
Facebook is terrifying - jitbit
https://medium.com/@jitbit/facebook-is-terrifying-8dc4a016b64b
======
kordless
I deleted my Facebook account in 2010 after appearing in the Times regarding
technology addiction. It was my most time consuming social media application
at the time. For the article, they had me install an application tracker to
see how much time I spent in focus on a particular app. I was alarmed at how
often I checked Facebook chat.

Today, after much investigation, I've come to a hypothesis that technology's
purpose is to gently erode the concept of "self" as it grows in power and
scope. We drive this growth, but at the same time more than a few of us worry
about how the growth is affecting our "right" or "natural state" of privacy to
be who we want to be without blame or for someone speaking (in aggregate) to
what our actions may hold in the future. It _seems_ obvious privacy is a good
thing, because as long as privacy exists someone can't take your information
and do things _in private_ with it as they see fit. The more tech they have,
the more they can do with your data and the more they can "invade" your
privacy.

Facebook's accumulation of information is concerning, not so much from the
standpoint of the addiction that causes us to contribute to the quantity of
data, but from the standpoint of collective _thinking_ that arises from it.

I don't want to be part of a collection or be told to think _with_ the
collection. I want to be me and think about things that are important to
myself. I want to do that without anyone else telling me how to think about it
or speaking for what I know at a later date without knowing me.

~~~
gumby
You know you have an account anyway, right? FB makes and manages profiles of
people who don't have accounts, even of people who have _never_ had accounts.
They use this for their ad network, among other things.

LinkedIn does this as well. I don't know about others.

~~~
altern8tif
How does that even work? Where does FB (or LinkedIn) get the information from
that they can determine who you are even if you've never signed up for an
account?

~~~
DjangoReinhardt
It's called shadow profiling[0].

Even if you haven't signed up for a facebook account but someone you know has
an account, they by proxy, you have an account. Merely existing as a contact
in their address book is enough to create a shadow profile with facebook.
Their deep-learning algos can collate such data from all your friends and
serve you correspondingly appropriate ads.

In fact, I just thought of an experiment that you could try sometime.

1\. Buy a new cellphone number and store a small number of contacts (say,
about 5) in your phonebook. Make sure all 5 of them have functional & active
FB accounts.

2\. Install the FB app on the phone and grant it access to your phonebook.

3\. Open the app, create a new user and check out the list of suggested
friends.

I think you'll be surprised.

[0] [http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-shadow-profiles-
privac...](http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-shadow-profiles-privacy-faq/)

------
mmjaa
Its not just faces .. me and a friend had a little jam session recently and
posted a picture of our cool little setup, consisting of a few pocket-sized
machines (synthesizers and controllers) on our table in front of us. Just an
innocent little picture of our jam setup.

Within seconds of posting this picture of the machines, my friend was getting
targeted ads from the manufacturers of those devices - within seconds!

This was a watershed moment for us. We won't be posting much to Facebook in
the future .. far too scary for us!

~~~
jitbit
I had a similar moment (and ironically I'm a musician too).

I went to a bar, where a band was playing on stage... After a while I realized
I know the drummer. I played with him before, in another band, years ago. We
had a beer, chatted a bit and went home.

Now, we hadn't posted any pictures, nor statuses, we have no mutual friends on
facebook, no connection at all... Heck, Facebook DIDN'T EVEN EXIST when I last
saw him.

 _The second I got home the app suggested him as a friend_

Gosh this was scary.

(OP here)

~~~
guscost
Not to say this is definitely what happened, but he could have looked you up
on FB which might tip off the suggestions algorithm.

That's a whole other can of worms, of course.

~~~
Arkaad
Occam's razor, I agree. I've heard several times these kind of stories.

