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Comment by _red | Hacker News Reader

Many people have some sort of mental disorder that forces them to disclose confidential information to unrelated 3rd parties....then bizarrely when they discover that others know this information, they complain about it.

Why do you need facebook? What is the compulsion to include Zuckerberg in all your private conversations?

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> have some sort of mental disorder.

I'd step off that high horse.

I bet you use a credit card on the regular. All your purchases permanently recorded. And can be looked up on demand.

I bet you talk on a phone everyday. Every convo permanently saved and can be brought up on demand. Your face-to-face conversations can be listened to even when you turn off your phone, although that does not happen passively.

I bet you use the internet in such away that identifies yourself. Having your porn preferences permanently saved so they can be brought up on demand.

I bet you use google search. Everything you ever looked for permanently saved and can be brought up on demand.

I bet you use gmail, or some other email service.

Almost everyone gives up freedom for convenience. Unless you're living like a medieval monk you're just as mentally disordered.

I feel like you didn't read past the first ellipses here

I feel like the author hasn't experienced the part after the ellipses. Where he discovers all his thoughts are recorded even outside of facebook.

Facebook is one of those Internet phenomenons that make me feel like I'm getting old. I truly don't understand the product, and why people feel the need to not only use it, but also donate so much sensitive personal information to it. I'm pretty sure that with the amount of sensitive data that the average Facebook user contributes VOLUNTARILY to their accounts, I could easily take out a loan in their name and answer most of their password reset questions correctly. All so they can self-promote all day (or whatever it is they get out of FB). Mind boggling.

calling this a mental disorder is an egregious belittling of actual mental disorders and a gross miscalculation of what it is needed to solve the problem. most people using facebook are simply uneducated non-technical consumers. they barely comprehend that this "personal" data exists, let alone that its mined and actively exploited.

most people don't understand what they are handing over or how its goong to be used. you would have to use terminology equating it to psychological warfare to get an appropriate response.

I think many people don't adequately realize how much data they're disclosing, or how it will be used. It can be a surprise that you're "including Zuckerberg" in private, verbal, face to face conversations just because your phone on the table has the Facebook app on it.

Probably the same reason people entrusted their private conversations to POTS for a much longer time than facebook existed.

Tapping POTS phones was hilariously easy.

There was also an even easier time when anyone with a 47MHz tuner could hear people read out credit card numbers over the air with their cordless phones. It would happen at least once an hour in any busy neighborhood.

The pre-cdma and pre-gsm AMPS cell phones were pretty easy to eavesdrop on as well.

https://www.wired.com/1993/04/phreaks/ Ctrl-F and search for OKI 900. A normal commercial cell phone, but usable as a cell phone conversation scanner, out of the box.

> The pre-cdma and pre-gsm AMPS cell phones were pretty easy to eavesdrop on as well.

While waiting in the car for someone, my friend changed his Motorola StarTac to engineering mode and then proceeded to search channels until finding something interesting to listen.

Not only was there various test modes for handsets, but older tuners would easily access the bands used for analog cellular communication. These bands used to be used for UFH range used for analog television until those upper channels were trimmed to make way for cellular.

I'm sure someone with criminal intent could have made a small fortune skimming credit card numbers off the open air.

But from an architectural standpoint, unencrypted data over an analog pair or over a TDM (basically, time multiplexed serial PCM streams; what the phone network uses for internal transport) network is probably better off than ethernet, seeing as anybody can say they're your MAC address even if they're not physically connected to your circuit.

that wasnt being mined or used to target ads the same way facebook is.

POTS?

Plain old telephone services

Plain Old Telephone Service

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