Facebook privacy breaches

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#1987858 3-Apr-2018 20:22

I was very surprised at the toxicity by some people on facebook. Sadly all from family members because their views are different some of worst over political views and religious/non religious views. I pine for the old days where people respected others views and agreed to disagree. Now days its very toxic

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xpd

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#1987957 4-Apr-2018 07:57

One of my friends had just bailed from FB completely, Ive done a massive cull (150 friends down to 30) and removed all attached apps, only groups I'm in are those I started. I'd like to bail completely (and not just because of the privacy issues, but more the way FB keeps resetting my settings and giving me "features" that drive me up the wall) but cant really at the moment because of the groups I started. One has 3000+ members, and until I can find someone I can trust to run it, I'm stuck with it ;)

Most of my friends who I regularly chat to on FB are gamers, so weve moved to Discord instead.

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MikeAqua

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#1987976 4-Apr-2018 08:43

I don't use facebook, never have.

From the outset there seemed to be repeated privacy issues - mainly with privacy settings. I concluded early on the company simply did not respect user privacy. Consequently I've never gone near it. If any device I own comes preloaded with a facebook app I delete it. If that isn't possible I disable it.

My partner shows me her facebook page every now and then and I really don't see anything of much interest.

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#1992083 9-Apr-2018 15:12

I just noticed this quote on RNZ: "For New Zealand, we estimate a total of 63,724 people may have been impacted - 10 are estimated to have downloaded the quiz app with 63,714 friends possibly impacted," the company said.

The figures are the number of New Zealanders estimated to have had their privacy compromised because 10(!) people downloaded an app. In other words, Facebook used the info from 10 people to invade the privacy of nearly 64,000 others.

On the one hand, these numbers don't surprise me at all. On the other, they appal me. How have we reached the point where innocently friending someone opens you up to being crawled over by the digital cockroaches of the world? If this is what has risen to the surface, how much more lies below? How much is the convenience of a Google password or a Facebook family page worth to you?

There is a term for people who accept benefits in exchange for allowing others to paw over them. Welcome to the club.

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MurrayM

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#1992100 9-Apr-2018 15:38

Rikkitic:

The figures are the number of New Zealanders estimated to have had their privacy compromised because 10(!) people downloaded an app. In other words, Facebook used the info from 10 people to invade the privacy of nearly 64,000 others.

This is the old six degrees of separation from anyone to anyone else in the world. Quite amazing when you think of it.

kickintheeye

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#1992768 10-Apr-2018 14:39

I just deleted the Facebook and its Messenger apps. Feeling good without those annoying notifications.

Dratsab

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#1992780 10-Apr-2018 14:50

Rikkitic: I just noticed this quote on RNZ: "For New Zealand, we estimate a total of 63,724 people may have been impacted - 10 are estimated to have downloaded the quiz app with 63,714 friends possibly impacted," the company said.

The figures are the number of New Zealanders estimated to have had their privacy compromised because 10(!) people downloaded an app. In other words, Facebook used the info from 10 people to invade the privacy of nearly 64,000 others.

Not quite - Facebook didn't do it, Cambridge Analytica did. Facebook were an enabler to all this through failing to have decent (any actual?) privacy practices.

Fred99

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#1994153 11-Apr-2018 10:18

Dratsab:

Rikkitic: I just noticed this quote on RNZ: "For New Zealand, we estimate a total of 63,724 people may have been impacted - 10 are estimated to have downloaded the quiz app with 63,714 friends possibly impacted," the company said.

The figures are the number of New Zealanders estimated to have had their privacy compromised because 10(!) people downloaded an app. In other words, Facebook used the info from 10 people to invade the privacy of nearly 64,000 others.

Not quite - Facebook didn't do it, Cambridge Analytica did. Facebook were an enabler to all this through failing to have decent (any actual?) privacy practices.

Facebook exists as a revenue generating tool by "enabling" microtargeting advertising to users by collecting and collating user data. $500 billion or so market capitalisation is testimony to how effective this is.

The issue seems to be that in this case (and probably many others) this user data was used to microtarget political propaganda. This is apparently "bad" - as opposed to using the same data access to microtarget "commercial propaganda" aka "advertising".

This is why he's "welcoming regulation" - and creating a facade of being cooperative - he'd no doubt welcome some regulation to get FB "out of the spotlight" when politically affiliated organisations deliver propaganda which might not only break FB T&C, but be illegal. That might sound like it's a great thing, but IMO it's practically unworkable. The propaganda isn't delivered in a transparent manner - as CA claim, if it's seen for what it is, then it's failed. They also boast of their ability to operate opaquely by setting up operations not traceable to CA - nor to the client paying them. Users (and FB themselves) can't know the motive of an advertiser / supplier of paid content - or if they do, they won't be telling.

IMO Zuckerberg is desperately trying to protect FB's ability to continue to generate revenue by microtargeting advertising to users . Changing FB's default privacy settings globally thoroughly destroys FB's advantage / revenue generating ability. He is cooperating only so that he'll still be able to influence - to prevent that from happening.

