Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by tremon on Thursday May 09, 2019 @11:12AM (#19868981)

This sounds to me like a backwards argument. The Cambridge Analytica scandal revolved around unsanctioned access to data. I don't think the premise of having an API was the problem, it was the lack of transparency and control offered to Facebook's users.

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Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by stickfigure on Thursday May 09, 2019 @12:27PM (#19869678)

unsanctioned access to data

You misunderstand what happened. 1) Users installed a quiz app, 2) Users explicitly accepted a permission dialog that included "information about your friends", 3) The quiz app saved this data, 4) Cambridge Analytica bought the app (and data).

If CA got your data, it's because one of your friends sanctioned the critical link in this chain.

Facebook at least provided this level of security, however illusory it may have been. In a decentralized system, anyone who touches a piece of data can pass it on to whoever they want. There is no way to enforce "my friends can look at my data but it's my data and they aren't allowed to pass it on".

Privacy advocates and decentralization advocates are mortal enemies; their only common cause is that it's popular to hate on Facebook these days.

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Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by hhjinks on Thursday May 09, 2019 @12:44PM (#19869816)

How is that not unsanctioned access? I can't get a mortgage in your name just because we're friends.

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Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by filoleg on Thursday May 09, 2019 @01:09PM (#19870076)

Correct, but your friends are more than capable of backing up their log of emails with you and handing it over to someone else. How is it not your friend’s fault?

And CA “leak” was way more tame than this, just the information displayed on your profile for all of your friends.

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Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by georgeecollins on Thursday May 09, 2019 @02:10PM (#19870647)

I think you are taking an example of a very dark pattern to say that we can't come up with reasonable rules.

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Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by nindalf on Thursday May 09, 2019 @11:33AM (#19869181)

Does your data about your date of birth belong to you or to both you and your friends? Ostensibly, it's very personal information, hence only to you. Right now you can set the visibility of your birthday on facebook so you control exactly who sees it. If you set it to private, no one can see it. But supposing you set it to "Friends", would you be ok with your friends downloading this data and keeping a copy for themselves? They'd do that because they'd think it's "their" data, which should remain accessible even if they left Facebook.

I can see arguments both ways. Some folks would be ok with it (they're your friends) and others wouldn't (you can't change the privacy setting on data that's already been downloaded).

Similarly with friends list. A person's list of friends is probably "their" data, even if it has your name on it. Would you be ok with them downloading this information?

The trade-off between control of some users and the privacy of other users is a complex issue. Let's not pretend there are simple answers to this.

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Re:Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook by pishpash on Thursday May 09, 2019 @01:47PM (#19870429)

There's a social norm aspect to this. It would be nice if you were notified when your data or your data residing with your friends propagate to other parties, a paper trail if you will.

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