Internal Emails Show Facebook Weighing the Privacy Risks of Quietly Collecting Call and Text Records From Its Android Users -- Then Going Ahead Anyway (theverge.com) 117
Earlier this year, many Android users were shocked to discover that Facebook had been collecting a record of their call and SMS history, as revealed by the company's data download tool. Now, internal emails released by the UK Parliament show how the decision was made internally. From a report: According to the emails, developers knew the data was sensitive, but they still pushed to collect it as a way of expanding Facebook's reach. The emails show Facebook's growth team looking to call log data as a way to improve Facebook's algorithms as well as to locate new contacts through the "People You May Know" feature. Notably, the project manager recognized it as "a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective," but that risk seems to have been overwhelmed by the potential user growth.
Initially, the feature was intended to require users to opt in, typically through an in-app pop-up dialog box. But as developers looked for ways to get users signed up, it became clear that Android's data permissions could be manipulated to automatically enroll users if the new feature was deployed in a certain way.
Initially, the feature was intended to require users to opt in, typically through an in-app pop-up dialog box. But as developers looked for ways to get users signed up, it became clear that Android's data permissions could be manipulated to automatically enroll users if the new feature was deployed in a certain way.
Come on, people, enough is enough! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Come on, people, enough is enough! (Score:5, Informative)
Facebook also protects your private information from ever being lost by securely backing it up with redundant copies being sent to many unknown third parties who pay to have backups of your personal info.
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You're on Facebook, eww, really lame, like desperate to pretend you have a life or what. Bad enough that you sell out your own digital life but you also sell out all the people you have in your contacts, sell out the privacy of your friends, so the freaks and perves at facebook can target and manipulate them, what kind of ass hat are you.
Don't tell them to leave facebook, make them feel bad for being a part of facebook, for selling out themselves and those they know to facebook. Only boring losers, the she
Re: Come on, people, enough is enough! (Score:2)
+1
"You _still_ use Faceboot?"
"No, I don't have a Faceboot. Don't have an AARP card either."
"What, does your boss require you to have a Faceboot or something?"
"Nah, I don't use Faceboot. I have an actual life, you see."
There are many others.
I always make it a point to enunciate the "t" in Faceboot. Everyone gets it.
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Why do you care if people want keep their head in the sand and ignore the fact that Facebook cares not one bit about their privacy?
Heck I hope more people sign up. Then when there is some massive data breach, it just makes it all the more amusing for those of us that have no accounts, and go out of our way to foil their shadow profile builder as well.
It's never enough (Score:5, Insightful)
Face it: you have to leave Facebook. You cannot un-know things like this. There's no rules anymore, they do whatever they want
I would ask the people of Slashdot to face something else; the truth that most people do not care about privacy. At all.
Continuing news like this from Facebook just makes it ever more obvious.
You have to figure out how to live in the world, knowing this fundamental truth and the truth that follows - even if you leave Facebook, there will always be another Facebook like milking of your privacy, because it doesn't bother most people.
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You have to figure out how to live in the world, knowing this fundamental truth and the truth that follows - even if you leave Facebook, there will always be another Facebook like milking of your privacy, because it doesn't bother most people.
Horseshit. That's no fundamental truth.
You're saying: Some Foos are also Bars. If Bar ceases to exist, it will be replaced by a Baz that is similar. Foos who were also Bars will likely then become Bazes. Therefore, All Foos are Bars or Bazes.
But that is False. Bar being replaced by Baz does not change that while some Foos are Bars, others are not. And those others that are not Bars will often still not be Bazes even after Bar disappears.
This is not a difficult matter of logic. Learning "how to live in the w
Remakes (Score:2)
This is not a difficult matter of logic.
Well it wasn't until you tried to describe it.
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That's sad. That's just sad.
I read /. daily (Score:1)
Privacy violations are a symptom of the problems faced by the working class, not the problem itself. The real problem is that there's a class war on, and my side is losing.
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+1000. I think it comes down to a lack of living memory (in the west) of actual oppression. I can't speak for places like Argentina or Russia - are they more about privacy/anonymity because of their recent history? I don't really think so?
