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Is Facebook evil?

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In 2003, one year before Facebook was founded, a website called Facemash began nonconsensually scraping pictures of students at Harvard from the school’s intranet and asking users to rate their hotness. Obviously, it caused an outcry. The website’s developer quickly proffered an apology. “I hope you understand, this is not how I meant for things to go, and I apologize for any harm done as a result of my neglect to consider how quickly the site would spread and its consequences thereafter,” wrote a young Mark Zuckerberg. “I definitely see how my intentions could be seen in the wrong light.”

In 2004 Zuckerberg cofounded Facebook, which rapidly spread from Harvard to other universities. And in 2006 the young company blindsided its users with the launch of News Feed, which collated and presented in one place information that people had previously had to search for piecemeal. Many users were shocked and alarmed that there was no warning and that there were no privacy controls. Zuckerberg apologized. “This was a big mistake on our part, and I’m sorry for it,” he wrote on Facebook’s blog. “We really messed this one up,” he said. “We did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them.”

Then in 2007, Facebook’s Beacon advertising system, which was launched without proper controls or consent, ended up compromising user privacy by making people’s purchases public. Fifty thousand Facebook users signed an e-petition titled “Facebook: Stop invading my privacy.” Zuckerberg responded with an apology: “We simply did a bad job with this release and I apologize for it.” He promised to improve. “I’m not proud of the way we’ve handled this situation and I know we can do better,” he wrote.

By 2008, Zuckerberg had written only four posts on Facebook’s blog: Every single one of them was an apology or an attempt to explain a decision that had upset users.

In 2010, after Facebook violated users’ privacy by making key types of information public without proper consent or warning, Zuckerberg again responded with an apology—this time published in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “We just missed the mark,” he said. “We heard the feedback,” he added. “There needs to be a simpler way to control your information.” “In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use,” he promised.

I’m going to run out of space here, so let’s jump to 2018 and skip over all the other mishaps and apologies and promises to do better—oh yeah, and the consent decree that the Federal Trade Commission made Facebook sign in 2011, charging that the company had deceptively promised privacy to its users and then repeatedly broken that promise—in the intervening years.

Last month, Facebook once again garnered widespread attention with a privacy related backlash when it became widely known that, between 2008 and 2015, it had allowed hundreds, maybe thousands, of apps to scrape voluminous data from Facebook users—not just from the users who had downloaded the apps, but detailed information from all their friends as well. One such app was run by a Cambridge University academic named Aleksandr Kogan, who apparently siphoned up detailed data on up to 87 million users in the United States and then surreptitiously forwarded the loot to the political data firm Cambridge Analytica. The incident caused a lot of turmoil because it connects to the rolling story of distortions in the 2016 US presidential election. But in reality, Kogan’s app was just one among many, many apps that amassed a huge amount of information in a way most Facebook users were completely unaware of.

* The Sun-Times editorial board has some questions Congress should ask Zuckerberg…

Shouldn’t users be allowed control their personal data? Specifically, should the United States adopt controls similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect next month and lets users correct data and transfer their data elsewhere, while letting regulators impose big fines on companies that don’t comply? If such a law is not the answer, in what other way can users regain control of their personal information? Why does Facebook oppose a proposed California ballot measure that would give users the right to know what data about them is being collected and how it is being used?

In your prepared remarks released on Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg, you talk about how Facebook has failed individuals. Doesn’t the company, by its enormous reach, also have large responsibilities to our democracy and our nation as a whole?

Facebook knew about Cambridge Analytica’s data gathering back in 2015. Why wasn’t the public told then?

Is the model of a company that collects personal data to sell to a wide variety of advertisers and others simply incompatible with the goal of protecting users’ personal data, some of which is collected without their knowledge? Will Facebook make it possible for users to retract information they no longer want to be accessible to others, including information gathered through facial recognition software? Over the weekend, “Saturday Night Live” mocked you for resisting this kind of empowerment by Facebook users.

How many other companies are using deceptive techniques to gather data via Facebook, and are they mishandling it once they have it? Recently, Facebook suspended another company, CubeYou, that used personality quizzes similar to the one Cambridge Analytica used to access the personal data of users and their friends. Will Facebook be able to stop such abuses in the future or are they beyond control?

