Facebook and Privacy | Hacker News Reader

Facebook and Privacy

medium.com

25 pointsnitinreddy8810 comments

What's the best way to get a correct answer on the Internet? Give an incorrect answer.

>Probably I have accepted all your terms and conditions

Yes, you did accept their terms and conditions. How does Facebook not have your mobile number when you're using their phone app? That thing knows more about your phone than you do (try reading its T&C).

I ignored the terrible ESL grammar, and powered through the "nothing to hide" fallacy, but in the end I'm so frustrated with the technological naivety of the author that his main point is lost. Apologies for being brash, Nitin, but you have to expect some scrutiny when you post on HN; this is a tech forum.

Though I don't doubt that Facebook would play on what's said in my first sentence, the fact that the person who's bringing the issue up seems to have been in a cave since 2013, and is only working with a control of 1, I'm going to write this off as user error until someone savvy verifies the claim.

Wow, that’s harsh.

If it knows his number, then why would it need to ask? And why would it suggest a wrong number?

The app knows the number of whatever phone it's installed on, it also knows all of the phone's contacts, and much more. The author agreed to share this information when he installed the Facebook app.

Perhaps the wrong number was an error on Facebook's part, perhaps it's something sinister, perhaps the author is just confused. We don't know, because the author of this article lacks a basic understanding of how the app, and Facebook, works. He didn't test his hypothesis, or even read the TOS, he just posted an article full of unfounded speculation. Again, if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on user error.

I'm not defending Facebook, they're horrible. I just think this article is garbage. Yes, that's harsh, but bad journalism has a much bigger impact on the world than my dumb comments.

I believe iOS doesn't share any information regarding phone number. Interesting point earlier I was using android, it could have got the right number if they wanted

He has iOS, and unlike Android, iOS does not give every app you download your phone number.

The epiphany the author of the article arrive is an useful one but one can wonder if it is really a surprise.

Of course Facebook probably has a lot more information about us than we volunteered to their service.

Be it via other parties (Whatsapp, Instagram), like button, share buttons, Facebook connect, they have a lot other avenues to collect info about us and they do, even if they don't openly use it.

Much like War Games the only winning move would be not playing, although we started playing way before we even understood what the game was.

I do accept it completely. But how can It suggest some other person data for someone else. I might have wondered if they got somehow my number, but i will be shocked if it suggests some other number for me

I think they're banking on user behavior being as follows:

If the correct number is suggested, you get slightly creeped out, but confirm. If the wrong number is suggested, you get slightly outraged or puzzled, fill in the right number, and confirm.

It's sort of a natural A/B test: will people respond better to the correct number, or the wrong number? And they don't even have to control the A/B population, it's just whatever their reverse lookup API returns.

I have also avoided giving Facebook my phone number, so I was surprised one day when they correctly guessed it, only asking me to confirm. I realized later that this was likely due to friends uploading their address book, in which case Facebook only has to match names between friends.

In Nitin’s case, maybe one of his Facebook friends knows Nitin Jaisw and has him in their address book, but with only the first name. They might not have Nitin Reddy in there at all.

Facebook and Privacy are a contradiction in terms. All what you enter into Facebook is available to Facebook's owners. What you're configuring as “privacy settings” is a wish list for Santa.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com