And in the US? "Oh noes, Trump's black helicopters!" is bullshit factionalism only; nobody's 'disappearing', there are no Konzentrazionslagers. Jjackbooted fascists are boogymen waved about for-purpose, like the guns fired by cowboys to get the cattle all to run effic
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Its also true leaving facebook does next to nil for your privacy (well okay stop using their vpn). The thing is all your friends are still on facebook. facebook is still slurping up their contact lists with you on it. They are still gobbling up pictures with you in them and their geo tags; if anyone has ever tagged you before they have your face and will recognize you anyway.
Unless you can literally get the majority of people you know to dump facebook too - they have and they will continue to be able to
One word to describe Facebook: unhealthy (Score:2)
People don't care about privacy but may care that facebook use is correlated with depression (links everywhere). Usually I don't log in for days or a week or two, and when I do come back I feel a mixture of expecting a hit and a mild wave of depression. The posts feel like they are made by people trapped in a cage. I usually don't stay more than a few minutes.
I've been recommending what I found worked for me: I used Social Book Post Manager browser add-on to undo everything I've ever posted or liked or comm
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I would ask the people of Slashdot to face something else; the truth that most people do not care about privacy. At all.
The main problem I think is the discrepancy between what harm you could do and what harm is actually done. I've walked around with a radio buoy aka cell phone most of my adult life. I'm sure there's lots of potentially bad things you could do with that data, but have I actually seen the cell phone operator or the government abuse it? Not that I'm aware of. I've been paying for more and more things electronically with e-tail and just in general. I'm sure there's lots of potentially bad things you could do wi
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Facebook is a dopamine delivery system.
Nobody's going to leave Facebook (Score:2)
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While I agree that everyone should leave, but short of that, they need heavy regulation
Re:MSMASH: you inbred Induchimp! (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome to the English language, Ivan.
Then means that the action is happening after the something else that was discussed immediately prior.
Going means to move.
Ahead is a direction, the meaning is similar to forwards.
Anyway means that the thing that happened was not prevented by some downside or problem that was already discussed.
So, "Then going ahead anyway" means that they knew there was something problematic with their actions, and they still tried to complete those actions.
Come back tomorrow and we can discuss There, Their, and They're. But only if you stop saying that rude thing at the end. Be nice, Ivan. And show up sober.
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There's a begging-the-question fallacy in there: Facebook analyzed the risk, then took action. The "anyway" implies they found the risks beyond some threshold.
Question: was there a methodology for determining if the action was too risky?
Question: did they determine the action was too risky?
Question: was their determination based on an internal standard or on a common criteria?
He missed the one where the PM said there was a "PR" risk. Was that Privacy Risk or Public Relations? Is the summary tryi
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Foolish man; do you think someone who cared about privacy even an iota would be a facebook employee?
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The word "anyway" only tells you that the action has been questioned. It is your own judgmental nature that you've detected, not any external threshold.
It acknowledges that a decision included a trade-off, and that the actual decision made was not to stop the action involved in the trade-off.
You're making a lot of presumptions about whatever was or wasn't done to measure the risk, but the public information doesn't actually tell us about that. So it is a lie to imply that it is important, and somehow preclu
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The "anyway" implies there was a usually-contraindicating factor--that the outcome would have resulted in a situation not occurring--but the situation occurred anyway.
"He had a girlfriend, but he slept with the girl from the bar anyway."
It is a common English idiom, kind of like how "slept with" doesn't actually mean sleeping, even if that's what the words in the dictionary tell you.
Of course some people are super sheltered, and don't quite get what someone means when they say they "slept with" someo
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Naw, I don't think a sheet of glass can celebrate anything, and surely any alcohol will have evaporated.
Likely a few people at remote listening stations will have a few days or weeks to drink a last toast to Planet Earth. But if you have internet access and are allowed to post on slashdot, you're not gonna be one of those.
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Yeah, probably. What planet did you say you were from???
Not a surprise! (Score:5, Informative)
This behavior is not surprising at all considering that the only reason that Facebook exists is to collect data to sell to advertisers. Everything that they do is to increase profits. They really don't care about people or privacy...its all about the money!!!
Re:Not a surprise! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Facebook would sell your personal info to anyone willing to pay for it.
