too ... or when they have enough oil to fix the markets
avs733 2y ago
Because it’s unethical or because it’s inefficient to do this manually as opposed to algorithmically?
- lazide 2y ago
  Because too many stories like this started to get them bad PR, which is a liability, so they put processes in place. Every large company ends up with these types of situations. The Snowden dumps showed a widespread culture of the NSA doing this on girlfriends, ex’s, and ‘potential love interests’. Among many other things. Why do you think he got hunted to the ends of the earth?
  - bigbacaloa 2y ago
    Better to make it law and enforce the law than to trust large companies to do anything ethical.
    - toolz 2y ago
      Ethics aren't objective anyway, so it's not useful to rely on them. The US prides itself on being a melting pot full of diverse entrepreneurs. Diversity means different sets of ethics, sometimes varying greatly. I'm hopeful the US can get to a place where we expect everyone to agree on ethics and only reward those that operate with american ethics in mind. Which interestingly enough, I find the ethics that america loves to espouse with their words, more often reflects the enacted ethics of many immigrants when compared to the people who have many generations in this country.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

I have heard that the NSA has such a chronic problem with employees spying on their Significant Others, that they have a code word for it: LOVEINT. I admit, in one of my very first jobs, I accessed the company DB, to find out about celebrities. I almost got fired, and learned a hard (and early) lesson about the importance of privacy and being careful about admin dashboards. Overpowered admin dashboards are a problem. I tend to spend a lot of time on backends, locking down permissions. These days, I am so anal about privacy and security, that it pisses people off. I just know that there’s plenty of knuckleheads like me, out there. "Any proposal must be viewed as follows. Do not pay overly much attention to the benefits that might be delivered were the law in question to be properly enforced, rather one needs to consider the harm done by the improper enforcement of this particular piece of legislation, whatever it might be." -Lyndon B. Johnson

nickfromseattle 2y ago

I was talking to I believe an FB engineer and this must have been 10+ years ago at this point, he said, - FB found restricting access was difficult because engineers do sometimes bump into incidental user data while doing their job - And engineers, being sufficiently motivated, can find a way around security measures - So instead of reducing productivity with ineffective security measures, FB logs all access to private user info, and a separate team will request a reason, and if you don't have a 100% legitimate work related reason to be viewing it, you're terminated immediately - And it does occasionally happen - And best practice if you might incidentally see private user data is to do it on an FB profile of a dev friend also working at FB

busterarm 2y ago
Not only was this true at the time but it was kind of an open secret that some of the data scientists were stalking people and using "I'm a data scientist, I need unfiltered access to the production data" as a cover.
- busterarm 2y ago
  This was afterall the same time where sketchy dudes working at IG were doing the whole "I can verify you on Instagram" thing to hook up with girls.
  - xp84 2y ago
    That’s so wild. Not to downplay the dudes’ grossness which is at 100%, but also imagine the shallowness of someone who would trade sex for a blue checkmark that signify arbitrarily-granted clout on social media. I miss when “influencer” wasn’t anybody’s career goal.

mu53 2y ago

It is still a problem today. I lived in SF for a stretch working at non-FANG tech companies, and I met a lot of people who worked for Apple, Facebook, and Google. After meeting some of those people at a meditation group, they began being creepy by making obtuse, but oddly specific comments on things that I was doing online to suggest they were. I got creeped out and stopped going to that class. I began meeting friends or friends of their friends at different places. Ultimately, it escalated to the point that an employee at Apple was leaving poisoned treats outside of my door and then listening me dealing with my dog being sick. You cannot talk about any of this because its really easy for the stalkers to deny its happening. There are no laws in this area yet. If you try to complain or get anyone's attention, guess who is watching your every move. The exact same people that are committing the crimes. People will look back at today at the political or social strife, and they will wonder how we never connected the dots.

nosefrog 2y ago
[flagged]
- mu53 2y ago
  i got receipts, but this is exactly the type of attitude that is so problematic
- lesuorac 2y ago
  Seems easier to just get a camera to actually catch people leaving poisonous treats.
  - trod1234 2y ago
    Not so easy. New WiFi Camera's show up in the location maps that these people may have access to. Desperate homeless may be coerced to do the deed, while the malevolent person sits back and watches. Some people seem to think these things don't happen, but they do. Just look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal for a perfect example, there are plenty of things that never make it to this level of harassment where there is no proof.