11 ms·

Is it just me or is it _beyond_ creepy ? Location, sound ... soon they will be collecting biometric data as well, "just to get room temperature, promise".

Kiro 11y ago
As long as it's opt-in I don't find it that creepy to be honest.
- kehrlann 11y ago
  Mh true. But will it remain opt-in ?
- rmc 11y ago
  If it's a big wall of legalise that regular users have to click past to get at Facebook, then that's hardly "opt-in".
  - DangerousPie 11y ago
    It's a button you have to press: https://www.facebook.com/help/android-app/1499418503612943 https://www.facebook.com/help/android-app/1499418503612943
- bhouston 11y ago
  Facebook has a history of starting with opt-in and then making it opt-out and then over time making it harder to opt-out. It is a well established pattern.
  - zxcdw 11y ago
    Do you, or someone, have any data to back this up? Honest question, I don't use Facebook so I can't tell from experience.
    - 0x0 11y ago
      Facebook Messenger vs the main Facebook iOS app, for example?
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - Shish2k 11y ago
        You mean that time when "having the newsfeed app forces you to use the messaging app and vice versa" started out as forced, and then opt-out, and then opt-in? That seems like the /opposite/ of forcing people to use a given feature :P (I see what you're trying to say, that people are forced to install two apps instead of installing one - I just disagree that having two separate apps is "forced" while having apps bundled together is "choice")
  - sp4ke 11y ago
    It's like the quick login feature on mobile, I enabled it once to try it, I can't manage to turn it off since then. It means when ever Facebook App is installed it will always automatically login ... So I end up installing it just when I need it.
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      The app ends up screwing up on my phone. https://touch.facebook.com/ https://touch.facebook.com/ works pretty well - with Chrome on Android it can even send me notifications.
- mrweasel 11y ago
  I just fear that it will quickly become something that users just click "Okay" on automatically. A little like "Share your location". The minute something doesn't work as expected because the user didn't share a bit of information people will start just clicking on the "Ok" button.
  - bhouston 11y ago
    What is the name of this dark pattern? It is very well executed by Google in Android these days.
    - pdkl95 11y ago
      > what is the name of this dark pattern "Hobson's Choice" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice
  - anc84 11y ago
    And of course the "no" button is labelled "Later". And there is no option to mute it forever. Google Play is trying to make me enter my mobile phone number on every single app update. Android is trying to let me scan all apps for security each time I use F-Droid. Those dialogs always appear and I can only discard them again and again until one day I might accidentally click "OK". Google is evil.
    - kuschku 11y ago
      Even worse: http://i.imgur.com/qsRdwaU.png http://i.imgur.com/qsRdwaU.png Google...
- 4684499 11y ago
  Well, if your friend is with you and he/she enabled this "feature"...
- MrBra 11y ago
  How long, you think, for ON by default ?
rayalez 11y ago
Look, I know that nowdays it's popular to pay attention to security and privacy, and I understand that it's important. But can we for once not immediately assume ill intentions? I mean come on, do you seriously believe that programmers at facebook are rubbing their hands and laughing at how smart they are, figuring out how to turn on your mike for 15 seconds? Is that really what you believe is going on? Or is it just trendy to scream "creepy! surveilance!" on every occasion?
- stingraycharles 11y ago
  My thoughts were that this is probably quite similar a technology to Shazam and other song identification apps. The usage is a bit different, and as long as they're really, really clear about when they're listening (for example, Shazam has an "auto-shazam" feature that highlights a big red bar on my iPhone), I would be okay with this.
- danieldk 11y ago
  Look, I know that nowdays it's popular to pay attention to security and privacy, and I understand that it's important. But can we for once not immediately assume ill intentions? Not really. If I find it important to mention what I am watching or listening too, I can add it myself. Obviously, the goals is not surveillance, since 15 seconds would be a too small amount of time. The goal is getting an even more fine-grained idea of your preferences for advertising. A company who knows more and more about me, removing privacy one small step at a time, is creepy.
  - rayalez 11y ago
    I see your point, it's just.... Sometimes people do things simply to add a nice convenient feature. People distrust big corporations, and that makes sense to a degree. But if I imagine a team of programmers that work on that stuff, when I visualise actual human beings that make the decisions, I have very hard time believing that this is the kind of thoughts that go through they heads. Sure, maybe there's some manager somewhere who literally thinks "lets decrease people's privacy so we could squeeze extra few cents out of our users", I just believe that in 95% of cases it's just people like you and me, trying to do good things and build a new fun feature. I understand your concern about the remaining 5%, but it seems unlikely to me in this case. People who work at facebook probably have enough money to not be desperate about earning more, and to be free to focus on just making cool things. I think it's bad when everything google/apple/facebook/etc does is met with hostility, and in this particular case that reaction seems to be the result of group think, it isn't warranted by the information that we have.

