this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Will people here use/try Meta's #threads when available? Would love to know the reasons or if it would be just for fun/curiosity.

The amount of data collected is insane imo.

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[–] Arotrios@kbin.social 78 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Thanks to @m0bi13 who posted this breakdown for context :

Data collected by #threads:

  • Health & Fitness
    
    
  • Financial info
    
    
  • Contact info
    
    
  • User content
    
    
  • Browsing History
    
    
  • Usage Data
    
    
  • Diagnostics
    
    
  • Purchases
    
    
  • Location
    
    
  • Contacts
    
    
  • Search history
    
    
  • Identifiers
    
    
  • Sensitive Info
    
    
  • Other Data
    
    

Oh fuck no. The very first line is basically a HIPAA violation. It gets worse from there. We require less disclosure from Supreme Court Justices and Presidential nominees.

This is a trainwreck waiting to happen - even if Facebook itself doesn't abuse this level of power, you know that bad actors within the organization will. And once the information is collected, you know that tyrannical governments all over the world will be falling over themselves to get access to the data. This is a stalker's wetdream, an Orwellian orgasm of truly grotesque proportions.

Keep the Fediverse from Zucking. Just say no to Threads.

[–] RunningInRVA@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It’s not a HIPPA violation. That law doesn’t apply to companies like Meta beacause they do not fit the definition of an entity that the law was written towards. This is just people freely giving away their personal health information and nothing more. From your own link:

The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals' medical records and other individually identifiable health information (collectively defined as “protected health information”) and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.

[–] Arotrios@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

Yep, you're technically correct. If it's voluntarily provided, FB isn't a health plan, health care clearinghouse, or health care provider...

Good thing they'd never do anything to get that data without you giving your consent.... o zuck it, you get the point.

[–] lemmylommy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So … medical information is only protected if handled by medical professionals. If the abusive mega-corporation owned by a psycho billionaire wants to do whatever the fuck they want with it, good luck.

[–] Rhodin@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

The gist of HIPAA is that the patient decides who knows their health status. If they want to announce every rash and sniffle on Meta and thus to every advertiser and government agent in existence, HIPAA won’t stop them.

Doctors are allowed to broadcast their own, personal health issues all over social media, but not anyone else’s.

[–] mriguy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

HIPPA is a law that governs how people and companies within the healthcare system in the US are allowed (and required) to handle, protect, and share data. It was definitely needed, and rectified a lot of bad practices - health care providers were really very sloppy and cavalier about handling data - but even with that limited scope, it’s very complicated.

It doesn’t cover anybody else. Yes, health information SHOULD absolutely be protected more stringently so that OTHER major players can’t abuse your privacy, but that wasn’t the focus of HIPPA.

[–] JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

"Banning me from your private platform violates my freedom of speech!"

[–] InfiniteFlow@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

an Orwellian orgasm of truly grotesque proportions.

Loved this. Is it still hyperbole if it is the best way to reflect the obscene abuse they are trying to pull off?

I think i will shamelessly start using it myself!

[–] Nikelui@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm all for the outrage, but what did people expect? It's the same amount of information already collected through the Facebook and Instagram apps, it's nothing really new.

ETA: just to be extremely clear, that's a bad thing.

[–] MaxG@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Lmao Zucking. Never heard that one before lol

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (7 children)

@Arotrios

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl

Ok and how is this worse than what Facebook already does? Or TikTok? Or Instagram?

You list all these things as if this new platform is going to be the first and only thing to harvest all your personal data. Like it’s shocking and new and so much worse

How is it worse? It’s the same bullshit. If you already have Facebook, and most do unfortunately, they are already doing that. And I would bet TikTok takes this much and more and has worse actors.

[–] Arotrios@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's worth nothing because it's trying to come here, hungry, grasping, looking to wriggle its tentacles into our federated spaces and suck as much content and data and joy out of us as possible. This is a coordinated corporate effort, with the backing of millions of dollars, to bring centralized control to federated spaces. Their play is that once those spaces become reliant on the traffic that Facebook brings, they'll acquiesce to the weight of the corporate presence, particularly when it comes to developing new features or engaging data security.

Big tech companies do this all the time with promising new open source projects, gaining control of them in the growth phase through their support and audience, and then throwing their weight around once their presence becomes a necessity. Plus, its very likely that the federated nature of instances means that if you post content on your instance of choice, it will end up on Facebook if federated with them. Right now, if you want to avoid the Zuckening, you can do so by not having Facebook, Insta, Tinder, or any of the services that motherzucker runs. If #threads becomes a thing the Fediverse relies on, you can bet your bottom dollar it will zuck the life out of the place if it can't directly control it.