------
hacker_9
"If you're not paying, you are the product"

It used to be that the law couldn't catch up with the fast change in
technology, now it's us the people that can't keep up. All my friends using
Facebook don't comprehend what is going on, it's just pictures right? The idea
that FB is creating highly detailed profiles of every user, and selling them
to anyone who will pay, is just dismissed as a joke. What good can come from
this I wonder.

~~~
ohstopitu
That's because they are not selling those very pictures to anyone who'll pay.

They (facebook) are the middle men - people who have money come to them to
sell their product, and facebook knows who to show those products too.

your friends (and mine, and a huge percentage of facebook's userbase) trust
facebook enough for that to happen.

And it does not help anyone's cause when people say "X company (be it Google,
Facebook etc.) are selling your info".

~~~
freehunter
Yeah, as someone who has used Facebook for advertising, what they're doing is
pretty obvious and not really that nefarious IMO. When I set an ad, I get to
say "I want people within 10 miles of this zip code who like dogs, shopping,
sports, and breweries" and Facebook limits my ads to only that subset of
people. I don't get a list of their names, I don't even know who they are.
They just see my ad and I'm charged $1.

Whenever someone asks "what nefarious thing is this company doing with my
data?" the answer is rarely "something really, really bad!". Rather, it's
almost always "trying to sell you something".

~~~
mgamache
That's true, but Facebook knows the real names, and that targeting technology
could just as easily point to religious / political affiliations and personal
experiences.

FBI (via NSL):

"Hey FB, show me all the posts from right-wing pro-gun users in within 20
miles of X because we think there's something going on near there".

or

"Hey FB, show me all the people with pictures taken outside the US with Middle
East looking faces/names who are living in South East Michigan".

------
buro9
I am not on Facebook.

But that doesn't mean that I believe I am not on Facebook.

I am pretty sure that Facebook are able to construct most of the shell of me
from fragments provided by less careful friends or just strangers.

I imagine, and do not believe I am wrong, that Facebook have a ghost profile
already with photographs of me already associated, some preferences and
interests already in place.

A montage almost indistinguishable from the whole, or perhaps in some respects
better... have they got to 3d models for their Oculus universe yet?

They probably know my name, am I even a necessary part of that picture? What's
missing?

~~~
junto
Any friends of yours who have installed any FB application will have uploaded
your contact details. All FB needs to do is merge all of those profiles of you
from each of your friends and they will have a pretty accurate informational
profile. Since many people have also added a photo of you to their phone
contact entry, FB gets that too. Any time you visit a website that uses an FB
Plugin, for commenting or sharing, FB drop a ghost profile cookie against you.
If at any point you somehow leak your email address or cell number on one of
those sites, they can now tie that ghost profile to a real person, thanks to
your friends using FB, even when you don't.

------
bastawhiz
What is the proposed recourse? Ban Facebook from analyzing data that users
give it? I use Facebook's automatic tagging because I find it useful. Should
it be illegal for me to use this feature because someone might unintentionally
be identified in a photo that I took? Is the argument that Facebook--or any
other company--should never be allowed to develop software that could process
data that could identify folks, even when the data was willingly provided by a
user that's complying with the law?

I'm not arguing in defense of Facebook, I just don't understand what someone
that's privacy-minded would want. If I can legally take a photo, should I not
have the right to have a company analyze that photo on my behalf?

~~~
mattnewton
Not saying I agree, but an argument could be made that other people need to be
blurred before it is shared with a third party, if they have a legal right to
control images of themselves.

If you accept that people do have this right the logical conclusion is then
you are infringing and causing harm to them by taking their photo and sharing
it with Facebook. If you don't think people should have that right, I am not
convinced there is any infringement going on and this creepy database is just
the inevitable end result.

~~~
ftlio
Symmetric key encrypt the image, upload the encrypted image with the symmetric
key encrypted by your friends' pubkeys.

When you add a friend just append new pubkey encrypted symmetric key for each
asset. Friend removal is even more expensive and requires the client side to
reencrypt everything :(

I'm sure there are better cryptographic constructs out there with multi key
encryption that can alleviate some of the insertion and removal costs.

You could do it with decent trade-offs for the content provider as well. You
could obfuscate everyone else's face but yours and allow them to get access to
that image and then just encrypt the map for your friends. Of course then it's
all about just creating enough mock accounts to recover the full images
throughout the graph. Or just take custody of a user's keys in exchange for
features.

