

Ask HN: Do you trust Facebook after lying? - sonier

It is now widespread news that facebook <i>may</i> have leaked old private messages. Facebook has denied this, claiming that “Facebook engineers examined the situation and confirmed that the messages in question were old postings, which had previously been visible on the users' profiles” (http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/935300.aspx). I and several friends have confirmed that the leak is infact real, we have found some of our previous chats being displayed publicly on our timelines and the timeline of friends.<p>HN: How would you react to this? Forget it as a mistake or is it time to move away from facebook?
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milkshakes
I'd love to see this. So far I've heard a lot of people make this claim yet
nobody has produced any evidence of it.

~~~
sonier
An interesting point is made here: [http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2012/09/facebook-
private-message-le...](http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2012/09/facebook-private-
message-leak.html) "... many users who are still adamant the messages they saw
were private and claim that Facebook is just trying to cover up its mistake by
calling them all crazed liars."

I guess I am in that group, I strongly believe some of the messages I saw were
originally private. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to prove this.

~~~
milkshakes
sure there is. it's called email.

every time you get a facebook message, you get an email. as late as 2009,
those emails included the full content of the message.

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klaut
yes, but some people clean up their mailboxes. I know I do. Specially with
something as spammy as FB email notification back in 2009. I did check my
timeline and some messages there DO look like they HAD to be private - no way
those kind of information would be posted on my wall. Unfortunately, i do not
keep FB emails from 2009 anymore. I guess many can't prove because of this
fact - deleted fb notifications from 2009/2008

~~~
milkshakes
Totally. What's unfathomable to me, however, is that in the age of Gmail, in
this ocean full of strident accusations, not a single person has been able to
produce something like this. That's all it would take.

~~~
GFischer
Okay, I just checked, I have over 3.000 archived Facebook emails.

I just have to find some private post on my timeline, the corresponding email
and write a blog post?

~~~
matthewowen
It shouldn't be hard. The email contains the body of the message. So search
for the message.

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yen223
That...is a really loaded question.

Like many people have mentioned, no one offered any proof that the "leaked"
messages were actually private, rather than wall-to-wall posts that they
_assumed_ were private.

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daimyoyo
I haven't trusted Facebook since Beacon. And I never will again. I never put
anything on my page I'm not comfortable with the entire internet seeing.

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autophil
No. I don't trust Facebook, but then again, I haven't trusted Facebook in a
long time (which is why I deleted my account).

Except that my account isn't deleted even when Facebook said they would after
14 days. That's just one example.

But the reason why the very liberty of citizens of the United States is under
threat is because people aren't willing to stand up to what is right if it's
inconvenient for them. They will instead rationalize and look for more proof
and stick their heads in the sand.

HN is chock full of these people.

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countessa
I never "trusted" facebook in the first place. There is always a tacit
understanding, in my opinion, in using free services, that they control the
data that you put in there. As long as you use the service with that in mind,
you're good. I never used facebook much, but even in the PM, I would never
write anything more than a "hey, how are you? can I drop you an email?".....

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codegeek
I hate to bash fb but the truth is that it keeps spamming me at my _old_ email
asking me to join fb even though I am already a fb member using a _new_
email.And these are not 2 different accounts. All I did was to update my email
address.

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zem
if you still trust facebook after all the changes they've made to the privacy
system, i don't see why lying about this should change much. i think many
facebook users (and almost certainly the majority here on hn) use facebook
because that's what their friends and family are talking on, but don't trust
it.

