Ask HN: As senator at Congress FB hearing, what would you ask? - vinnyglennon
======
natch
Most fundamental imho would be to have technically competent staff who can see
through weasel words and tease out real answers, not lies couched in half-
truths. As is generally the case in hearings of this sort.

Also I'd like senators to realize that you don't have to click or go anywhere
near a like button, for it to track the fact that you visited a site. And all
this tracking data is stored somewhere, forever as far as we know.

Also I'd like senators to understand that when a user opts in to share some
data, they are often being enabled, by the platform, to share data of other
users who never did opt in for that particular sharing. (I admit the users' FB
friends did opt in to use Facebook, yes... they just didn't opt in with any
knowledge of the specific sharing that their friend just did for them).

If they understand these things, they can ask better questions.

------
agitator
I'd ask Mark to solve a Captcha.

All jokes aside though, I feel like the senators should have been briefed by
technology experts on the current industry practices and the capabilities and
risks of current internet technology. The questions are pointless if they
don't understand the responses and cannot come up with follow-up questions.
It's generally really easy to side skirt a question with the first answer.
Follow-up questions are where you get to into the meat.

------
hacknat
I would have asked about GDPR and why they’re only applying policies to
fulfill their legal requirements for it to EU citizens. Then some follow up on
how they plan on identifying EU citizens from Americans, what if one is living
in one place and one in another?

Isn’t your fundamental business model always going to be in tension with your
user’s privacy?

Finally, given the way the site is structured specifically to broadcast at
such a broad level with little control over the granularity people have over
their ability to communicate, won’t the psychology of the site always favor
those most comfortable expressing their thoughts and opinions to large groups
of people, specifically folks that are either socially awkward or have overt
agendas? Doesn’t this lend to a false sense of how one’s peers perceive the
world?

I could go on and on. Facebook is a steaming pile of shit, and humanity would
be better off without it.

------
gesman
It's clear that without legislation, GDPR-like for USA - this all is just a
talk.

------
pcunite
Discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16805470](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16805470)