Still though, it's marginally more expensive to build a mass surveillance app!

------
chappi42
There is a '/etc/hosts' blocklist here:
[https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporatio...](https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporations/facebook/all)
in case you do not want facebook on your computer...

~~~
chrisper
But that doesn't address the issue mentioned in the article, unless everyone
around you uses that hosts file.

------
Animats
Once things get rolling, any visa overstayer who shows up in a Facebook photo
should expect a visit from ICE.[1][2]

[1] [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/14/illegal-
immi...](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/14/illegal-immigrants-
who-overstay-visas-almost-never/) [2]
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-vows-crackdown-
on-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-vows-crackdown-on-
immigrants-who-overstay-visas_us_57c329aee4b085c1ff29d437)

~~~
anigbrowl
Gonna be tricky when people peaceably assemble to block all the entrances and
exists of every building ICE operates out of.

~~~
sbierwagen
[https://theintercept.com/2017/01/19/republican-lawmakers-
in-...](https://theintercept.com/2017/01/19/republican-lawmakers-in-five-
states-propose-bills-to-criminalize-peaceful-protest/)

    
    
      Republicans in Washington state have proposed a plan to 
      reclassify as a felony civil disobedience protests that 
      are deemed “economic terrorism.”
    

Similar laws are being proposed in multiple states. You can protest, but don't
imagine you're immune from prosecution by a sufficiently annoyed DA.

~~~
anigbrowl
Oh I'm well aware of that. And I predict the more heavy-handed the attempts to
restrict protest become, the more people will come out to oppose them.

------
digi_owl
Facebook, Google, and likely others (observe Amazon with their Echo for
instance) are effectively trying to build an electronic Jeeves. But in the
process they are building up a dataset on every user that would make STASI
look like the keystone cops.

------
LyalinDotCom
I'm almost 100% positive that some of your best and brightest employees
working in critical divisions at Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc. are NSA
moles. I have zero proof but it's what I'd setup if I was part NSA leadership.
Just think about what that means for our data.

~~~
nerflad
Think about being one of the best and brightest hackers out there... why would
you want to work for the NSA? What incentive do you have, other than a
boatload of money? Isn't the regular, guilt-free FB boatload enough?

~~~
tmnvix
FB pay plus the substantial NSA bonus perhaps? Maybe also the added benefit of
access to NSA career networking (even assistance to land those top jobs in the
first place)?

All supposition on my part of course.

------
lettergram
That's why I ask my friends to tag themselves as me periodically and I tag
myself as them.

The neural network is all confused and now it tries to tag the wrong people.

~~~
aedron
More people should do this. And be thorough, agree to consistently tag the
same people with the same wrong tags.

------
xapata
It's not just Facebook. As more images become publicly accessible on the
internet, that capability will be available to many organizations and
individuals.

If that scares you, you should think about how we can protect ourselves from
tyranny without anonymity.

~~~
psyc
I wonder what will happen when it becomes possible to search the entire corpus
of nude selfies on the whole internet, by name.

~~~
56854639846346
Last year facial recognition was used [1] to out porn stars in Russia. Today
Google Image Search will return real names (or alleged real names in cases of
mistaken identity) for many selfies of people who were doxxed at some point.
We're not that far from this.

[1] [https://advox.globalvoices.org/2016/04/22/facial-
recognition...](https://advox.globalvoices.org/2016/04/22/facial-recognition-
service-becomes-a-weapon-against-russian-porn-actresses/)

------
l33tbro
I can't get into my Facebook account right now because it's prompting me with
a request to provide government-issued ID (eg, drivers license, passport) to
verify me. Suffice it to say, I am no longer on Facebook.

