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Comment by orangeoxidation | Hacker News Reader

> Cambridge Analytica's app on Facebook had harvested the data of people who interacted with it - and that of friends who had not given consent.

This is the problem (quote from op article). Facebook collected data on people and than shared this data to third parties without their consent. That friends gave consent to this has no relevance. They don't have the right to do so and they didn't do it themselves. Facebook did - on the request of CA (or rather that 'researcher'), with the approval of friends.

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Yeah, it's relevant.

If you share your friend's data, it's primarily your fault.

You know your friend's email, and you decide to share it with someone else.

Now I agree that FB should bear some responsibility since it's such a large platform.

But it's you who is mainly at fault for sharing.

If you shout your friend's email in a hotel's lobby, you wouldn't blame the hotel, right?

> If you shout your friend's email in a hotel's lobby, you wouldn't blame the hotel, right?

I wouldn't. But if my friend went to reception and told the staff "Hey, you know my friend in room 101? Please share their mail with the stranger in room 301. Thank you." I very much would.

Even worse - in this case, the hotel itself was asking your friend "hey, do you want us to share information about the one in room 101 with the stranger in room 301? The stranger in room 301 won't talk to you unless you do".

You answered yes. Then, later, you blame the hotel?

You bear no responsibility at all?

I didn't in this scenario, my friend did. I don't even know which friend it was.

Your example is ridiculous because mail is a physical object.

A better example would be "could you tell the stranger in room 301 that my friend's email is ABC?"

Then, later, your friend sue the hotel for telling the stranger about their email.

Yeah.... You should at least bear the majority of responsibility here, no?

> If you shout your friend's email in a hotel's lobby, you wouldn't blame the hotel, right?

No but your friend would be quite in the right to blame you if they got threatening emails as a result of it. Depending on whether actual harm came from the act and whether you shouted their email with an intent to cause harm (even a different harm like a cascade of d** pics) then you could be held liable for damages.

If you act in a manner intended to cause harm and harm results - even if not in the manner you intended - then you can be held liable. Greasing a sidewalk so that folks will fall on their ass for the giggles and then causing someone to break their spine still leaves you liable for damages - even if you were unable to foresee the potential outcome of someone breaking their spine.

The hotel lobby example is likely to not result in liability due to difficulties in showing you acted maliciously but there certainly is a possibility there.

That's not what happened here. People weren't actively posting their friends' details to some stranger. They were using an FB feature and checking a box. They barely even had any way of knowing exactly what data about their friends would end up being shared with the 3rd party.

Your defense boils down to "users are too stupid".

Sure, but, at some point, the users need to take blames for their own actions too.

"I'm too stupid" can't be the defense for everything.

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