Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by Latteland on Monday June 04, 2018 @11:13AM (#17228509)

No, you are wrong, this is a pretty egregious mistake. They defined device makers as service providers, and then allowed them to do things that even third parties weren't allowed. Yet they claimed they shut that stuff off to third parties (so they lied by omission). "No, we don't allow third parties anymore to do that kind of stuff" (but there's this large group that can do it, but we aren't calling them third parties). This wasn't just another way to get at the data. The NYT article goes into some detail about what they allowed them to do.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by zaroth on Monday June 04, 2018 @11:47AM (#17228998)

This is like saying that Chrome, Edge or Firefox are “third parties”.

Embedding user agent functionality into the OS is not the same as third party access.

Talk to me when a device manufacturer is caught exfiltrating this user data off the phone and then aim your pitchforks at them.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by cyberpunk0 on Monday June 04, 2018 @11:54AM (#17229115)

Google, Firefox, and Edge are not Facebook so yes they are third party.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by cjhopman on Monday June 04, 2018 @02:37PM (#17230733)

And does it upset you that when a user signs into facebook in one of these browsers, facebook allows the browser access to that user's data and even data of that user's friends? Even when those friends have explicitly disabled sharing of facebook data with third parties?

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by wooter on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @09:35AM (#17237427)

HN has reached a level of popularity where its attracted too many non-engineers that love jumping into these threads with ignorant, reactionary, hyperbolic responses. every post on uber/tesla autopilot has at least a few people calling for elon to be tried for manslaughter for car accidents. really shows the stupidity of the mob. this thread is another great example. if only it were benign and didn't have real, foolish policy implications like the GDPR

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by zaroth on Monday June 04, 2018 @11:58AM (#17229169)

That’s not what the term means. User agents which render Facebook UI components are not “third parties” to my Facebook data anymore than my monitor manufacturer is a third party to my Facebook data while I am viewing the pixels in the screen.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by hvis on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @10:00AM (#17237618)

> my monitor manufacturer is a third party to my Facebook data

It actually is. Your monitor, on the other hand, can be considered a part of yourself for the purposes of viewing the data.

If it somehow sends sensitive information back to its manufacturer, thought, that would be a new, different can of worms.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by fjsolwmv on Monday June 04, 2018 @12:21PM (#17229400)

They are the second party -- the user.

Facebook never has any interaction with the human user, they only interact with the user agent.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by laythea on Monday June 04, 2018 @01:40PM (#17230154)

So they basically relied on us not reading the small print. And we didn't. There should be laws against small print technicalities like that.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by hackinthebochs on Monday June 04, 2018 @11:27AM (#17228661)

>They defined device makers as service providers, and then allowed them to do things that even third parties weren't allowed.

Because they're not third parties. Third parties are anyone off the street that meets some minimal requirements. It's like the distinction between third party and second party releases on video game consoles. Second party releases are extensions of the first party publisher because of the special access and extra scrutiny they get. The difference in this case is that this "special access" is apparently no different than what you get from the website through scraping HTML, just in a more convenient manner.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by KaoruAoiShiho on Monday June 04, 2018 @11:38AM (#17228859)

The user is the second party dude.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by closeparen on Monday June 04, 2018 @01:24PM (#17229999)

The user doesn’t manipulate the EM spectrum with his mind, but through user agent hardware, firmware, and software. The client stack necessarily has the same access he does.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by thinkling on Monday June 04, 2018 @02:38PM (#17230742)

Yes, so it might be OK for software written by a third party to access FB with the second party's authentication and privileges, when running on the second party's device.

But that doesn't make it OK for that data to be stored on the third party's servers or be otherwise available to the third party.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by seanhunter on Monday June 04, 2018 @01:51PM (#17230251)

That's not what third parties means. Third parties means parties other than the service provider and the user.

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Re:Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users ... by hackinthebochs on Monday June 04, 2018 @07:37PM (#17233661)

Third party has never meant anyone who is not the first party. Special agreements between companies alter this status.

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