Calvin02

I think it is probably fair to assume that every country (friend or a foe) spies on others.

Just a few months ago, we were caught red handed spying on the EU and our closest allies [0]. I’m sure their equivalent of NSA lists us as the most aggressive hackers behind China and Russia.

When your economy or your survival (in Israel’s case) is at stake and you have the tools, the temptation is just too strong.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spie...

First, putting aside Israel for a second. I understand the urge to reduce foreign aid while we're running deficits (I assume is what you mean by "floundering"), but think of foreign aid as diplomacy. We need both hard (military) and soft (aid, donations, etc.) diplomacy. If any thing, the bang for buck is higher with soft diplomacy. Hard diplomacy is very expensive.

Second, Israel is a shining example of a robust democracy in a part of the world that is more or less run by kleptomaniacs and dictators. Israel's politics -- especially with the coalition government -- serves as a role model for citizens of other countries. I think it seems reasonable that we extend foreign aid to them.

It pays off in the long run.

I hate to defend Facebook/Meta but HN title is pretty blatantly missing context.

Even the linked post says:

> In most cases, law enforcement sends Facebook a search warrant or a government-issued subpoena for data. But Facebook policy also allows for “emergency requests,” where the tech giant will voluntarily hand over data outside of the legal process when police claim a case involves death or “potential bodily harm.”

So, it is unlikely that Facebook/Meta is just sharing your chat history over without just cause.

Regardless, you should be using Signal or WhatsApp for your chats anyways.

How does LEADS work and how could FB and OfferUp use it?

If the question is: how do we prevent sale of stolen bikes, I’m not sure how that solves the problem.

Is there a possible way for FB and other similar places (offerup, pawn shops, etc.) to verify without some central registry?

I'm genuinely curious. How would you propose Facebook enforce this?

People selling bikes include both first-hand buyers and second-hand buyers (people who bought it from someone else).

Without a central registry like what we have for cars, I don't know what Facebook could do.

Maybe because Telegram had been lying for years and deliberately confusing end-to-end transport encrypted with end-to-end message encrypted?

I’ll never trust Telegram.

Apple fires employee -> likely employee’s fault.

FB, Goog, Amazon, MS fire an employee -> they are terrible companies.

HN’s biases are infuriating.

Replace Apple with Facebook or Google and everyone will have their pitchforks out.

This type of innuendo based commentary is a staple of Fox and conservative media.

Your point would be stronger if you attacked her arguments directly.

We are asking tech platforms to solve society’s problems.

I’ve said it before but people don’t ask: what if we shutdown Facebook tomorrow, will all these problems disappear?

Sure, but what if Facebook’s views align with yours?

I’d imagine that the employees believe that the company is trying to do the right thing.

I think the question that people forget to ask is: what if Facebook disappeared tomorrow, will all our problems be solved?

I don’t work for Facebook.

However, the issues are definitely more complex than media and politicians make it out to be.

Misinformation: take this article from the EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/disentangling-disinfor...

Teen users: TikTok, where majority of the teens are, was surprisingly missing from all the discussions. My TikTok feed is far more risqué than my Instagram feed is.

So on..

This isn’t as black or white as HN makes it out to be.

Oh, there’s definitely a double standard here.

When other companies do it, Apple uses pejorative (“tracking”) language, but when Apple does it, the the language is positive (“personalize”).

I’m sorry you’re getting downvoted but as someone who has subscribed to The Economist for 20+ years now, I feel the same way as you do.

In areas that are on the periphery, their coverage feels shallow and unsatisfying. I would imagine that the writers, who are some of the best in business, are doing their research but trying to make the content accessible. I can’t fault them for that. However, in this day and age, I would expect them to offer more depth.

Sadly this is what happens when an office, like the FTC, is politicized.

FTC caters to the current party and pursues an aligned agenda over other things that can bring a tangible benefit to the population.

> After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat.

Illegally bought or buried them?

1) FTC approved all the mergers. So, it is surprising that they'd say that these were illegally bought.