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Re: Who is surprised by tbis? (Score:1)
The more we learn about Facebook... (Score:4, Insightful)
Is anyone surpised? (Score:2)
Facebook is since years known to invade users and non-users privacy.
I belong to the last group and have to install various add-ons to escape their vacuuming of personal data.
Re: Is anyone surpised? (Score:1)
Everyone's blaming Facebook (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't just Facebook's fault. It's Google's too. Note how they only did this on Android phones. Because Apple made their OS protect their users, and Google made their OS enable spying.
Apple does it too (Score:1)
This happened about the same time Google was caught accidentally recording more than SSID with their street view cars. Google admitted they did wrong, and the EU fined them. Apple never admitted any wrongdoing, and the EU never did anything about them. What we have today is
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It's not great, sure. However, it is only used in the aggregate by the first-party provider (assuming you don't opt out). Google allows any app on your phone to get personal data on you. And your call/text logs seem even more sensitive than your GPS/SSID data.
Both are bad, but there are degrees of badness. Significant degrees.
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You missed the biggest source of the problem:
Everyone USING Facebook.
People get EXACTLY what they deserve. i.e. If they are dumb enough to use Facebook in the first place, then they shouldn't be surprised that someone profited off their stupidity.
The sad part is that nothing will change. People will whine about the problem but the majority will stay.
I will leave FB when I'm good and ready (Score:5, Funny)
And that goes for my 254 fake FB accounts too!
Oh, you mean you actually have FB on your tracked cellphone with Android?
Ok, you're just pulling my leg there, no way anyone would be dumb enough to do that.
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This assumes use of the Facebook app, right? (Score:2)
Facebook is also available as a website, so why bother installing an app for it that just intrudes more on your privacy? If you must use it, just use the mobile website within a browser like Chrome. That way they should not be able to monitor what is going on outside of the website. Or is there some way that they can still access that info, even from inside a web browser, which I am not aware of?
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Don't you understand that basic structure of the industry?
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I've never had much trouble with it on mobile, but I do sometimes find it starts to scroll through the newsfeed upon opening, until you scroll up to stop it. Not a huge deal, though.
However, it just occurred to me that they probably pull the same permission crap on the Messenger app. I use the "Lite" version, since it at least doesn't hog resources as badly, and checking the app permissions - sure enough, SMS, Phone, and Microphone are all listed there - despite there being no reason for such things in a te
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Fair enough - I guess you can make voice calls through it too. I know video calls are restricted to the non-Lite app, and I've never wanted / had a reason to make a voice call through Facebook before, so I wasn't thinking about that aspect of it.
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Chrome is a Google app. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about what they pass to Facebook, as a *Professional Courtesy* of course! Then there's your service provider, who usually doesn't charge Facebook against your data quotas. There has to be a reason why. The only safe thing to assume is that you're on a party line, and just like in old time Soviet Union, the cops are listening.
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Fascinating - may I ask how you know they accessed your data? It would be extremely helpful, and I didn't see it in the article (though I only skimmed it), if there was a way to find out if FB has this specific set of data on each of us. I am under the impression that you can request a dump of all the data they have on you, but pouring through that much information just to find out if they have phone call & SMS metadata seems like a lot of work :/
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The thing is facebook has the methods of subtly steering people into their apps that are very effective. One example and I have little doubt there are others, is "private" and I use the term loosely messages. You can't read them on the mobile site! You can't even read them in the mobile app you have install FBs other app messenger and give it the access it wants. Oh but you can see that you have a private message - or - maybe its not really a message maybe its a bogus friend request from one of what I su
Facebook should be shut down (Score:2)
It is an evil company. Zuckerberg should be arrested.
But isn't that just the new normal? (Score:1)
If you care about any data that could be collected from your phone, you should probably consider not using a smartphone at all. It shouldn't be news to anyone at this point that all free apps collect and sell your data, to some degree. Also you should probably stay away from PCs and smart TVs.
Link for original paper (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Link for original paper (Score:1)
Shocked? Really? (Score:1)
You mean to say that many people actually believe all that "privacy policy" bullshit? Rhetorical question...
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Yum (Score:1)
Suckerburged (Score:1)
It should become synonymous with willingly having the wool pulled over your eyes.