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A comment on Ask HN: Current and former FB employees, what's the other side to the story?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Current and former FB employees, what's the other... by untog on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @03:27PM (#19322422)
For one, Google and Apple would remove an app from the App/Play Store if it was abusing those privileges. My Digital Life would never have passed App Store approval in the first place, since it in no way demonstrated why it needed the amount of personal information it requested. Facebook clearly had no such monitoring.

Not to mention the scale of data is radically different. I'm not over the moon about someone uploading my phone number to an unknown service, but it's mild compared to someone uploading my phone number, friend network, wall posts, photos shared, likes, etc. etc. etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Current and former FB employees, what's the other... by librish on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @03:44PM (#19322571)
I'm not so sure that it wouldn't have passed AppStore review back in 2011, this was way before most privacy crackdowns began. It is also the case that the app claimed that this data would be used to analyze "your digital life" AND that it would be collected for research purposes only. Play Store definitely would've let it through.

As for the quality of the data. Right now any of your friends could have apps installed that are secretly leaking your private conversations with a third party and there is no realistic way for Apple or Google to know. That information seems more sensitive than what you linked. Why are you setting the bar higher for Facebook?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Current and former FB employees, what's the other... by untog on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @04:04PM (#19322770)
> Why are you setting the bar higher for Facebook?

The difference is this:

> there is no realistic way for Apple or Google to know.

There was a way for Facebook to know. The tool was using their own API, so they knew exactly what was being fetched and how often.

I'm also not sure why it matters. Let's say Apple and Google are just as bad, I don't particularly care. It doesn't make what Facebook did any less worthy of scrutiny.

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