
Big Data Could Cripple Facebook - iProject
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/30/big-data-could-cripple-facebook/
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octo_t
The idea of an employer _needing_ to judge me based on what I say/do on
Facebook makes me really uncomfortable.

Facebook is _my_ social life, not the company's time or anything, and if I'm a
decent worker + programmer just let me be? For example I swear a lot on
facebook about certain current events, should I stop simply because some HR
person in 2 or 3 years might look/analyse my profile and see that I use
profane language?

~~~
niggler
Lets say your Facebook page was public and you rant about the company you are
working for. Do you think future employers won't wonder if you will do the
same if you join them?

Lets say you write something about a topic that shouldn't be discussed (wasn't
there a rape case that was clinched because of social media?). Who would want
to risk potential backlash in the future?

While you may think its your social life, Facebook definitely has enough reach
that statements made by you could reflect poorly on your employer as well as
on you.

~~~
mtgx
What does "public" mean? I haven't used Facebook in like 2 years, so I don't
know how their new subscribe/follow model works. Would the employer be able to
just "follow" him without "friending" him and still see what he said?

~~~
onemorepassword
Putting something on Facebook means giving it to a company you're not paying
and you certainly have no contract with to securely and privately store your
data.

So you can safely much assume anything you put on there can be made public or
at least shared with others at any given time without your consent. The model
can change at any time, and of course there is that lovely incentive called
"profit".

Handing over any data to Facebook and expecting it to remain "private" is
extremely naive.

~~~
superuser2
Of course, this is also true of your ISP, your cell carrier, your email
provider, and every electronic communications system ever (except GPG).
Facebook has no more reason to sell your messages and status updates than they
do, and ad targeting does not cause your data to leave Facebook's servers.

~~~
niggler
"ad targeting does not cause your data to leave Facebook's servers."

What reason is there to believe that facebook wouldn't explicitly allow third
parties to pay a fee and see your "private" information"

~~~
superuser2
<https://www.facebook.com/ads/create/>

Facebook's ad targeting options are out there in the open for everyone to see.
This is what you get if you pay Facebook. Where would they advertise your data
without getting caught? Are Facebook and your boss part of some special club
you've never heard of? And if you were Facebook, would you take that risk?

I can't prove that they won't sell my data, but you can't prove that Verizon
won't sell your texts, that Google won't sell your searches, etc.

------
astar
Why does Facebook have to share this data to data aggregators? At some point,
the creepy corporate use of FB data will scare people from using FB to the
point that the bottom line is hurt. FB just has to shut off the firehose of
data, if they have any foresight

~~~
ds9
They "have to" share the data because it's profitable to do so, and profit is
the sole imperative of corporations.

"At some point, the creepy corporate use of FB data will scare people from
using FB"

That was the point of the article: "Most people already know not to publicize
individual things that reflect badly on them; once they realize that the
totality of what they post can have serious repercussions, too, they’ll clam
up. "

People here already understand the implications, but this assumes that
millions of users will "get it" too. Maybe they will, eventually, but not as
readily as the author assumes. The data-mining will progress even further than
it has before the masses change their behavior.

~~~
pasbesoin
Note that this all (certainly, discussion of; I don't know fully about extant
realizations) goes beyond what one posts.

There is already analysis arguing (whether or not correctly) that social
graphs themselves convey useful, actionable information. For example, the
argument that friends of "deadbeats" are likely to be less reliable,
themselves. So, if you "friend" too many people having low credit scores, this
may effect you when e.g. a lender uses your Facebook graph in evaluating your
suitability for a loan.

Similar concerns with regard to evaluation of insurance risk and insurability.

Knowledge asymmetry is the point of arbitrage upon which many people earn a
living (and some, a quite extravagant living). Absent sufficient inhibitions
(whether self-serving, e.g. Facebook's potential self-destruction; or
external, e.g. regulation), people _will_ use "big data" to this effect.

------
Dewie
This is why I try to restrain my identity on the net not based on what I might
easily be used against me today, but based on what might easily be used
against me in the near future.

~~~
niggler
The general rule is that you should assume _everything_ you say or do on the
Internet is public, even if it is encrypted or purportedly private, and may be
used against you in the future. Even stuff written here.

