TL;DR version: Facebook was secretly giving various tech megacorps and RBC god-mode access (Edit: Actually over 150 companies for the last 8 years!):
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html
This could only arguably be worse if they'd left the information available to the public, but at least then we'd know it was going on (and expose a number of criminal schemes as a little bonus).
At this point the best thing to do is probably to ban everyone involved with this from working with personal information for the rest of their lives, and build a concrete sarcophagus over Facebook HQ.
It all started with a horny college nerd that wanted to look at cute co-ed’s.
So how else would one think that pencil necked little prick could be worth a $billion?
RevRico
UberDork
12/19/18 7:13 a.m.
People are actually still surprised at this?
I kind of wish I cared about this but I don’t. People actually thinking that you get privacy on the internet. And yet they want their internet with out regulations. It is like going to the Wild West in the 1870s and wanting freedom and a guarantee that you would not be killed by Indians or shot and robed by bandits. You can not have it both ways.
People are so stupid. They will post anything and everything out on Facebook as if no one can see it. This latest adventure It is like the attention whore in school getting bitch slapped in front of the whole class for being a dumb ass.
dean1484 said:
I kind of wish I cared about this but I don’t. People actually thinking that you get privacy on the internet. And yet they want their internet with out regulations. It is like going to the Wild West in the 1870s and wanting freedom and a guarantee that you would not be killed by Indians or shot and robed by bandits. You can not have it both ways.
True. The closest you can get to this is to educate yourself and take care with your privacy, which is the equivalent of being a badass gunslinger in the wild west. This doesn't solve the problem or protect the average person, but it's a way to protect yourself.
Regulations like the GDPR are more of a serious attempt to bring order to things. Facebook is going to get its ass fined off by the EU for this.
So... you are saying buying and putting a Facebook product that has a constant connection to the internet and a high resolution camera in your house is a bad idea?
Never used Facebook and don't plan on starting now...
Certainly not surprised.
Consequences for the wrong-doers? There will be none. This is why facebook exists and they are simply doing what they are supposed to do.
Ignorant people (i.e. facebook users) are the ones in the wrong here.
GameboyRMH said:
dean1484 said:
I kind of wish I cared about this but I don’t. People actually thinking that you get privacy on the internet. And yet they want their internet with out regulations. It is like going to the Wild West in the 1870s and wanting freedom and a guarantee that you would not be killed by Indians or shot and robed by bandits. You can not have it both ways.
True. The closest you can get to this is to educate yourself and take care with your privacy, which is the equivalent of being a badass gunslinger in the wild west. This doesn't solve the problem or protect the average person, but it's a way to protect yourself.
My usual rule of thumb is, "If you wouldn't want it published on the front page of your local newspaper, don't put it on the Internet." And another good rule of thumb is that the biggest threat is somebody forwarding a private message or email to your personal worst enemy, either unwittingly or maliciously. Contemplate that every time you click "send", and you'll avoid most of the Big Data threats as well.
I was writing a paper for my class about cyber security and Facebook. All the information on facial recognition and selling the algorithms to retailers where you enter a store and they can sell what they gathered from you. I think what is worse is all the baby boomer Congress members that question facebook and have no clue how to control it, no clue what the threat is and how to use the internet (obviously how email works lolz). I have started to read about people suing facebook about privacy, so far it has all went facebook's way. On top of that we only find out years after about the security breach, which gives facebook so much time to sweep things under the carpet.
Facebook is deeply in violation of the 2011 FTC consent order this time.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal carried a potential maximum fine of up $800 billion (based on the initially reported numbers) and that was peanuts compared to this one.
It's time for the corporate death penalty. I hate to go that far, but this is going to keep happening until someone visible is made into an example. Facebook is just happens to be the one who ran out of chances a long time ago.
Companies not being good corporate citizens is part of what drove the US into a heap of trouble at the start of the 20th century. I have no desire to see us return to that.
aircooled said:
So... you are saying buying a Facebook product that has a constant connection to the internet and a high resolution camera in your house is a bad idea?
