
A valuable lesson from Randi Zuckerberg: Online privacy is complicated - iProject
http://gigaom.com/2012/12/26/a-valuable-lesson-from-randi-zuckerberg-online-privacy-is-complicated/
======
daeken
As an avid FB/Twitter/Instagram/everything user, privacy is _not_ a hard
problem to deal with: if you put something on the internet, assume that
everyone will see it and know it's you. It's as simple as that.

This applies to your job search, family photos, embarrassing music, nude
photos, and just about anything else. If you don't want it to be seen by the
world, _don't share it_. At the end of the day, _your_ privacy is _your_
responsibility.

~~~
tsieling
That's an easy if weak way to deal with a human reality and the failures of
tech design to accommodate it. How does it work for information about me that
other people gather? Like medical records? Is that my responsibility as well?

~~~
res0nat0r
That isn't a technology problem, it is a people problem.

~~~
001sky
_That isn't a technology problem, it is a people problem_

== & That's why we cant have nice things

------
orangethirty
Feels like marketing to me. All of the necessary items are there:

    
    
        {
         "Important FB person" : "The sister.", 
         "Reporter" : "The lady on twitter", 
         "media" : "the \"private\" photo on FB", 
         "friendly resolution" : "reporter took it down", 
         "what is being sold" : "The Poke"
        }
    

Of course, they will never admit to it. Viral marketing usually follows a very
precise pattern.

------
jondiggsit
It's complicated because advertising companies profit from networks that are
open and visible.

Facebook's privacy controls used to be very straight-forward and easy to use.
Starting with Beacon, etc. Facebook's strategy has been to make it as
complicated and time-consuming as possible in the hopes that you will just
acquiesce and allow them to profit from your personal information and online
social interactions.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Facebook's made a lot of mistakes but I disagree with you pretty completely
here. It doesn't help your case that Facebook just last week released a new
dedicated privacy menu that is exceedingly nice, simple, straightfoward. It
goes out of its way to summarize your privacy settings for you.

~~~
jamesmcn
I'm not sure I agree completely with either of you.

Instead, I prefer to not attribute to malice what can be attributed to
stupidity. Or too many people deploying features willy-nilly.

~~~
rhizome
It could also be a business model that is unwieldy to implement.

~~~
rayiner
Or a business model that is fundamentally based on exploiting your personal
information.

~~~
rhizome
Of course, but maintaining the perception that it's harmless to continue to
contribute it is the hard part.

------
el_cuadrado
> To be fair to Facebook, figuring these kinds of nuances out isn’t easy

God damn it, it is called ACLs. Not exactly a rocket, or even computer
science.

~~~
e1ven
The problem here is the picture was originally shared with someone who had
permission to see it. That person then saved the file to their machine, and
re-posted it to twitter.

That is not a technological problem.

~~~
el_cuadrado
The person who did all this was not supposed to see the original picture. The
whole thing happened because of sharing, tagging and mutual friends. It is a
technological problem.

------
asdfdsa1234
Is this guerrilla marketing for their new "Poke" app?

~~~
businessleads
That was my first thought. The picture is quite expressive.

------
samstave
The hypocrisy is strong with this one.

While I have never had an FB account, nor shall I, I find these situations all
laughable at how pompous the FB 'elite' are.

~~~
untog
How do you tell if someone doesn't have Facebook?

They'll tell you.

~~~
samstave
I feel that it is contextually relevant when I am commenting on FB related
stories. It is not as I am bragging as much as it is a disclosure of my
perspective.

~~~
rhizome
Yet we still learn that you like Star Wars a lot.

~~~
samstave
?

I don't recall posting anything Star Wars related on HN pretty much ever...

Are you sure you're not confusing me with someone else? Or are you recalling a
post I can't right now?

~~~
rhizome
"The...is strong with this one," is a Star Wars reference.

------
rhizome
A valuable lesson from Callie Schweitzer: Do whatever you want with whatever
you find.

~~~
iProject
I'm not sure that a fair characterization of her motive, not at least as she
tweeted her apology:

"@randizuckerberg I'm just your subscriber and this was top of my newsfeed.
Genuinely sorry but it came up in my feed and seemed public."

Screenshot source: [http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/mark-zuckerbergs-sister-
comp...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/mark-zuckerbergs-sister-complains-of-
facebook-pri)

~~~
rhizome
I wasn't speaking to her motive, only the act. Do what you naturally want to
do with whatever enters your sphere of attention. It's not our job to run FB's
security, so not a second thought should be given to anything that slips
through.

------
grogenaut
BWAHAHAHAHAH