~~~
pravda
How did that happen? I have a 'fake' Facebook account (the only kind I'd ever
have!) and I wonder what it would take for Facebook to ask for 'verification'.

~~~
rxlim
I have found these ways for Facebook to require verification:

1\. Created a fake account in one country and used it a few times, then many
many months later I tried to login from another country and Facebook promptly
required government-issued ID.

2\. Created another fake account and changed the E-mail address after a few
days and Facebook promptly required government-issued ID.

It makes me really happy that so many are deleting their Facebook account, or
at least trying to use it less.

------
BigChiefSmokem
I've been using Facebook since college (circa 2005). Never "hidden" my profile
from anyone or the public. Never deactivated anything or deleted a post.
Recruiters and acquaintances look up my profile all the time. Still, I have
never had the data I've given them come back to haunt me. I still trust
Facebook leadership very much in this regard. Maybe it's because I trust
myself and how I utilize the technology. Or maybe it's because I am cut from
the same cloth as them when it comes to technology and I understand it at a
very instinctive level. In light of the recent election, at this point I
wouldn't trust any other entity with that kind of data (like Amazon, who seems
to use my data to raise prices on me, frequently). In fact, I would wish
Facebook to contract with and take over identity management systems (ie.
social security, drivers license) away from local and federal government - not
to dictate policy but just to dictate infrastructure. I really don't care
about privatization or policy in a general sense, just progress in this
regard.

10 years later I still don't get the point of these articles besides fear
mongering and at most to provide a technological challenge to engineers and
developers on "the other side". I understand ad-blocker companies are fighting
a messy war right now with both content and ad providers. I guess that is
another way, albeit much slower, way to achieve progress. Hacking goes both
ways.

~~~
Sir_Substance
>Still, I have never had the data I've given them come back to haunt me.

Are you sure? Facebook has a patent on lowering your credit score based on who
is in your friends list[1]. They also feed data to credit score companies who
directly examine your posts and use it to tweak your credit score yet
further[2].

It's totally possible that your use of Facebook has affected your ability to
buy a car or house, or get a job[3]. The lifetime cost of your mortgage could
be $20,000 higher than it need be due to your use of Facebook. Maybe you got
passed over for that job that would have been in the perfect place for raising
your new child, due to your posting. How would you know? Did you really think
they were going to tell you?

Maybe you're not at a time in your life where these things have happened to
you yet, but I have bad news. The data you've submitted to Facebook will
_never_ be deleted. It's invisible baggage, following you everywhere.
Honestly, you have no real idea of what impact it's having on your life,
because it's not in the interest of any of that data's consumers to tell you
what they are doing with it.

[1] [https://qz.com/472751/facebooks-new-patent-lets-lenders-
reje...](https://qz.com/472751/facebooks-new-patent-lets-lenders-reject-a-
loan-based-on-your-friends-credit-scores-but-dont-freak-out/) [2]
[http://www.ajc.com/news/national/how-your-facebook-
profile-c...](http://www.ajc.com/news/national/how-your-facebook-profile-can-
affect-your-credit/dGASsQw6MBsxjspFdzwoZK/) [3]
[https://www.creditkarma.com/article/why-some-employers-
check...](https://www.creditkarma.com/article/why-some-employers-check-credit-
history-1014152)

~~~
lisper
> It's totally possible that your use of Facebook has affected

The really scary possibility is that your _non_ -use of Facebook has
negatively impacted your credit score.

My (mostly) non-use of LinkedIn (which is even worse than FB IMHO) has almost
certainly had a negative impact on my career.

~~~
Sir_Substance
It's definitely something I have a serious concern over. I also have serious
concerns about certain types of personal account being required for
employment. I have personal microsoft, github and google accounts that I don't
want, but had to create because I had to access msdn/github/google cloud
console or I would not be employable. None of them provide a mechanism where
my employer can open an account under the name of the company (so I bear no
liability), bestow it upon me as a work asset, and then revoke it when I
leave. AWS provides this in the form of access keys which are god damn great,
but they're an exception.

At some point, we will have to start auditing and regulating the
responsibility that companies owe to society once they come to dominate a
field. There's a scary chance that LinkedIn might capture almost all the
professional job market. Once that happens, we /need/ to be able to audit them
to ensure they are fully complying with witness protection requirements, and
to make sure their algorithms don't contain race biases.

Look forward to that one being the hot topic of 2025's legal circles.

