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Comment by mkarrmann | Hacker News Reader

> What's being implied is that your nefarious company is building another product that exists solely to suck up people's attention and time inorder to build a profile to sell them garbage that they don't need and use their personal data to manipulate them.

You're free to speculate that Meta is lying about what it will or won't use the data for. I won't argue over that. That's an important topic and I'm not gonna persuade anyone via an HN comment. Skepticism is fine

But the example linked to in the above comment is not evidence of that at all. A skill explaining how to format purchase history in markdown format is not evidence of hidden motivations.

In general the entire thread is nothing-burger, and that's all I'm getting at.

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We all know exactly what it’s for, don’t pretend you don’t.

I understand what is being implied. I'm saying that the provided example is poor evidence of what's being implied.

We all know Meta can already track things like certain purchases. A skill file telling AI how to format purchase history in markdown format is not going to help any of Meta's ads or RecSys systems.

You can believe Meta does bad things without thinking everything Meta does is an example of said bad things

So we should judge each piece of evidence in a vacuum?

Facebook has broken its promises about user data many times before. I don't buy anything they say about Muse, and nobody in their right mind should. Unless they’re getting paid to, of course.

Aside, if “a skill file organizing purchase history in markdown format” is the only thing you took away from that thread, you might want to take a closer look.

> So we should judge each piece of evidence in a vacuum?

I mean… little drops of water make the ocean, so if the complaint is with the drop then yes. Doesn’t mean the ocean is poisoned by some of these droplets though.

Two things can be true at the same time - Facebook as a whole is untrustable but you can use Muse Glimmer from them without giving them this data.

This. The appropriate use of Muse is to use it for (a) non-personal queries and (b) never connect it to any sources of personal info.

Since the article discusses metaphors... think about it as a snitch.

> So we should judge each piece of evidence in a vacuum?

You're free to believe whatever you want about Meta. But no, you shouldn't point to non-evidence, interpret it through the lens of your prior beliefs, and then claim that it's actually evidence supporting your beliefs.

> Aside, if “a skill file organizing purchase history in markdown format” is the only thing you took away from that thread, you might want to take a closer look.

That's what that specific quote I was referencing was referring to. I already responded to the supposed prompt injection/security concerns above.

<< you shouldn't point to non-evidence, interpret it through the lens of your prior beliefs, and then claim that it's actually evidence supporting your beliefs

Not parent, but it is worth responding to as it applies. Not prior beliefs. From prior actions. Unless you are only now becoming aware of the existing ecosystem, there is almost no way in which you can buy into that ecosystem without expecting hard rug pull. And the beauty is, everyone gets to make a choice, but they best do it is with eyes wide open and the understanding of the deal for it will be changing soon.

> Not prior beliefs. From prior actions.

I think you're saying that prior actions justify the beliefs you hold. Fair enough, I'll concede that for the sake of argument.

My above comment still stands. Even if your beliefs are justified, that doesn't mean you should treat non-evidence as evidence supporting your beliefs. (Tbh my point is kinda trivial/pedantic. But I feel like folks just always want to double down that every criticism of meta is correct).

You do have a point, and I sometimes clamp down on random meta complaints myself, but mostly because there are enough of real complaints to worry about. In other words, your comment in useful in providing appropriate balance. I don't like meta. That much is evident, but there is no reason to make argument against them less potent by not considering how it lands.

lol. the selective memory is loss iamazing. that's what it takes for working at a pedo's company the meddles in elections and pushes propaganda.

The comment you're responding to has two sentences separated by a period. You can use that as an indication that the two issues being pointed out are, in fact, separate things. Do you understand now?

NGL I understand the above comment, but I'm not sure what you're implying. So I guess no I don't understand

Nothing meta has done is good, or even adjacent to neutral. You work for the evil corporations and defend it…

Hmmm zstd, io_uring, rocksdb ?

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