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> Is FB sometimes incompetent? Sure (who isn't at that scale). Could they do things better? Of course. Are they trying to? Absolutely (the cynics would never ad
by panic 5y ago
> Is FB sometimes incompetent? Sure (who isn't at that scale). Could they do things better? Of course. Are they trying to? Absolutely (the cynics would never admit this point, but it's true, e.g. the amount of resources and cross-company efforts thrown at improving privacy is incredible).
This type of argument is made over and over on behalf of harmful institutions. The police sometimes screw up, but everyone makes mistakes. Cars (as a sibling comment points out) sometimes kill people, but that's just a fact of life, and car safety improves every year. In each case, the institution's responsibility for harm is deflected by the argument that the institution, in its current form, can't exist without doing some amount of harm. Not considered is the possibility that the institution could fundamentally change forms or stop existing entirely.
- HenryBemis 5y agoI will take this argument and transpose it in Banking. A heavily regulated industry. Are there TONS of data for an individual? Financial data, demographics (themselves and their family), tax-IDs, social security numbers, where they live, where they shop, how much they spend, do they have a subscription on "heterosexual-intercourse" website? do they have a subscription on "same-sex-intercourse" website? do they have a subscription on "donkey-sex-show" website? (think "Clerks"), Spotify, tickets to Metallica concerts vs Opera, Netflix, hotels, airtickets, restaurants, bars, you-name-it. A bank has this and so much more information through bank account transactions, card (credit/debit) transactions, mobile phone app data collection, KYC, etc. I don't remember a Bank losing the data that "Henry likes donkey sex shows". Perhaps there is a naughty admin stalking the current/ex partner misusing their work-related system account privileges but that admin won't leak the data of 100000 clients. Yes the bank doesn't have a photo of you in a political rally, but they see you spend £€$100 supporting XYZ politican or political party, or you bought a hotdog 1mile/km from that park where X politician had a speech. How come companies like FB keep making one mistake after another, on OUR expense and the excuse is "ooops I did it again" (they played with our data). At some point the excuses need to cease and they need to get their stuff in a right order, or be shut down. Edit: rewrote some words/phrases for clarity.
- yeetman21 5y agoWho says its at your expense. No one forced you to get a Facebook account, that was YOUR choice.
- joshuamorton 5y agoCapitolOne had a major breach in 2018. Banks do have data breaches, pretty consistently in fact. So did equifax. I'm sure if you look around you'll find many, many more. The information exposed in those breaches is reliably worse than that exposed by this facebook breach, as an example.
- justapassenger 5y agoFinance institutions not only have frequent leaks, but they also happily sell your data. Each major credit card company will sell you, if you’re big enough, list of all transactions that flow through their systems, not properly anonymized at all. Banks use horribly outdated and unsafe technologies like checks, and use insurances instead of upgrading tech. Trading companies make money by selling your orders streams and delaying your orders just enough, so they can get better deal than you. Equifax leaked very detailed data, that can destroy your life, of almost all Americans. How exactly is finance industry better?
- HenryBemis 5y agoThat'a American/USA reality my friend :) It saddens me that you (plural - the nation) allow big corp to bribe politicans openly and shamelessly (lobbying). Brokers: for $1k per month you can subscribe to a service that will feed you that same info, in real time. So.. your argument half-stands. Banks: Most big banks are good/strong enough. Some smaller banks (1-20 branches) are weak. They haven's scaled enough. In the UK we now have 'open data'. It gives you the 'freedom'(?????) to share your data with 3rd parties. "what can go wrong"... Equifax: thank US politicians for that. Bribing FTW!!!(aka Lobbying). Credit card: they "can’t sell raw consumer data to third parties unless they provide the customer with a notice and an opportunity to opt out. In some states, customers have to opt in. They can sell anonymized data, with all personally identifiable information stripped out or hashed." (https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2018/07/22/mastercard-amex-and-envestnet-profit-from-400m-business-of-selling-transaction-data/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2018/07/22/mastercar...).