Why didn’t Facebook do more to keep fake news from circulating and prevent foreign interference in our elections? Can we expect a future in which trolls and other abuses of social media become a regular part of political campaigns?

How can we be assured that large social media companies won’t use their power to favor politicians whose views align best with those of the companies? How can we be assured that a particular politician or party won’t get broader reach, cheaper ad rates or more access to user information?

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:32 pm

Comments

Just another reason to not have a facebook account and not let friends and family post anything about me.

Comment by Huh? Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:37 pm
I’d say amoral. And I have nothing to do with them.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:39 pm
When a product you use is free, you are the product.

Facebook, Google, etc., only make money selling your information and targeting you with ads, news, etc. Nothing will stop this.

Comment by Incognito Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:44 pm
Twitter > Facebook

The issue is the users are the product. Facebook makes its billions off the users… it just caught up with them and the country too.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:49 pm
“How can we be assured that large social media companies won’t use their power to favor politicians whose views align best with those of the companies?” -Already being done by Facebook,YouTube and Twitter.

Comment by Stand Tall Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:54 pm
You mean to say that a corporation that I willingly gave my personal information actually uses it to make money for themselves? Color me shocked. Good lord, it’s like no one ever read a EULA before.

The Computer/GPS/”phone” in your pocket collects way more personal information than Facebook. So do the websites you visit. Want to protect your information? Don’t use the internet.

Comment by ChrisB Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:54 pm
Well, they support terrorists and pedophiles, so there’s that. I guess it’s comes down to your definition of “evil.” I think they probably are.

NYT - In the memo, Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook vice president, wrote, “Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good.”

ViceNews - “There are a wide range of topics and behaviors that appear on Facebook. In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook’s policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures.”

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:55 pm
Agreed, twitter > Facebook. These guys drop the ball every couple years, are “so sorry”, and say “it will never happen again”. We’ll be right back in this boat in two years.

Comment by Stark Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:55 pm
Evil is a very strong word, though I assume you were being hyperbolic. Personally I don’t have a problem with it, I assume that most of the stuff I put on the internet is basically public knowledge. I don’t mind targeted ads or anything like that, what I mind is the outright lies that trolls and bots spread. Facebook in my mind is just the medium, not the problem. That being said, I don’t know if they violated any laws or their owns Terms of Service.

Comment by Perrid Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 1:55 pm
I don’t think an inanimate brand or technology can be evil, so no, Facebook isn’t evil.

Zuckerburg and his executives, on the other hand…

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:00 pm
From an NPR interview this morning with the man who took Facebook to trial in the EU-

SCHREMS: “ … I just wonder if he’s still going to get away with the apology number because people that are really involved in all of these debates wonder how he could get away with that so far to just say, oh, I’m sorry, we didn’t know when basically everybody knew. Like, we debated the app thing for seven hours in Vienna with representatives of Facebook six years ago and they said (ph) what Cambridge Analytica did is exactly how the system was meant to be and how this system was set up.”

https://tinyurl.com/yaxkpojy

Not good, Mark Z., not good. Your apologies put you right up there with the boy who called wolf.

Comment by Anon221 Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:07 pm
Wait until Facebook accomplishes their goal of gutting the BIPA, Biometric Information Privacy Act, as I’m reading about today.

The pandora’s box being opened with that will make Stephen Hawking roll over in his grave.

Comment by cdog Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:12 pm
The hearing is worth watching. There is a PBS livestream. Lots of “this started in a dorm room” and “mistakes were made”replies. Just my opinion but I think Mark Zuckerberg is not buying a lot of good will from congress.

Comment by Responsa Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:16 pm
Old Blue is confused..isnt Facebook a free thing? I mean, is there anything really ‘free’?

Comment by Blue dog dem Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:30 pm
===Old Blue is confused===

We know.

Facebook and Google and others have found a way to monetize your personal data. Users give free information to these companies who then turn around and sell it to advertisers.

Data is currency, and users are giving it away for free every day. So no, Facebook isn’t “free,” it just doesn’t cost you any money to give away all of your personal information and preferences.

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:36 pm
No. It can be used in evil ways and wonderful ways.