Only for the person watching! They WANT to see this in it's paleness they can have it.
More details: Actually over 150 companies were given god-mode access and this has been going on for EIGHT MOTHERberkeleyING YEARS D-8
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/19/18148136/facebook-privacy-violations-nyt-netflix-spotify-amazon-yahoo
Edit: Actually all that info is also in the NYT article, but I'm TL;DR'ing a bit myself today.
1988RedT2 said:
Ignorant people (i.e. facebook users) are the ones in the wrong here.
Lots of morally superior non-Facebook users here. There always are when Facebook problems come up, those 2 billion people who use the...platform?...are always someone else 
But the thing is that you don't have to be a FB user for them to track you. They've admitted that, and thanks to your friends (assuming you have an ignorant friend or family member somewhere) you can be identified. So even being a non-ignorant person who obviously knows better, they're still watching.
The good news is that they're big enough and invasive enough that it might actually prompt some action. The free market isn't going to decide this any more than the free market can shut down the credit agencies for being bad corporate citizens. It's going to take intervention.
Ha! Maybe the rest of you suckers got your info sold, but as for me, i copied and pasted to my wall a post saying that i dont give my permission for facebook to do that. Check and mate, zuckerberg.
Keith Tanner said:
1988RedT2 said:
Ignorant people (i.e. facebook users) are the ones in the wrong here.
Lots of morally superior non-Facebook users here. There always are when Facebook problems come up, those 2 billion people who use the...platform?...are always someone else
But the thing is that you don't have to be a FB user for them to track you. They've admitted that, and thanks to your friends (assuming you have an ignorant friend or family member somewhere) you can be identified. So even being a non-ignorant person who obviously knows better, they're still watching.
It is for precisely this reason that I do not have friends. 
1988RedT2 said:
Certainly not surprised.
Consequences for the wrong-doers? There will be none. This is why facebook exists and they are simply doing what they are supposed to do.
Ignorant people (i.e. facebook users) are the ones in the wrong here.
I'm no facebook fan, but I don't blame the users like you do.
As far as I know, there IS some agreement of security that is part of being a member, to the point that FB should not be selling stuff if you say they can't. And it sounds like that is exactly what they are doing.
How is it wrong to be a member, set up your security to the max, with the "agreement" of FB to be that way, only to have FB sell your data anyway?
The ignorant one are the FB people who are selling your data.
I use Google and the Internet. I have a smartphone. I have a Facebook account (that I mostly just share silly memes on). I have a LinkedIn account. I work for the second largest software/ERP/Database company in the world. I'm typing my response on my work laptop as we speak.
I have no illusions about having any type of privacy regarding use of any product on the interwebz.
I'm a fairly boring person these days anyway. 
In reply to alfadriver :
Okay, okay. Maybe I was "wrong" to blame the user. But there is no doubt that it is hopelessly naive to think anything you post on facebook, or any information they gather in connection with your account, is in any way private.
Caveat emptor.
People go to FB to share every detail of their lives - with photos - already. The companies got ripped off.
Facebook's data collection goes far beyond what you choose to post. That's the sketchy thing here. They're accumulating and combining data you don't realize, and without your consent. If they were simply tailoring the ads on their platform on the level of "this person posts cat memes, so let's sell cat food", it wouldn't be a problem. But there's demographic and location data being pulled out all this and amalgamated with all sorts of browsing and purchasing behavior. And you don't get to choose what is private. They'll track you if you have opted out and if you have location services turned off - you really don't get an option.
That's the problem. Not what you post to facebook or choose to share. It's what they're collecting beyond that, with or without your permission. If you think otherwise, then you're the one who's naive.
I just got a short survey from FB. They have a bunch of innocuous questions and then they asked 4 times did I trust FB. I think they are trying to get some numbers to publish about how people trust FB
I'm trying real hard to find the problem I have with this.
I'll let you know if I do.
