11 votes

Facebook's '10 Year Challenge' Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right?

10 comments

  1. [8]
    mat
    Link
    I have a very close friend who works at Facebook and one thing Facebook are painfully aware of internally is how bad they're looking recently regarding data gathering/mining/etc. This isn't my...

    I have a very close friend who works at Facebook and one thing Facebook are painfully aware of internally is how bad they're looking recently regarding data gathering/mining/etc. This isn't my friend's department but his opinion is there is no way this would have got officially sanctioned if only because of the potential backlash (which they're getting some of anyway).

    Zuck is a strange person and has some weird ideas about what constitutes "privacy" but he's not stupid. Personally I suspect their systems are already good enough that they really wouldn't benefit much from this anyway. They own instagram for goodness sakes.

    10 votes
    1. [2]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      Yeah, there was an article in The Atlantic a few days ago in response to this Wired article that basically makes the same point: Go Ahead, Post the Stupid Photo of Yourself From 10 Years Ago...

      Yeah, there was an article in The Atlantic a few days ago in response to this Wired article that basically makes the same point: Go Ahead, Post the Stupid Photo of Yourself From 10 Years Ago

      Facebook has so much data that they really don't need to do it this way, this is an extremely inconsequential thing to be worried about.

      9 votes
      1. ali
        Link Parent
        Facebook has been around long enough that it doesn't really need a 10 year challenge. It already has pictures of everyone 10 years ago

        Facebook has been around long enough that it doesn't really need a 10 year challenge. It already has pictures of everyone 10 years ago

        2 votes
    2. [5]
      annadane
      Link Parent
      Has no one ever told him he needs to take privacy seriously with the amount of responsibility Facebook has? Or is he just surrounded by yes men?

      Has no one ever told him he needs to take privacy seriously with the amount of responsibility Facebook has? Or is he just surrounded by yes men?

      1. [3]
        Deimos
        Link Parent
        Imagine people keep giving you advice about something and telling you that it's important. You decide to completely ignore that advice, and end up being the most successful in your sector and one...

        Imagine people keep giving you advice about something and telling you that it's important. You decide to completely ignore that advice, and end up being the most successful in your sector and one of the richest people in the world. Why would you suddenly start taking that advice seriously?

        Facebook will start caring about privacy when some actual consequences appear.

        13 votes
        1. [2]
          bhrgunatha
          Link Parent
          This is the thing that bothers me about privacy more than anything. Overall, people just don't care; they'd rather have something convenient or comforting than privacy. Due to that, all those data...

          This is the thing that bothers me about privacy more than anything. Overall, people just don't care; they'd rather have something convenient or comforting than privacy. Due to that, all those data mining companies, with google and facebook as their standard bearer, will continue to thrive. It's not without hope - there is more discussion and awareness about privacy and not everyone thinks you're a lunatic for being concerned but it's going to take something incredibly extreme to change that and I can't see what that is.

          The internet is so convenient and so riddled with surveillance and data gathering it's hard to imagine what could stop it or force a change of direction.

          2 votes
          1. elcuello
            Link Parent
            I completely agree and it makes me feel like a conspiracy nut when I try to explain it to people. I really hope I never get to say I told you so.

            I completely agree and it makes me feel like a conspiracy nut when I try to explain it to people. I really hope I never get to say I told you so.

      2. mat
        Link Parent
        He doesn't really need yes men because he still owns a controlling stake in the company and can (and does) do whatever he wants (the $1bn IG buyout famously wasn't board-approved, Zuck just did...

        He doesn't really need yes men because he still owns a controlling stake in the company and can (and does) do whatever he wants (the $1bn IG buyout famously wasn't board-approved, Zuck just did it), but rumour is that the inner circle aren't so much yes men as people who just agree with how he thinks. I think a lot of the people who have other ideas about privacy tend to not get very far at Facebook. Because how would you?

        That's a bit like wondering why vegans don't run slaughterhouses.

        Fwiw, where my friend does work is in helping make FB better at not showing people fake news and/or manipulative content. They do care, to an extent, but their philosophy on how to run a social network isn't the same as - say - your average tilderino.

        1 vote
  2. [2]
    Algernon_Asimov
    Link
    I hadn't thought about privacy with regard to this latest trend of then-and-now face pics. It's just another silly trend I'm trying to ignore. However, I am wary of those Facebook "games" where...

    I hadn't thought about privacy with regard to this latest trend of then-and-now face pics. It's just another silly trend I'm trying to ignore.

    However, I am wary of those Facebook "games" where you have to match your birth date against one list of phrases/items, and your birth month against another list of phrases/items, and then announce the humorous result to your friends. "I'm a garrulous aardvark! lol" Behind the scenes, I imagine some hacker or developer reverse-engineering this to work out that said garrulous aardvark was born on the 7th of August, and - hey, presto! - they've acquired another data point to hack your online identity.

    This might not actually be happening, but I've become so cynical about who's trying to obtain my data and how that this is a realistic scenario in my opinion.

    3 votes
    1. CrazyOtter
      Link Parent
      Quite a few of those quizzes & games are phishing attempts for security questions and account recovery.

      Quite a few of those quizzes & games are phishing attempts for security questions and account recovery.