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:44 pm
47th. Thanks that helps. But from everything I had heard, people knew this was going on. At least I thought anyway. Wouldn’t it be the smart thing not to use these things?

I have never used Facebook. But one time Rich suggested I try Google before I made some ill advised post. I googled ‘Rauner’. Now I get all these advertisements for Harleys and cowboy clothes. Is this what you mean?

Comment by blue dog dem Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 2:56 pm
=== Well, they support terrorists and pedophiles, so there’s that. I guess it’s comes down to your definition of “evil.” I think they probably are.===

Come on. They support terrorists and pedophiles?

Lets take a step back and look at what Facebook is. Its a social media website/app that allows people to share information with each other. Like any other form of technology, it can be abused. Think of the Nigerian email scams. Because people use email to rip off others does that mean that email is evil?

People have to see Facebook for what it is, and it is just a tool. How that tool is used is up to the user.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 3:20 pm
Social media tycoons have made untold billions off of a society that is unraveling itself.

Maybe not Facebook so much, but the social media apps are leading the massive decline in adolescent mental health. I see this everyday. As a parent I am at fault as much as anyone for allowing this evil into my house. Kids have become addicted to social media and it is without a doubt harmful to them.

Facebook et al= evil. Pure.

Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 3:28 pm
==I googled ‘Rauner’. Now I get all these advertisements for Harleys and cowboy clothes. Is this what you mean?==

Hahahahaha, now that’s funny

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 3:30 pm
Facebook is the modern Trojan Horse.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 3:45 pm
===How that tool is used is up to the user.===

You’re completely missing the point. It’s not how we use the tool, it’s how the tool uses us.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 3:45 pm
“Want to protect your information? Don’t use the internet.”

Big thinking.

Right up there with “Want to protect your kids? Don’t use the roads.”

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 4:11 pm
I’m going with what Kara Swisher says….juvenile. (and to stop treating them like they are boys with toys.) the start of Facebook (hello Winkelvoss twins) was based on lookism re women. it was childish and sexist. they keep pushing the goalposts. but anyone who uses the service…it’s free….knows that they are monetizing your presence somehow to pay for your free use. with ads, with info collection and comparisons. But gmail is doing that too, right? are you going to stop using all free on line services? If I were a MC, I would just have Kara Swisher do the questioning. she is fierce.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 4:18 pm
I wish Facebook had one of those personality quizzes that mapped you to a member in the General Assembly.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 4:18 pm
Yes, Facebook is the of the devil. So is Google.

Further, I don’t think the data is very accurate. I downloaded my data from Facebook and found many items that were from click bate which didn’t reflect my interest.

Comment by Claud Peppers Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 4:24 pm
@misterjayem

You missed my point. The data Facebook has about you is nothing compared to Google. Hell, there are 11 trackers on this very website. You’re tilting at the wrong windmills if you think Facebook is the worst offender.

Comment by ChrisB Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 4:39 pm
===How that tool is used is up to the user.===

====You’re completely missing the point. It’s not how we use the tool, it’s how the tool uses us.====

Speaking of tools, why hasn’t Ron weighed-in on this?

Comment by Speaking of Tools... Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 5:18 pm
On a similar note. I once voted in a Republican primary. From that day on, I have been inundated with phone calls and junk mail. I wonder how that happened.

Comment by blue dog dem Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 5:22 pm
Another example of why government regulation is indispensable to protect public interest. Corporations can’t be counted on to do so on their own.

Comment by anon2 Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 5:29 pm
Guess that Right to Know Act was needed after all. Yikes.

Comment by GucciDownToTheDox Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 5:32 pm
–You mean to say that a corporation that I willingly gave my personal information actually uses it to make money for themselves?–

–“Want to protect your information? Don’t use the internet.”–

You obviously didn’t read the thread that was so nicely provided with you right at the top.

It’s chock-fulla examples of repeated promises by Facebook to protect privacy and how they broke them. That’s the beef.

I’m guessing you’re a couple of those “waits to talk” rather than “listens” types.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 6:15 pm
I’m not going to stop using Facebook. I understand they sell my data. As with any other electronic program, I am assuming the risk of potential hacks or misuse.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 10, 18 @ 6:25 pm