Kiro 11y ago

As long as it's opt-in I don't find it that creepy to be honest.

kehrlann 11y ago
Mh true. But will it remain opt-in ?
rmc 11y ago
If it's a big wall of legalise that regular users have to click past to get at Facebook, then that's hardly "opt-in".
- DangerousPie 11y ago
  It's a button you have to press: https://www.facebook.com/help/android-app/1499418503612943 https://www.facebook.com/help/android-app/1499418503612943
bhouston 11y ago
Facebook has a history of starting with opt-in and then making it opt-out and then over time making it harder to opt-out. It is a well established pattern.
- zxcdw 11y ago
  Do you, or someone, have any data to back this up? Honest question, I don't use Facebook so I can't tell from experience.
  - 0x0 11y ago
    Facebook Messenger vs the main Facebook iOS app, for example?
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - Shish2k 11y ago
      You mean that time when "having the newsfeed app forces you to use the messaging app and vice versa" started out as forced, and then opt-out, and then opt-in? That seems like the /opposite/ of forcing people to use a given feature :P (I see what you're trying to say, that people are forced to install two apps instead of installing one - I just disagree that having two separate apps is "forced" while having apps bundled together is "choice")
- sp4ke 11y ago
  It's like the quick login feature on mobile, I enabled it once to try it, I can't manage to turn it off since then. It means when ever Facebook App is installed it will always automatically login ... So I end up installing it just when I need it.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    The app ends up screwing up on my phone. https://touch.facebook.com/ https://touch.facebook.com/ works pretty well - with Chrome on Android it can even send me notifications.
mrweasel 11y ago
I just fear that it will quickly become something that users just click "Okay" on automatically. A little like "Share your location". The minute something doesn't work as expected because the user didn't share a bit of information people will start just clicking on the "Ok" button.
- bhouston 11y ago
  What is the name of this dark pattern? It is very well executed by Google in Android these days.
  - pdkl95 11y ago
    > what is the name of this dark pattern "Hobson's Choice" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice
- anc84 11y ago
  And of course the "no" button is labelled "Later". And there is no option to mute it forever. Google Play is trying to make me enter my mobile phone number on every single app update. Android is trying to let me scan all apps for security each time I use F-Droid. Those dialogs always appear and I can only discard them again and again until one day I might accidentally click "OK". Google is evil.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    Even worse: http://i.imgur.com/qsRdwaU.png http://i.imgur.com/qsRdwaU.png Google...
4684499 11y ago
Well, if your friend is with you and he/she enabled this "feature"...
MrBra 11y ago
How long, you think, for ON by default ?

rayalez 11y ago

Look, I know that nowdays it's popular to pay attention to security and privacy, and I understand that it's important. But can we for once not immediately assume ill intentions? I mean come on, do you seriously believe that programmers at facebook are rubbing their hands and laughing at how smart they are, figuring out how to turn on your mike for 15 seconds? Is that really what you believe is going on? Or is it just trendy to scream "creepy! surveilance!" on every occasion?

stingraycharles 11y ago
My thoughts were that this is probably quite similar a technology to Shazam and other song identification apps. The usage is a bit different, and as long as they're really, really clear about when they're listening (for example, Shazam has an "auto-shazam" feature that highlights a big red bar on my iPhone), I would be okay with this.
danieldk 11y ago
Look, I know that nowdays it's popular to pay attention to security and privacy, and I understand that it's important. But can we for once not immediately assume ill intentions? Not really. If I find it important to mention what I am watching or listening too, I can add it myself. Obviously, the goals is not surveillance, since 15 seconds would be a too small amount of time. The goal is getting an even more fine-grained idea of your preferences for advertising. A company who knows more and more about me, removing privacy one small step at a time, is creepy.
- rayalez 11y ago
  I see your point, it's just.... Sometimes people do things simply to add a nice convenient feature. People distrust big corporations, and that makes sense to a degree. But if I imagine a team of programmers that work on that stuff, when I visualise actual human beings that make the decisions, I have very hard time believing that this is the kind of thoughts that go through they heads. Sure, maybe there's some manager somewhere who literally thinks "lets decrease people's privacy so we could squeeze extra few cents out of our users", I just believe that in 95% of cases it's just people like you and me, trying to do good things and build a new fun feature. I understand your concern about the remaining 5%, but it seems unlikely to me in this case. People who work at facebook probably have enough money to not be desperate about earning more, and to be free to focus on just making cool things. I think it's bad when everything google/apple/facebook/etc does is met with hostility, and in this particular case that reaction seems to be the result of group think, it isn't warranted by the information that we have.