CA are absolute scumbags - but they're also being scapegoated here. If anybody thinks that getting rid of CA solves a problem, they're deluded.

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#1994180 11-Apr-2018 10:55

Fred99:

The propaganda isn't delivered in a transparent manner - as CA claim, if it's seen for what it is, then it's failed.

I'd be interested in knowing just how true that really is. After all, there are plenty of overt advertisements, and they obviously work even though you know that's what they are. On the other hand, if the claim that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza shop didn't ring about a thousand skeptic alarm bells for you, then you might just be easily manipulated.

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#1994186 11-Apr-2018 11:07

I think it is actually more subtle than that. If lots of outrageous stories appear about a candidate, people begin to develop negative associations with that candidate even if they don't believe the obvious lies.

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Fred99

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#1994256 11-Apr-2018 13:22

SaltyNZ:

Fred99:

The propaganda isn't delivered in a transparent manner - as CA claim, if it's seen for what it is, then it's failed.

I'd be interested in knowing just how true that really is. After all, there are plenty of overt advertisements, and they obviously work even though you know that's what they are. On the other hand, if the claim that Hillary Clinton was running a pedophile ring out of a pizza shop didn't ring about a thousand skeptic alarm bells for you, then you might just be easily manipulated.

I think some examples were news articles about events etc that were presented in a manner to create the impression that they were genuine causes, when the trick was that they were "fake" and fully intended to strengthen the negative perception.

Rather than a blatant "fake news" story like your example (though I expect a disturbing number of people did actually believe the pizza shop story), drop in an article narrowly targeted only to "christian" american conservatives in rural swing states about how US foreign aid funds get used for family planning advice (was kind of true), or perhaps a news article about a "Muslims for BLM" group march etc. The stories don't need to be 100% fake, but you're targeting a group with negative attitudes to that story, the stories will provoke a strong response / shares, comments etc then leave it to reader comments to strengthen confirmation bias. Analyse the effect, and use that to refine the process. That's not seen as propaganda by the intended target - but those who would immediately see what's going on as propaganda don't see it on their page, even if they did and reacted, they'd be shouted down very quickly.

Here's an article:

https://medium.com/marketing-and-entrepreneurship/facebook-ads-fake-news-and-the-shockingly-low-cost-of-influencing-an-election-data-ca7a086fa01c

Fake news via Facebook Ads is not a US partisan issue as fake news can come in any form. It exploits incompetent/greedy platforms, algorithmic loopholes and gullible users to amplify divisions within society and is a threat to global democracy.

kickintheeye

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#1995297 13-Apr-2018 10:51

Sorry, I couldn't find a proper BBCode for imgur video/gif content.

https://imgur.com/KqAfDvO

Fred99

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#1995462 13-Apr-2018 13:13

kickintheeye:

Sorry, I couldn't find a proper BBCode for imgur video/gif content.

https://imgur.com/KqAfDvO

I tried d/l that gif, then u/l to giphy - but it failed.

I posted another "zuckerborg" meme gif in the politics forum:

Now while it's probably not fair to mock someone for their appearance and I feel a little uncomfortable about doing it, there's something I find incredibly creepy about his mannerisms, slow and apparently very carefully controlled if deliberate. That combined with the fact that for his testimony to congress, he had a carefully set out bullet list of issues and what his response should be. It's a 1/2 trillion dollar company and I'm sure he can afford the best advice - but it doesn't work on me. I think he's psychopathic, manipulative, and extremely dishonest. He must be fully aware of the potential for harm from misuse of FB, but also even forgetting that, "normal" use of facebook has profound implications for society, it definitely needs to be heavily regulated - but that's going to destroy some of its revenue-generating potential.

OTOH, at least we're not like China yet, with Wechat, a state run "social credit" system collecting and collating data on every individual from wide sources, "rating" them, and affording/removing privileges based on their algorithms.

I agree totally with Elon Musk - his strong warnings about a very grim future if unbridled social media and AI continues.

I have a FB account - that I've always anonymised as best possible by lying about my DOB, locking it down as hard as I could. I must get around to requesting the data dump - just to see if that's effective. My guess is probably not very effective at all.

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#1995607 13-Apr-2018 16:23

SaltyNZ:
I deleted my Facebook account before it was cool.

(•_•)

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You think you can get away? FB has shadow profiles so secret and so intricate that even Zuck doesn't know about.

kickintheeye

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Master Geek

#1997666 17-Apr-2018 11:04

We all knew something wrong is going on with Facebook. Even though, the ordinary user prefer to ignore that and keep using the service. I believe the Facebook privacy breaches is just the top of the iceberg. The reality is we can't go back in time living without the technology and gadgets we own these days. So, I am still on Facebook (thinking about alternatives to keep in touch with some of my friends), Twitter, and I just created a new YouTube channel. What about you guys? Any suggestions?

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