------
shahocean
The data accuracy is terrifying, really. Also, I visited shopping centre last
week and in the next morning, I got Facebook Notif asking me if I would like
to review the visit. I felt very annoying.

The problem is real.

~~~
CommanderData
Annoying? That's terrifying and I'd feel terrified.

------
wellpast
Anyone know this technology well enough to know if sunglasses and a scarf of
some sort would prevent my being recognized if not making me look somewhat
silly or suspicious.

~~~
hacker_9
You may be interested in the movement against facial recognition [1].

[1] [https://cvdazzle.com/](https://cvdazzle.com/)

~~~
mrtksn
My iPhone camera face detection was able to detect some of the camouflaged
examples instantly.

~~~
confounded
Worth making the distinction between a human face in general, and the face of
a specific human.

------
pimeys
And people are always wondering why I ask them to delete pictures of me if
they take them without me stopping them first. Been doing that for years just
because I don't want my face to Facebook or Instagram...

------
makecheck
What made me stop caring about Facebook is how damn sneaky they try to be to
keep you from logging out or turning pretty much anything off. It's really
easy to accidentally leave things on, and stuff like chat can decide to turn
itself back on.

Awhile back I noticed that fewer and fewer Facebook pages offered any of the
top menu items (including "log out"), requiring you to be more and more
explicit about _which_ Facebook page you were viewing to even _see_ a way to
log out. I am sure the idea is to have you "accidentally" stay logged-in and
then view half the Internet so they can track you.

The final straw for me is that now I see no log-out link AT ALL, not even if I
reenter the root facebook.com into my browser to go to the home page (which
used to restore the links on top). There is now no apparent way to log out
without killing my browser so I am done with them.

------
conradev
Would Facebook's facial recognition work as well in an airport or train
station scenario? It is definitely an easier problem to recognize one face out
of a few hundred or few thousand (your friends) than it is to globally match
across their entire database.

~~~
jitbit
Well, considering all the computing power they have (more than 100k servers
across dozens of datacenters - and that data is from 2010) this is not a
problem.

Hell, they can even quickly detect copyright infringement a posted video
right? Ever posted a video with some background music? I don't think computing
power is a problem...

~~~
DennisP
The problem isn't computing power, it's algorithm accuracy. If there are
thousands of people who are a close-enough match to your face, then when they
see your face in a random crowd at a train station, they don't know which of
those people you are.

To fix this they'd probably need other heuristics, which for all I know
they're already using. An easy one would be to narrow it down by location,
though sometimes that'd be wrong. A more sophisticated method would be to
build a model of human movement, keep track of locations where they have high
confidence it's you (e.g. in pics of you in small groups with your friends)
and combine these into an estimate of the probability of each candidate match
being at the train station.

~~~
dreamfactory2
There are companies who are selling tech that will recognise a person rapidly
walking past in a conference crowd (had it demoed to me), so yes the tech is
definitely capable now

~~~
DennisP
That's still a small population to choose from.

------
togg
I use facebook.com as a tool for networking just as I would LinkedIn, no app,
no messenger, just the site. I know people who don't need facebook at all, I
know others that use it to share their creative content and others that just
post useless articles. However it is still a tool for many, if you don't want
it to collect a massive profile of yourself either limit the amount of posts
you share online or don't use it at all. I don't understand the massive
fallout of facebook on HN, the 'collective think' mentioned earlier and
companies like Cambridge Analytica seem like bigger issues than the data
facebook collects itself.

~~~
intopieces
Facebook collects information about you whether you use it or not.

------
thomyorkie
> Even if you’re extremely cautious, even if you never post anything on
> Facebook, even if you have “location services” disabled on your phone at all
> times etc. etc. Facebook still knows where you are. You can’t stop other
> people from taking selfies in an airport.

This seems a bit over the top. What are the odds I'll end up in the background
of someone's selfie that they post on Facebook? I imagine the chances are
incredibly small. And if I choose to take a picture with someone, I just have
to be aware that it may end up on social media and be OK with the baggage that
comes with that.

~~~
OJFord
> _What are the odds I 'll end up in the background of someone's selfie that
> they post on Facebook_

Uh, pretty high? Depending where you live, I suppose.

