How Facebook tracks you on Android

sidetone said:
Google promoted opensource (Summer of Code, contributions to XMPP, Go). It's difficult to tell if their agenda is good, neutral, bad or some combination of those based on their opinion. Still, its not good to trust a company with everything, even one that's not bad, whether they get hacked, or for unforseen consequences.

Facebook has a bad agenda, and Bill Gates of Microsoft had a big ego.
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sidetone said:
I didn't know if Google is evil, but it is something that has to be considered. There is definitely no reason to trust them, as you are right about marketing departments. They will always try to convince you of what they want you to think about them. It couldn't be assumed Google is using it for intentionally bad purposes, but in the end, even if good is intended, there will be a lot of ethical dilemas, where Google is not qualified to make every distinction. As someone said above, they're not God, and people including CEOs have potential to abuse power. Anyone who desires power, especially in this way, can't be trusted. Look at the hold some kept on people in their country, to creating religion based on themselves, watching people, encouraging spying. They use charisma, or convince others they are innocent. Look at Scientology, which is worse than a confession booth, it uses secrets to subjugate and manipulate. It appeared as if the representative from Google was saying, if you do something bad in their opinion, it will be exposed, and as if they were keeping tabs on that. Whatever Google's purpose, there's unacceptable potential for abuse.

That particular incident was about Facebook, but it can be applied to any company for potential of abuse.

I've always gotten that. John Henry could only temporarily go up against a machine, and AI will always beat us in board games, and can do that all day long, while we sleep or rest for a big part of the day. Some have beaten AI, but very few, they need sleep, and they can't do it regularly, and they probably can't beat it anymore.

Maybe you stumbled on something. When I can't make definite conclusions on assumptions whether something is true, there's no valid reason for Google or any other company to do that. If they weren't using it for intentionally evil purposes (which is now kind of doubtful), they are going to use it for maintaining elitism or for preserving themselves, while good or not inherently bad people don't get protections from harsh realities or evil actors, which would still be evil.

What does anyone make of Google's promotion of opensource? I don't know what to make of that. Kind of like, get its foot in the door, or software freedom?
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You can trust them, definitely that it is for big business. As soon as there is business from informatic's mongers, you can expect spying and removing freedom. However, services for services does harm the economy.

The best would be that you must have a Google smartphone or nano embedded devices always with you, to allow most livings, to deal with bank, to pay in shops, ... to order a pizza, to simply turn on TV, to start the wash machine,... That makes your life easier, to have more entertainment, but then .... revolution to get back the most important: freedom of living.
 
While this is definitely true, the reality is (as usual) more complex. To begin with, some of Facebook's big competitors have also had their share of scandals. And of the smaller ones (like Palantir and Uber), the scandals or problems have been worse: look at the customers of Palantir (not usually the kind of industry that young software engineers want to be associated with), and the sexual culture at Uber (where a few years ago one got the feeling that they hired women mostly to provide amusement to its founder and CEO). At the same time, the big traditional IT companies (HP, IBM, Oracle=Sun) are struggling badly, and young successful people don't want to work there. And as much as Facebook is seen from the outside as mostly a privacy violating machine, quite a few folks who work there still see themselves as a force for good: they are creating a machine that allows people to communicate effectively with other people.
 
I use facebook and twitter. FB is used mainly to annoy and confuse my wife with tech posts. I do not have the FB app on my phone and only access it using my browser. Most FB posting is from this laptop. I am pretty observant about apps on my phone and also use netstat to check outgoing traffic. I also neuter app permissions if possible, and pull perms from apps when I don't see a logical reason for them to have a specific permission. I know we are tracked by various apps on our phones but there is some functionality that is just useful and I use it so I don't really care if google tracks me.
 
No hack necessary. Zuckerberg infringes private user data to public view for free, but more often than not, he also says show me the money. I don't know which is more important to Zuckerberg, humiliating his user base or making money. I'm a bit surprised that someone like him did not do both at every opportunity. Maybe he was advertising to buyers of data when he made private user data public without consent.
 
sidetone said:
arstechnica.com

Senator: Mark Zuckerberg should face “the possibility of a prison term”

“He ought to be held personally accountable,” Ron Wyden (D-OR) said.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
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Should face the possibility of a prison term? "He ought to be held personally accountable?" Sounds about right. I could name several other prominent public figures who fall into the "should" and "ought to" category, none of which did a day for their heinous habitude.

