Facebook on Data Collection: You Agreed To It

rgMekanic

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Vanity Fair is reporting that Facebook is getting even more bad press when it comes to user data. With the events of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, more and more people are taking a look at the data the Facebook has on them. One user, Dylan McKay, and Android user, downloaded his Facebook data as a Zip file, and found that from the time between November 2016 and July 2017, the archive contained “the metadata of every cellular call I’ve ever made, including time and duration” and “metadata about every text message I’ve ever received or sent,” as well as a historical record of every contact that has ever been in his phone.

Facebook responded with a blog post that likely isn't going to win any customer satisfaction awards. In a interview with the Guardian, a Facebook spokesperson stated:

“Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone – it’s explained right there in the apps when you get started. People can delete previously uploaded information at any time and can find all the information available to them in their account and activity log from our Download Your Information tool.”

This news comes the same day that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to testify before Congress according to a report from CNN.
 
thats all well and good and ASSUMING That held up in a court... I never agreed to it, I am not on facebook BUT because my phonenumber is in a load of phones of people that do use facebook, I am in their database.

Show me where I agreed
 
haha.jpg
 
well, in most agreements, its not a permanent, lifelong, one-way street, is it? i know with my career, the handling of data, as well as the age of the data, is pretty important. i cant imagine that you can say "you can have all of my data, all the time, without me ever controlling it or knowing what controls you've applied." that part is either stated (and pretty f'ed up) or not stated, and would be a hole to poke in a courtroom, wouldnt it?
 
99% of the users give up or never attempt to filter through dozens of menus in facebook (often they fail and take you back to step 1 if your not using their app or are hard to come by).

What Facebook should do:
a. make apps that have a purpose A have a clear limited access to your privacy for items b-z
b. an app about "a casino game" doesnt need your personal history, address, email, all of your friends, their contacts, your phone contacts etc

The "information sharing" for misleading data is insane. Facebook profits from the psyche of many apps/links/surveys that end up profiting from the user data harvesting. However security is then a royal pain. I attempted to remove 650 apps and things that have permissions in facebook, literally no checkbox you have to do it one item at a time > refresh > repeat. No this is not going to be done by anyone especially since I'm the only person out of a few hundred non-IT friends that even know where the menus are.

Its nuts.
 
Faceplant corporate wonk said:
“Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone – it’s explained right there in the apps when you get started. People can delete previously uploaded information at any time and can find all the information available to them in their account and activity log from our Download Your Information tool.”

That's a lie.

I went to get the app (because, family contact and pics), and the app would NOT let me get past agreeing with the contact upload, not to mention total and complete access to everything in my phone.

Fuck that shit. I killed the install, went to Faceplant to double-check my settings (which had been moved and defaulted AGAIN), reset them to max privacy, and went on with life. Then I get a spam email from my daughter-in-law less than an hour after she installed the Faceplant app on her new iPwn. She didn't even think twice about it, just did it because that was easiest for her. We initially thought her computer had been infected by a virus, or her email had been hacked; but, it turned out to be that fucking app.

Yes, Faceplant forces you to agree to their TOS, but there's a point where what they use and what they collect should stop.

In other words, exercise responsibility.... oh, what the fuck am I saying?? This is a corporation: the only responsibility they have is to themselves and their profits, everyone else's safety and privacy be damned. This very thing is why we need regulation: because humans (especially those psychopathic assholes they call "corporate executives") lack the capacity to do the right thing in the face of profit.
 
I still believe that if you're stupid enough to sign up to Facebook, the world would be a better place without you on it.

I know this is likely to anger some people but as I see it, if you are willing to sign away your privacy that easy then you deserve no privacy and you are part of the problem.
Strictly my personal opinion but there it is.
 
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I have never booked my face, but then again I am not the target audience...

But yeah if anyone ever actually read a TOS for anything, people would probably freak out.
 
I have never booked my face, but then again I am not the target audience...

But yeah if anyone ever actually read a TOS for anything, people would probably freak out.
There used to be a little program called "EULAlyzer" that would analyze EULA and tell you, in plain English, what it actually says. I used to encourage those whose computers I serviced to use the program...but, of course, they wouldn't. Another reason why I quit working on peoples' computers...
 
Well isn't it true? You did agree to it.

I didn't agree for Facebook to be on my phone, new out of the box, with no way to uninstall.

You didn't have to sign in to Facebook on your phone that had it installed out of the box, and had you not signed into Facebook on your phone, at worst they'd have call data without a person to associate it with.
 
I still believe that if you're stupid enough to sign up to Facebook, the world would be a better place without you on it.

I know this is likely to anger some people but as I see it, if you are willing to sign away your privacy that easy then you deserve no privacy and you are a part of the problem.
Strictly my personal opinion but there it is.


Yanno, if Faceplant were run the way we think it SHOULD be run, it would be okay. Loads of people get to network their friends and family in one place (unheard of, even in the aftermath of MySpace), and *interact* in nearly real time.

The problem arose when Facebook went from "social media platform" to "SpambotVirusWormDataMinerThief", because the fact is our attention became the most valuable resource on the internet, if not real life.

Just look at spam itself: STILL a billion dollar industry, grabbing as much data as possible to sell to someone for the expressed purpose of separating you from your money. Your information is so valuable that even GROCERY STORES are willing to give up 10-50% or more per purchase, just so they can use, then sell, your personal info and buying habits.


