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A comment on Facebook ordered to delete illegally collected data by Belgian court. Parent comment

Re:Facebook ordered to delete illegally collected data by Be... by briandear on Friday February 16, 2018 @01:19PM (#16394454)
Cal Pen Code § 646.9 . Stalking. (2008) (a) Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family is guilty of the crime of stalking...

In California, stalking requires both malice AND a credible threat to safety. Comparing Facebook or Google tracking to stalking is, at least in California, highly inaccurate.

There is actually no crime in following someone around. The crime happens when it's done maliciously and with the intent to create a reasonable fear. Facebook isn't trying to instill fear. That's not their intent at all.

To be clear, I'm not defending Facebook, I'm just calling out the hyperbolic nonsense that gets thrown around in these discussions.

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Re:Facebook ordered to delete illegally collected data by Be... by Crespyl on Friday February 16, 2018 @04:58PM (#16396841)
> Facebook isn't trying to instill fear

Except for when they're running psychological experiments designed to manipulate the emotional state of their users.

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Re:Facebook ordered to delete illegally collected data by Be... by wu-ikkyu on Friday February 16, 2018 @02:40PM (#16395319)
I would consider the mental/emotional manipulation of billions of people solely for monetary gain to be malicious. Fear is a cash cow for advertising. Your safety is indeed at stake when so much sensitive personal information is aggregated and centralized by anonymous persons and then sold to other unknown parties.
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Re:Facebook ordered to delete illegally collected data by Be... by danieldk on Friday February 16, 2018 @02:23PM (#16395139)
In daily use people (at least here) will also use the word 'stalking' for obsessively following a person physically or online.

Or if you want to stick to definitions:

verb (used with object)

5. to pursue (game, a person, etc.) stealthily.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stalking?s=t

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Re:Facebook ordered to delete illegally collected data by Be... by vonmoltke on Friday February 16, 2018 @03:49PM (#16396053)
People don't get punished for that definition of "stalking", which you specifically referenced in your first post.
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