I frequently find myself in _front_ of someone seemingly 'selfy-ing', and
always feel slightly uncomfortable since it looks exactly as if they're taking
an ordinary photograph of _me_.

I'd have only to be behind instead of in front of them in order to be in their
'selfie' (assuming that is what they're doing!) - and I'd have thought that
would happen even more often than being in front, assuming some of them feel
just a modicum of embarrassment at the ridiculousness of the activity.

------
newscracker
> a little privacy tip: use Facebook in mobile Safari, with an adblocker, and
> delete the iOS native app — helps a lot AND saves you from tons of ads and
> 3rd party cookie tracking. Not to mention wonders for the battery. I’m sure
> there’s a similar solution for Android.

This is how I use it on my phone. I don't use the app because the app cannot
be trusted with any specific permissions I provide with the belief that it
won't be misused or that more data won't be collected.

> On a desktop — use an extension like Disconnect to block 3rd party cookie
> tracking.

On a desktop/laptop, I have it a lot better. I use Firefox with uBlock Origin,
Privacy Badger and a few more extensions (like removing the Facebook link
redirector PHP script from links within FB).

------
uranian
I am still totally amazed by what people share from their private life FOR
FREE on Facebook. If you want to beat Facebook you only have to make a similar
platform that actually pay people for posting their private stuff. Would be a
nice startup :)

~~~
grzm
That's one way to look at it. I think you'd admit that this _isn 't_ how a lot
(if not most) people look at it. Facebook and other platforms provide them a
convenient way to share their parts of their lives with their friends and
family. Reasonable people can view this same situation differently.

You're almost assuredly right that there are still opportunities out there in
this space. I do think paying people to post would change the dynamic: it
would change what and how often people would post. It's definitely an
interesting problem!

------
samirillian
I like how he doesn't get around to actually suggesting that you get rid of
Facebook.

------
jgalt212
Every claims to not use facebook anymore (in no small part due to posts like
this), but at every quarterly earnings report the daily and monthly active
users continue to grow.

So where's the disconnect?

~~~
doctorshady
Part of that is probably Facebook getting into more emerging markets that
previously had limited connectivity - probably why they're getting into the
infrastructure business.

But you certainly don't hear people talking about Facebook any less in the
States, yeah. Maybe the demographics that use it most don't read the sources
that put out these sorts of pieces?

------
myrandomcomment
How many people here have a Facebook account? I never have. I tried and liked
G+ because it was more focused, but that died. My wife has a FB account and it
is funny I hear updates about my friends that live out of state from her!

I have a number of friends that work there. They keep trying to get me to
join. The running joke is that I ask "does it require me to use Facebook?"
Them: "Yes" Me: "Sorry that's a deal breaker." :)

FB is doing some really cool stuff in the networking space with OCP.

------
nojvek
Google is not any better either. I see a website about loan rates and it's
blasting me with bank loans. Everything I do on the Internet is being tracked.
A profile of me is developed and I get precision targeted. It's like they have
an AI that will do anything to make you click an ad.

Nothing you do is safe on the Internet. I sometimes get a feeling that may be
Chrome itself is tracking every website you visit and what you click.

------
skywhopper
Agreed with the general thrust of the article, but the oft cited stat that
Facebook's algorithm beats a person's mother is misleading. The test was very
narrowly defined and in any case it does not reveal how often false positives
happen when you are matching more than one person, which anecdotally in my
experience happens way more often than the stats suggest.

------
loup-vaillant
And the article is _not_ advising us all to quit Facebook as soon as possible?

In a way, this is even more terrifying than the content of this article.

------
randomsearch
Everyone on HN should read "To Save Everything: Click Here":

[https://www.amazon.com/Save-Everything-Click-Here-
Technologi...](https://www.amazon.com/Save-Everything-Click-Here-
Technological/dp/1610393708)

I don't entirely agree with it, but it's a much needed contrarian viewpoint.