2) Facebook seems to be operating all key acquisitions (Instagram and WhatsApp) as separate products and hasn't made their usage conditional to having a Facebook account.

This is re-writing history and it is just as dangerous when the FTC does it as it is when a political party does it.

I think the issue is that what the tech community sees as privacy is different than what the general public thinks of as privacy.

Apple, very astutely, understands that difference and exploited the latter to differentiate its phones from its main competitor: cheap(er) android phones.

Apple didn’t want the phones to be commoditized, like personal computers before it. And “privacy” is something that you can’t commoditize. Once you own that association, it is hard to fight against it.

Apple also understands that the general public will support its anti child exploitation and the public will not see this as a violation of privacy.

I think the checks and balances are pretty fragile and very susceptible to public opinion.

Two instances: 1) Post 9/11 Patriot Law 2) McCarthy era: https://www.e-ir.info/2011/11/03/the-extraordinary-injustice...

I think you'd be surprised at how many businesses have proprietary applications that their resource stretched & budget starved IT orgs would not want to update.

Consumers probably less so but businesses will definitely care. Translation might be an option for some. However, Rosetta currently only supports limited translation [0].

[0] - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/abou...

Yeah, and if you look at all the engagement tactics that the NPR, NYTimes, or the CNN apps use, they are basically saying: spend your time here and not there.

Most of the internet is vying for your attention and asking you to spend more time on their site than the others.

To truly come up with meaningful solutions, we need to look at the entire problem. Otherwise we're just moving marbles around.

I think you're cherry picking a bit.

How much time do you spend on HN?

HN is a social network for folks who are interested in technology and general interest topics -- much like other social networks.

Do you think that people can use HN "responsibly"? The feed is algorithmic and designed to surface topics to elicit responses/engagement with the community.

From scanning the list it seems like none of the 6 were started in the last 15+ years. That should be alarming to EU policy makers.

As this divide grows, I worry that Europe may resort to protection mechanisms as a way to shield local companies and give them a chance to "grow".

The future is more protectionism and less free trade. And that's not good for anyone.

Perhaps pick a side and try sticking to it?

After enacting a set of EU specific rules, it feels a little entitled to expect that not only all foreign websites must follow them, but that they must also make their content available for free.

It is asinine to compare the two situations. Greenwald is wrongly equating the two together for his puppeteers.

1) Snowden had already been charged at that point and was running from the law. Morales's plane was diverted because it was believed to be providing passage to a criminal. While I don't know what Snowden did was right or wrong, it is clear that Snowden broke laws. His intentions might have been good but he broke some very serious laws.

2) Roman Protasevich, on the other hand, is a blogger. He hasn't released any state secrets that he swore an oath to protect.

Apple hiring a former Facebook ad products product manager, expanding its ads product suite, and expanding ads slots says more about how they see Facebook than the privacy changes they've made.

Ads is a services market that is growing fast and as the phone market saturates, services will become more important for Apple. This will also help reduce the margin pressure on iPhone hardware.

I find it hard to believe that large farms don’t have “skin in the game”.

I would think that they manage their farm land as an investment. It isn’t easy to move to a different area due to labor, equipment, investment into the ground, etc.

If anything, I’d expect a small farm operation to easily relocate should the land become less productive.

> Until we hold the reporting produced by professional reporters -- reviewed by editors, fact checked, and held in check by an editorial process -- at a higher esteem

Having worked in a news organization, I wish I had more faith in this statement. Most reporters are woefully out of touch or depth when covering complex topics. As a finance major, I'm often surprised how often the explanations for basic topics are wrong or presented without any nuance.

Yah, the tech behind this already exists. Just needs to be packaged together.

Legislation will go together to require a large free email provider to also provide tools to set up a forwarding service and operate it for a period of no less than 20 years, as a starting point.

But so does your mobile carrier.

What is the exact concern that you have?

What is it about Google apps that made the Android phone unusable?

I have a personal Android phone where I don’t use the default Google apps and feel really good about control over my data.