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Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by IAmGraydon on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @02:54PM (#29085832)
HN is bizarre sometimes. When this feature first appeared, everyone acted like it was the coming of the Antichrist. Now it’s going away and people have “mixed feelings”. I think people just love to hate big tech no matter what they’re doing.
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by jonas21 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:14PM (#29086082)
Or... maybe HN is composed of different people with different viewpoints.

People are more motivated to comment when they're upset about something, so it ends up looking like everyone here hates everything big tech does, when it may be that a small number of people hate decision X, a small number of people hate decision Y, and most people either like them or don't care.

You often hear complaints that big tech drives people to extreme viewpoints through algorithms. But the natural human algorithm of putting more effort into the negative than the positive seems to lead to the same outcome.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by zelon88 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @07:13PM (#29088794)
This. The biggest example I can think of to prove your point is Microsoft.

To provide a personal anecdote; I don't like using Microsoft products and always look for an open-source, unixy replacement when at home. I complain about Microsoft (products, economy, & policy) at almost every opportunity. And in the same breath I will wholeheartedly recommend the same Microsoft product that I personally wouldn't use to a client in need. The ubiquity and quality of Microsoft products is too significant to ignore. If I were to recommend one of my neckbeard alternatives I would certainly get support calls about it all the time.

But if you only ever went by my social media posts you would think I absolutely hate Microsoft and vehemently refuse to use their products. That's not the case. I just don't get excited enough about Microsoft as a business to go parroting their marketing and waving their flag. The good balances the bad enough that I stay with the brand, but human negativity bias still exists and I've got to complain. The product is too ubiquitous to ignore.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by rootusrootus on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:50PM (#29086540)
> Or... maybe HN is composed of different people with different viewpoints.

A useful concept for people to remember as it applies everywhere. Particularly as we get drawn into tribal politics, it would be better for people to remember that the opposition is not uniform and consists of many different viewpoints. For someone who wants to be divisive, it is trivial to cherry pick examples of bad behavior ("hypocritical") by pretending that those you disagree with must all share exactly the same priorities and opinions.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by wizzwizz4 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @05:27PM (#29087598)
Why pretend? If you genuinely believe it, the confirmation bias is likely to keep you from thinking about it enough to assess whether it's true. (Do you regularly re-assess whether the sky is blue, or whether you're wearing clothes? It's just there, background knowledge.)
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by rootusrootus on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @06:49PM (#29088562)
You are probably right, many people aren't pretending. They really do think their opponents are a monoculture. Convenient, I suppose, critical thinking takes effort.
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by wizzwizz4 on Wednesday November 03, 2021 @07:23AM (#29093181)
Yeah. None of my opponents do critical thinking; it's a good thing my lot do.
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by cecilpl2 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:19PM (#29086165)
This is also why it's much more valuable to look at user metrics than actual feedback when making design decisions.

Individual pieces of feedback can be valuable, but if you let it do the driving then you can end up making changes that worsen your product. You become subject to the will of the most vocal critics at any given moment.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by Karunamon on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:36PM (#29087013)
Be careful with this advice, though. Writing off feedback, as Mozilla does, can blow up in your face as you dismiss any and all criticism as being from a vocal minority of whiners.
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by darthvoldemort on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:03PM (#29086673)
Actually your comment is pretty bizarre.

You're distilling your impressions from thousands of people into a single sentence, and then you're taking a single person's response and using that to push your agenda that "people just love to hate big tech". It's fascinating that you think this is a valid observation on your part.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by telchar on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:36PM (#29087014)
I don't think there's a need to be confused here. Parent liked it when the tool empowered them, but most people don't like when tools give others power - potentially power over them. The difference in like/hate is in how the tool is deployed.

If the only use of facial recognition on Facebook were to track how one's own image is used I don't think many people would be upset. But allowing someone else to find every image one appears in is a different and scarier thing.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by romanhn on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:15PM (#29086096)
Or, you know, these are different people with different values and different sets of experience.
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by drusepth on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:35PM (#29086368)
And also, I'm sure the goalposts have moved a lot in the 3-5 years since this feature was announced.

At the time, facial recognition was almost sci-fi levels of absurd to envision, especially at scale. Nowadays, anyone can do their own facial recognition on laptop-level GPUs from freely-available open source software and every site that can use it, probably does use it in some form.

It's a lot more normalized now than it was.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by sonicanatidae on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:36PM (#29087017)
>I think people just love to hate big tech no matter what they’re doing.

Or, maybe companies have proven again and again and again and again and again that not only can they not be trusted with your data, but they don't secure it, because profits.

Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by baryphonic on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:04PM (#29086701)
Is there any one single representative of "HN" as a body of opinions?
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by jacquesm on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @05:39PM (#29087744)
Utilitarian arguments are a bad base for a discussion that is primarily about ethics.
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by ike0790 on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:35PM (#29087006)
lmao
Re:Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system by m0zg on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:24PM (#29086897)
I think assuming malice on the part of Zuck is a good default. It's as in that blockbuster movie "no matter who wins, you lose". The only winning move is not to play.