------
Sami_Lehtinen
If they're unsure about the identity being provided, they'll just suspend your
account until you provide copy of legal official government issued
identification. That's a way to make sure that identities aren't getting mis-
presented and users can't utilize pseudonyms.

Note: A generic comment about these spy (social) networks.

------
azinman2
Article says nothing new and barely had a coherent story arc.

Wish I could downvote articles. This is click bait.

~~~
grzm
For submissions, you can flag them.

------
reddytowns
Maybe a photo app should be created that pretended to be the camera and would
mash up faces, mix parts of old photos and recorded images of deep learning
"dreams" and passed them off as photos to help poison the fb database

------
aeturnum
I agree with the jitbit that we should consider the impacts of the growing
global facial recognition system, but I find the focus on Facebook puzzling.

Facebook is one of the companies that seems like the best keepers of this
data. They are committed to keeping their data private - because that's how
they make money. They make much more though building accurate profiles and
selling ads to demographics than giving away the goose.

A state actor can demand access to Facebook's database - just like they can
demand access to anyone else's.

I think Facebook is a fairly mundane company using a terrifying new technology
in distinctly benign ways. They've given us a glimpse of the power of the tech
while not obviously abusing it. On balance, I'm pretty happy about that.

~~~
thinkloop
There aren't many companies that have the capability of doing this. You not
only need billions of images (which not many companies have access to), but
the accurate and active tagging of those images - of which Facebook is one of
an extreme few.

------
lyra_comms
Try Lyra instead! We're a nonprofit focussing on control and a respect for
language and conversation. www.hellolyra.com

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codecamper
sounds like the plan then is to confuse facebook's deepface. Just mis-tag
everybody you know & care about.

------
given
I can tell you what is wrong with the world and Facebook. It is that you all
think that you are a bunch of animals waiting to die. And all you can do is to
squeeze that tomato to get as much pulp as possible until you hit the fan. It
is your faith or lack thereof that makes you worry about everything because
you feel so helpless facing a world that is trying to rip you off on every
possible level.

------
newtorob
I don't have facebook, not since 2009. But my wife has facebook...

Therefore, I basically have facebook.

------
godelski
For Android you can use Firefox and ublock origin. FF allows you to use add-
ons.

------
adrianlmm
"Facebook is terrifying... for my bussiness"

Google.

------
BoringAsian
Facebook is terrifying. Bit of a leading statement...

------
jeffrey-sean
It's not as easy for many to just delete their Facebook account. For instance,
people use it for their jobs, to find work, or even to use the Facebook
Workplace app. For some, it's a cheap and efficient way to communicate with
friends or family. However, I agree that it's critical to mind what data you
share on Facebook.

People post so many things, and they don't realize how the data is being
interpreted, or how it could be taken out of context and viewed the wrong way.

For people who do decide to use Facebook, check out this app to find any posts
you might not want to be associated with your account:
[https://wwwrepnup.com](https://wwwrepnup.com)

------
daadaa
Facebook, rogue money grabbing service.

------
daadaa
Facebook had blocked peoples account if they have different opinions and thats
just is big no no. I prefer services where I don't have to be thinking what
facebook is thinking of my post.

People please get out of these internet ghettos where they restrict your
"freedom of speech" to zero.

Facebook, so gone!

------
arjie
Yo, how do you guys survive with all of these things being terrifying and
scary? Do you live in a world with a perpetual fear response and adrenalin
running all the time? Like, you walk down the street and there's a security
camera and you're terrified?

I can't imagine someone lying in bed terrified at the thought that someone
somewhere took a selfie with them in the background. That doesn't sound normal
at all.

~~~
zeroer
You're right; it's not normal. That's the problem.

------
spectrum1234
I expected this article to be with all the political garbage that is posted
now that Trump is president.

------
65827
If only there were some way to avoid Facebook's nightmarish hellscape of
intimate monetization. Hmmm, I can't think of any, guess that's it let's just
throw in the towel boys.

------
kleanestcannest
I truly wonder what the _net value_ or profit is for the average Internet
user, at least, in it's current form.

Will all this tracking, suggesting, snooping and profiling really improve our
world?