The real problem here is that "Corp-think" stopped including moral and ethical considerations. Business schools only teach greed and profit at all cost; and the fraternity system teaches cheating at all cost. Tied together, you get "cheating for profit", and every other moral precept smeared with shit & flushed down the toilet.
 
Well isn't it true? You did agree to it.



You didn't have to sign in to Facebook on your phone that had it installed out of the box, and had you not signed into Facebook on your phone, at worst they'd have call data without a person to associate it with.
I didn't sign in or open the app. I never used Facebook on any platform. That data you speak of is exactly my point. There is enough identifiable information thanks to my carrier, Samsung, Google and various other sources on a phone regardless of how far one would go to avoid setup of apps, services, login etc.
 
Well isn't it true? You did agree to it.



You didn't have to sign in to Facebook on your phone that had it installed out of the box, and had you not signed into Facebook on your phone, at worst they'd have call data without a person to associate it with.
I get his point: bundled crapware sucks, especially if they (the phone vendors) don't tell you it's there & unremovable.

That said: if it's an Android phone, root the fuck out of it. That'll get ALL the unwanted shit out, and leave you with a perfectly good phone.
 
I think the issue is that "contact" permission seems like you're just giving them access to your contact list (for the purpose of it matching to your app friend list). Instead, they used that permission to get SMS/MMS/Call data. It seems poorly worded at best for them to stand behind it and say "well, we told you exactly what we were doing by requesting contact permission."



Also, if you catch the new season of Silicon Valley, I'd suggest paying attention to the Facebook logo in the opener. It's subtle, but funny.
 
I think between FB, MS, NV, Google, Samsung and Apple a new metric ranking system needs to be established of how deep and with or w/o lube. Many more people might be able to comprehend what they're agreeing to.
 
Everyone crying about touching a hot surface, AFTER they were told it was hot.

Stop bending over and clicking ACCEPT. 3 <----

Don't worry, you can have something New to protest about tomorrow...
 
You didn't have to sign in to Facebook on your phone that had it installed out of the box, and had you not signed into Facebook on your phone, at worst they'd have call data without a person to associate it with.

Until they obtain your cellular info from your phone company which includes the phone number and meid of your phone which is easily paired to that non-associated info. Now they have your name, address, possibly your SSID and the phone number now has a person tied to it. All of this can be either paired to an existing profile of you or be used to create a new one containing additional information scraped off said phone (browsing history, location data which can then be transposed to figure out what other systems you own or commonly use, etc).

So yea, just because you're not signed in doesn't mean they aren't able to gather enough info to find out who you are.
 
Im really hoping microsoft will receive some blow back from this as well, and maybe win 10s telemetry will be scaled back and maybe just maybe we will start seeing more privacy focused products.
MS is counting on two things with their spyware in Windows 10: that nobody will be able to see inside the encrypted datastream and therefore never know the full extent of the 2000+ datapoints being collected in Basic mode with full details, and that if it was uncovered somehow then the EULA is full of lawyer language that users *opted in* to telemetry by accepting the EULA.

Facebook data collection is one thing - you can choose to never visit the site or use the apps, and avoid telemetry. But when it's baked right into the OS like Windows 10, you can't escape it.
 
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That's ok, what I post there isn't much good to anyone, including FB. I refuse to use their app, just the web interface so not much data to mine. Also I stay away from any built in apps/survey crap.
FB is a good way to keep in touch with friends and family.

You don't have phone and e-mail? What happened to those?
 
MS is counting on two things with their spyware in Windows 10: that nobody will be able to see inside the encrypted datastream and therefore never know the full extent of the 2000+ datapoints being collected in Basic mode with full details, and that if it was uncovered somehow then the EULA is full of lawyer language that users *opted in* to telemetry by accepting the EULA.

Facebook data collection is one thing - you can never visit the site or use the apps and avoid telemetry. But when it's baked right into the OS like Windows 10, you can't escape it.

Fun fact: Windows 10 also collects and uploads your IMEI to the mothership, despite MS claiming "little or no personally identifying information". Total bullshit.

Uh, it can easily be escaped. It's not like Windows is the only OS.
 
Yanno, if Faceplant were run the way we think it SHOULD be run, it would be okay. Loads of people get to network their friends and family in one place (unheard of, even in the aftermath of MySpace), and *interact* in nearly real time.

The problem arose when Facebook went from "social media platform" to "SpambotVirusWormDataMinerThief", because the fact is our attention became the most valuable resource on the internet, if not real life.

Just look at spam itself: STILL a billion dollar industry, grabbing as much data as possible to sell to someone for the expressed purpose of separating you from your money. Your information is so valuable that even GROCERY STORES are willing to give up 10-50% or more per purchase, just so they can use, then sell, your personal info and buying habits.


The real problem here is that "Corp-think" stopped including moral and ethical considerations. Business schools only teach greed and profit at all cost; and the fraternity system teaches cheating at all cost. Tied together, you get "cheating for profit", and every other moral precept smeared with shit & flushed down the toilet.

The real problem where is people have unrealistic expectations. This is a for profit company and we can expect them to act as such. That includes selling whatever information we give them. You simply need to be aware and engage appropriately. If you want a pure social media platform without a for profit company...go build a local club. Or setup your own non profit and try to run it.


I do this all the time. It could explain why I see ads for odd things like buffalo stud services. I confuse the hell out of google as well by randomly googling very odd terms. I like to mess with people...
 
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