The Bullshit of Facebook | Hacker News Reader

The Bullshit of Facebook

thewebb.blog

33 pointsNetOpWibby10 comments

The unasked question in this article isn't whether Facebook really has changed its views on privacy, it's how you'll know if they have. Rather than addressing that the article simply assumes they're lying and bashes them for prior bad behavior. I'm not sure what that's supposed to accomplish besides catharsis.

That's a valid point, thanks for the feedback.

At the same time I feel like the ball is in their court at this point to prove themselves. Requesting proof in criticisms feels like a weird kind of sealioning.

TIL a new word! You also have a point and I'm inclined to agree.

This isn't the first time a rep from the company has written a public essay loosely detailing the ways FB will be better and it won't be the last.

I didn't ask for proof, and I think it's reasonable to demand a lot of evidence before you believe it when someone tells you they've changed. What bothers me here is that there's no articulation of that standard, just a rejection of the idea that a public statement is sufficient.

To make it more concrete: let's say that Facebook ended all of the practices the author objects to, but told no one. Clearly the author would not endorse Facebook.

Taking that a step further, the author clearly is not convinced by Facebook's public statements. So if Facebook ended all of those practices and then put out a public statement to that effect, the author would likely not endorse Facebook.

What's next after that? How do they prove trustworthiness? I don't know. I'll bet Facebook doesn't either, and that's a bad outcome because now they have no incentive to actually improve.

They absolutely have incentive to improve, regardless of what I think. They have a lot of work to do.

If no one believes that they've improved I actually don't think they do have an incentive; what do you perceive that to be?

To put it another way, if they will be penalized for being insecure either way, why spend the money to be secure?

Because it's the right thing to do.

Maybe I'm just being naïve.

I mean, that's nice but it's not an incentive. If you assume, as the author apparently does, that Facebook is at least motivated to have you believe that they're secure, telling them you won't no matter what they say is counterproductive.

At this point, i haven't actively used facebook for several years. I linger to stay somewhat connected to some family, some old lost friends, all that. But nothing totally active, It's lost (to me)

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