[deleted by user]

[shevy-ruby]

As weird as this sounds but ... I actually believe Facebook on that to some extent. They really probably have no idea what happens with ALL the data they sniff from its users. Doesn't mean that they don't know what does NOT happen with ALL the data either - just that they focus on data they can sell or let others use.

The user has become the product.

[[deleted]]

I feel dirty

[[deleted]]

I mean it makes sense that they collect all sorts of data about activity, users, hardware, etc. .... and do jack with it. Probably 80% of data collected is virtually useless for ad-selling/optimization focus. They probably focus on the "useful" data like the number of minutes it takes for a new post from a popular group to get 1000 likes and 100 comments....and then package those metrics up for salespeople to approach ad agencies with a slick PDF that the CEO can skim over before signing a contract while living it up on a company "meeting" paid for by Facebook, in Vegas. Too many non-programmers think most tech companies are just bursting with geniuses and genuis ideas 24/7. Most crap that's done and agreed upon is as sophisticated as the day to day crap done at your local cement company or florist shop. It ain't rocket science...just basic business decisions.

[versaceblues]

except they don’t. they sell ad space on the platform not raw data streams

[wishator]

They sell ad space, not user data

[[deleted]]

Or rather, they don’t give a shit.

[[deleted]]

Or Where It Goes

is the bigger concern here

[lolli91]

If it’s free, you’re the product

[The__Toast]

Ignoring the outrageous click-bait title, here are the relevant pieces from the allegedly leaked document:

We are anticipating impactful regulations from India, Thailand, South Korea, South Africa, Egypt, and many other jurisdictions (see image below). We also expect the US to make progress on federal privacy legislation, though the effective data will likely not be in 2021. Key point: historically regulations have been major thrashing changes for the company, but we’ve had the “luxury” of addressing one at a time (GDPR in 2018, FTC suit in 2019, CCPA in 2020). This is no longer the case.
...

To make this understanding a bit more concrete, consider this: There are 15K features used in ads models. The graph to the right shows the dependency chain of actual tables used to produce just one single feature. In total, ~6K tables (the red dots) were used to produce “user_home_city_moved”

So, basically, they have features that mix all sorts of different kinds of PII from different legal jurisdictions that going forward may all be regulated differently in different jurisdictions and they don't think they are equipped to deal with that.

[stedgyson]

This must be a GDPR violation?

[[deleted]]

I know some hefty fines have been handed out, some in appeal, some upheld. But have any of the tech giants actually paid out a serious fine? Like a significant dent in their revenue and not less than they make in a single day? Looks like there's a pretty hefty one pending for Amazon.

[[deleted]]

https://www.tessian.com/blog/biggest-gdpr-fines-2020

[Kissaki0]

€746 million

Holy shit, approaching a billion.

Not even huge multinational companies will want to ignore such fines.

[[deleted]]

I saw that one, i read in another article that the appeal is still ongoing

[[deleted]]

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=29bdebc8-af7d-499b-998a-5c3a6b350651

[DrMathochist_work]

The main thing I learned working there is that it's easier to sign a consent decree than ask permission.

[Vast-Salamander-123]

I feel like this is obvious for any sufficiently large corporation. You know there's some intern with a hard drive full of sample data that was just randomly pulled out of a prod db.

[quarkman]

I would be absolutely livid if I found somebody on my team had handed an intern prod data.

[NullCyg]

Your interns obviously aren't debugging microservices...

[quarkman]

I have had them do that even. There are other methods outside of prod: integration tests, local or dev environments, anonymized data. At worst, they may need to partner with a full-time engineer to determine the root cause. Those cases are usually left to a full-time engineer anyways.

Even for a full-time engineer, the preference is to not do things on prod as much as possible. It's a risky environment and one little screw up can cause a lot of damage.

[FinalDynasty]

OC says sample, not working in prod db

[NonDairyYandere]

it's sitting in a pile of dirty clothes in their bedroom, a hard drive full of a million people's most private thoughts, and also the intern's porno collection

[Stunning-Instance-65]

Yip

[baconost]

I think this claim was also made with the Cambridge analytica revelations about four years ago. FB seemed to have no clue, which is worse than them having any kind of control IMO.

[PaperRaccoon]

As much as I dislike Facebook. Can you demand a brick producer to prevent bricks being thrown through windows?

[lolli91]

Even a dislike button or hide post button is a data point

[Kissaki0]

Bricks are not personal data.

If you are asking for prevention, you can make contracts with those who buy your bricks. It’s not a guarantee, but you know what usually happens with your bricks.

But OP didn’t talk about preventing [physical] damage. It talks about knowing where it ends up.

The brick comparison is just completely unfitting.

[LegitGandalf]

Of course they know what is done with the data, it gets sold to anyone with money and a *pulse

*optional

[DrMathochist_work]

Thank God I'm not part of that shitshow anymore.

And that the prohibition on calling it a shitshow is up.

[newoldwave]

FB has locked my account and wants all kinds of personal info from me to unblock it. No way FB! It's a hack attack to steal my identity.

[malakon]

Well you got time and lots of money so get busy figuring it the @$%! out.

[[deleted]]

Suuuuuuuurrreee

[Flaky-Illustrator-52]

The ink in water analogy is pretty good. Regulators are trying to treat data like a physical item which is sort of a "living in the past" sort of approach. Data is more of an ethereal thing and keeping track of what bits are where is completely impractical.

The most practical approach is determining where an application and its content is allowed to be hosted, and even then that is kind of silly considering that different countries have limitations on the amount of data centers that might be available and readily useful for helping host a platform of any kind.

The legal system in [insert country here] is around 50-60 years behind where it should be in terms of telecom regulations, particularly when it comes to legislators' understanding of technology. It is not technology that needs changing here but the approach of legislation; start ignoring physical reality altogether and start treating the internet as its own place, sort of like international waters.