Aside from our two-tier legal system, they'll never be able to put together a Judge, prosecution team and jury of his "peers" who don't use Facebook. Nobody else would return a guilty verdict for fear of not being able to post what they had for breakfast.
 
To set an example FB - and others - should be destroyed, their executives stripped of their assets and thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. Complicit politicians & judges as well.
 
Birdy said:
To set an example FB - and others - should be destroyed, their executives stripped of their assets and thrown in jail for the rest of their lives.
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That's good enough for the Red Devil's Advocate. We have a conviction. Bailiff, escort the prisoner to his new quarters.

abcnews.go.com

Burglary ring used social media to track affluent Houston residents and steal art, jewelry and guns

A widespread burglary ring used social media to track affluent Houston-area residents to steal high-priced art, jewelry, computers, and guns.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

Though the article did not state precisely which social media platforms they were using (the author a fearful Facebook user), odds are Inmate Zuckerburg helped facilitate the admission of their crimes so they "ought to" get along well and he "should" feel right at home.
 
For the record: I didn't read the whole thread but still wanted to respond ;) and yes: I know the thread is kinda old.

hukadan said:
This videos reminds me why I don't have a smartphone. I really like the part where the app, when opting-out, actually send more data to Facebook.
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This has nothing to do with a smartphone nor Android but "social" media in general. I mean... you do realize that Facebook can also easily track you while browsing on a PC? Just being logged into Facebook and visiting websites which have some of those "social" media widgets (you know: 'share on ....') will be enough for Big brother to know you that you visited that place. The kind of information they'll also happily store away for you.

The solution is simple: either don't use Facebook or make sure you're not always logged in.

I prefer #1... I'm not on Facebook, Twitter or any other of that nonsense.
 
Did the same, removed social media accounts. Family talked me into creating them to stay in touch, otherwise would not have created them in the first place. I came to the realization I just don't want myself posted on the internet like that. Privacy is becoming harder to come by every day and it seems most people just give it up without a second thought.

I don't use a "smart phone" and it's getting harder all the time to find basic phones. My service provider is going to obsolete 3G in a couple years which will push me into a smart phone and double my bill. There will be no basic 4G phones based on what I've seen so far. It's enough to start believing in conspiracy.

I fully agree the issue of privacy has moved from government to corporate business. They want your personal information to trade as a commodity.
 
CraigHB said:
I came to the realization I just don't want myself posted on the internet like that. Privacy is becoming harder to come by every day and it seems most people just give it up without a second thought.
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Having all kinds of personal information and photos of yourself online is a Cardinal Mistake. Take my word for it.

If I have been given reason enough to take intense interest in someone the first thing I do is check for social media accounts and pictures to see who I'm dealing with. That might be as far as I take it and let it go. It would have to be pretty serious to start a folder on someone, but I have before and that's generally not a good thing. I never delete them.

I have a vivid imagination and a bag of tricks I cooked up for personal use I won't relate here. Mostly annoyances and none of them meant to bring a Happy Happy Joy Joy moment, some less joyful than others. It's better to give than to receive and you don't want to be on the bad end of the stick.
 
Over the past 15 years, I've had two whack jobs from reddit track me down cause I irritated them. One called me on the phone when I used to have a landline. The other found my personal web site and posted that.

80% of everyone on reddit are kids under 20 and whack jobs so it's too be expected.
 
tedbell said:
CM is now LineageOS and I'm running version 15.1 (Android 8.1) on my S5. CM is not AOSP. It's its own version taken from Android sources. Most custom ROMS are based on either CM or AOSP. Neither are compatible. There are also a handful of custom ROMS taken from Touchwiz that were debloated.
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Unfortunately, LineageOS kind of imploded itself. With the move to LineageOS 15, they cut support for a lot of devices and very few newer devices are supported (I assume because they do not allow unlocking the boot-loader).
 
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