
Zuck's live grilling on Facebook Live - vrbelli
https://www.facebook.com/gizmodo/videos/10156346578233967/
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keketi
I find it disappointing that many of the questions and Mr. Zuckerberg's
answers regarding content shared on Facebook focus on pictures and textual
messages. Very little discussion of gathering and use of PII such as name,
gender, sexual orientation, location, likes, interests and social
relationships. I believe these are the most valuable pieces of information to
advertisers and data miners.

~~~
malvosenior
Just a semantic nit pick on PII (personally identifiable information)...

Name is PII, location at a high enough resolution is PII. The rest are
metadata about an individual but not PII. Knowing someone is a straight male
doesn't tell you enough to identify a person.

This is relevant because GDPR (and other things) special case PII.

~~~
keketi
Thank you for the correction.

Also absent from the discourse is how much Facebook uses inferences from
behavioral data in building user profiles.

For example, let's say that I have not told Facebook my sexual orientation. Do
they attempt to infer that missing information from what content I view, for
how long and how frequently? Is such data shared with 3rd parties? Is it used
in ad targeting?

~~~
malvosenior
That would be interesting to know.

I'm probably in the extreme minority but I don't see anything wrong with them
selling data that people voluntarily give them (no one is forced to use FB --
I assume they'll be monetizing 100% of the information I give them), but I
would see an ethical issue with selling access to individuals based on
inferred data; to the person buying it that is. If I want to advertise to 25
year old straight females, I'd want that profile to be built on data that was
actually given to FB and not on "we kinda think this person matches that
profile but we're going to tell you you're 100% reaching this demographic".

I don't know enough about FB's ad model to know whether they're doing this
type of false advertising of their own product though.

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Bucephalus355
Senator: [question]

Zuckerberg: “...but it’s the only way we can reach BILLIONS of people!”

This super creepy line tells you all you need to know. Facebook is insane.
Their leader has lost touch with reality and the physical world. Karen Horney,
a psychoanalyst from the 1950’s, said that the final stage of psychosis is
when someone believes themself to be a god. I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg is
suffering psychosis, but what kind of person thinks, like some Egyptian
Pharoh, it’s their right to reach all the masses of the Earth?

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hacker_9
It's a bit annoying when half the questions are basically 'how does Facebook
work?'. Tech is still magic to most of the people asking the questions.

~~~
foobaw
I can't believe a senator asked "How does Facebook make money." I thought it
was a rhetorical question at first but the senator was like "Oh!" when Zuck
said "Ads."

~~~
protomyth
We've had a US Representative that worried about the island of Guam tipping
over because the Navy added personnel to the island, so I'm not often
surprised.

This actually points to a real failure of lobbying by the tech industry. Part
of lobbying is to inform the lobbying target and make them look reasonable
knowledgeable on camera. Ignorance is your problem, stupidity can be masked a
bit.

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notananthem
Congress is too old and clueless to ask smart questions. Zuck's acting all
Lore from Star Trek. FB stock is up just because people keep thinking they'll
beat this shit, which they won't.

~~~
Kiro
Pretty sure they will beat this very easily. The few friends I have that
actually raised concerns have already forgot it.

~~~
gkilmain
My wife, my parents, my inlaws, they all use FB. Haven't heard a peep from one
of them.

------
phnofive
Given the ire with Facebook, some users may choose to view this on C-SPAN:

[https://www.c-span.org/video/?443543-1/facebook-ceo-mark-
zuc...](https://www.c-span.org/video/?443543-1/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-
testifies-data-protection&live)

~~~
mtgx
Also the committee's page:

[https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/facebook-social-
me...](https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/facebook-social-media-
privacy-and-the-use-and-abuse-of-data)

Or any of the dozen or so YouTube livestreams. The Guardian has a good one
with no logos taking 1/4 of the screen:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZaec_mlq9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZaec_mlq9M)

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frlnBorg
There goes Zuck2020

~~~
akhilcacharya
I thought that after birtherism too.

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DavidBachmann
It is very frustrating how naïve and uninformed these senators are.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
I suggest going and having a conversation with them about Law. You may have a
different perspective then.

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deagle50
Was he instructed to begin every sentence with "Senator"

------
bdreadz
It's very painful to listen to the majority of our elected officials ask
technical questions.

~~~
rootusrootus
Eh, they're just like any other non-techie. It's us in the minority, not the
other way around. Elected officials are usually experts in law, or at least
psychology ;-)

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Findeton
This is blown out of proportion. The reason why people are leaving Facebook is
not political at all. It also has nothing to do with decentralization, by the
way.

Yes, people are leaving because of privacy, but not from advertisers but from
their parents! People are still using whatsapp, because it's easy and crystal
clear that when you send a message to a whatsapp group, only the people in the
group will see it. And it's not that people can't do that in Facebook, it's
just that perhaps the interface is not adequate for that.

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gressquel
please dont link to facebook.com. its on youtube

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ValJMOpt7s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ValJMOpt7s)

~~~
dkersten
Why is linking youtube ok but not facebook?

~~~
subie
There is no official rule about it. IMO YouTube is a little more open then FB
and FB may require you to login to view content.

~~~
aylmao
> FB may require you to login to view content

It's available without login, at least on The Verge's page
[https://www.facebook.com/verge/videos/1779024592133876/](https://www.facebook.com/verge/videos/1779024592133876/)

> IMO YouTube is a little more open then FB

Sigh. It's run by Google, please.

~~~
vincentperes
What was meant is that you can access most of Youtube's content without having
to log in, whereas of Facebook which requires you to be authenticated most of
the time to access content.

~~~
dkersten
In this particular case, it did not ask you to log in though, so there's
little difference.

------
zuckdrink
Drink everytime Zuck says AI or "That's a very important question"

------
dawhizkid
And yet FB stock up 5%

~~~
gressquel
The senators asking the questions are completely clueless. EU/GDPR will
properly deal with FB.

~~~
vinhboy
Every single congressional hearing is like this. They just sit there and
chastise the CEO... It's a PR stunt, public spectacle kinda thing.

All the real work is done by lobbyist in closed door meetings.

~~~
protomyth
For a lot of industries there is actual knowledge or a subject expert on the
staff. That is why a lot of folks actually have phone numbers for certain
staff of a Senator / Rep.

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vijaybritto
The dude is responsible for ruining the entire country and old people are
still joking and wonder in awe on his intelligence. Maybe because he might
give them donations in the future?

Also Ted Cruz?? Seriously??!

~~~
foobaw
Let's assume that Facebook helped get Donald Trump elected. (Whether this is
true or not, we'll find out). Are you saying Trump is ruining the country?

Then why does Facebook take the entire responsibility for "ruining" the
country? What about Donald Trump himself and Trump supporters in the U.S?

I feel like Donald Trump's persona and his supporters having an influence in
the country is way more complex issue than Facebook ad campaigns.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Then why does Facebook take the entire responsibility for "ruining" the
> country?

Arguably, because moral responsibility does not have to add up to 100%; an
actor which decided to pursue an activity whose harms to others are reasonably
foreseeable can bear full moral responsibility for those harms without in any
way diminishing the responsibility of other actors who also participated in
the same activity and for whom the results were also reasonably foreseeable.
(This is similar to the legal concept of joint and several liability.)

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dkersten
Senator: “Yes or no answer”

Zuckerberg: <launches into longwinded speech>

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StreamBright
He will be a great president.

