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A comment on Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of social norms. Parent comment

Re:Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of soci... by HalfwayToDice on Thursday June 15, 2017 @01:16AM (#14558061)
It embarrasses me to see such conspiratorial nonsense on this website.

There are many reasons why such things happen: coincidence, someone google the topic from the same router IP address, ad tracking on Googled websites, etc etc

The idea that one of the worlds largest companies would risk their entire business by secretly recording their users for ad revenue is absurd on almost every level.

Yet some people on HackerNew, a forum that self-selects to a highly educated/intelligent part of the community actually believes it.

It's mind-boggling.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of soci... by _jal on Thursday June 15, 2017 @10:08AM (#14560511)
> The idea that one of the worlds largest companies would risk their entire business by secretly recording their users for ad revenue is absurd on almost every level.

Right[1]. Nobody makes risky[2], ethically challenged[3] decisions[4] in business[5]. Ever[6]. Doesn't happen[7].

[1] https://www.recode.net/2017/5/11/15628924/alphabet-waymo-law...

[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/hampton-creek-serves-another-vega...

[3] http://fortune.com/2016/07/08/rise-fall-elizabeth-holmes-the...

[4] https://www.inc.com/business-insider/inside-lending-club-sca...

[5] http://fortune.com/2016/08/14/fraud-allegations-hud-skully/

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/technology/a-silicon-vall...

[7] http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-us-attorney-could-look-at...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of soci... by flukus on Thursday June 15, 2017 @02:26AM (#14558316)
> The idea that one of the worlds largest companies would risk their entire business by secretly recording their users for ad revenue is absurd on almost every level.

I'm with you on the skepticism, but they are one of the largest companies in the world because of ad revenue. It's not putting their business at risk, it is their business.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of soci... by colordrops on Thursday June 15, 2017 @08:11AM (#14559630)
It embarrasses me to see such horrible logic and head-in-the-sand thinking on this website.

Whether they record ambient audio or not, how is it implausible or out of character with everything else they do? Facebook and many other companies collect countless dimensions of data on users to profile them for marketing. Audio is just one more. It's not even really that disturbing or far fetched. Why would they ignore such a lucrative data source when they've already tapped so many others?

It's a direct business plan with Amazon's echo for christ sake. What is so hard to comprehend about this?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of soci... by fratlas on Thursday June 15, 2017 @02:30AM (#14558336)
Not wearing my tin foil hat, just reporting what I found when I tried to test it myself. Only our computers on the router, had never googled the topics.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Facebook’s Safety Check is a stress-inducing flip of soci... by seanp2k2 on Thursday June 15, 2017 @02:45AM (#14558390)
See my updated post just above. I just tried it with my Nexus 7 and saw nothing around mic uploads. Install Fiddler and MITM your Facebook app and repeat your experiment. I'm very curious to see if you find something different from what I found.
[ Parent | on HN ]