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Arotrios

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl

Absolutely. I completely agree. I have Facebook because I have friends and family that basically require I use that to contact them. Never downloaded messager or any other thing. Not that they don’t have everything from Facebook anyway.

But the person I was responding to wasn’t making the point that everything Zuck touches turns to shit and a money grab that torches user experience. Or that they are trying to stop any potential competitor or subsume them.

They’re saying “look at all this data it’s going to harvest!!! Isn’t that INSANE?!?” When it’s literally the same almost every social media app on your phone does/has. There are a ton of arguments against anything zuck touches. Pretending the data harvesting is going to be new or groundbreaking is dishonest. Especially when, as I said, I would bet tiktok does all that and more. And it goes to a much worse actor.

[–] Unaware7013@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They’re saying “look at all this data it’s going to harvest!!! Isn’t that INSANE?!?” When it’s literally the same almost every social media app on your phone does/has.

Just stopping by to point out that these are in no way mutually exclusive. Just because existing social media collects an insane amount of data, doesn't mean the amount of data being collected by threads isn't also insane.

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Unaware7013

Of course not

Again the whole point of my comment is to express how UNORIGINAL it is what threads is doing

It’s terrible. I want no part of it. But we shouldn’t treat it as a brand new slew of invasions when it is most certainly the same invasions most people happily take.

But OP should make it seem like threads is going to be the first and only app that harvests that much, varied data. That’s dishonest.

[–] Unaware7013@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never got the impression that this was new or different from the comment OP, just that the level of data gathered was insane/over broad. Which I think we can all agree is the case.

Also, nothing in their post was incorrect, it's a stalkers wet dream, have wild potential for government abuse, and people within the org would abuse it - both things that we know are factually accurate given the shit that's gone down over the decades.

ALSO also, just because the current apps gather an insane amount of data doesn't mean the public is aware of the Faustian bargain they've agreed to. With new products/platforms being created, it's best to point out to everyone just how much they're giving up to join. I know I was one of those who had a Facebook for a while and bailed once I found out just how bad it was.

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

@Unaware7013

i think we can all agree with everything you said there.

I definitely got the impression from OP that you did not, but I am more than happy to admit I am not perfect, and I can take wrong meanings from things with the best of them.

cause i think we are all saying the same thing - this is fucking horrible, and no one should use any app of platform that harvests data from you this way. I just wanted to make it clear that this level of harvesting is not new. it's not, like, going beyond a new threshold. this is what everyone signs up for when they get tiktok or facebook or even messenger.

we should be angry but not act shocked. you know what i mean?

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Yeah smoking is bad for you, but we're already doing it so what's the problem?"

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

@HarkMahlberg

Thanks for proving my exact point. Actually both points.

[–] kjr@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

@bathrobe I don't know about tiktok, but I think that it is the same data that Facebook collects. And the worst is what we have at the end, "Other Data". That means, each moment Meta can decide to collect yet more things without to inform the user.

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl @Arotrios

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All of those are terrible and I refuse to use them for the same reasons. It isn't that it is worse, it is just more or the same.

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

@snooggums i guess i was the only one that read OP that way. I was trying to say that it's more of the same, that it isn't novel or new, and we shouldn't be surprised. my impression was OP was saying "look at how crazy this is" as in "no one has ever done this before!"

[–] Kichae@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Why does it need to be worse than the awful shit awful companies are already doing in order for it to be a concern?

Especially to people here?

Believe it or not, some of us aren't using any of those apps.

And maybe, just maybe, people should be horrified at what those other apps are collecting, top.

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Kichae

The OP is trying to make it seem that it’s new and shocking when it clearly is the same shit almost all the other social media apps do. Try reading better or understanding context.

Fucking idiots all over the internet think that once you say one critical thing you’re immediately the enemy. Fucking grow up, kid. Why the fuck do you think I’m here?

[–] sachasage@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You’re clearly not here to have a meaningful conversation. Put the vitriol down or go back to Reddit.

[–] Sephtis-6@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree tiktak and so are probably the same or worse. But this doesn't mean that it is fine that the new app does it.

[–] bathrobe@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

@Sephtis-6@kbin.social

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl @Arotrios

I am not condoning it happening here. I’m saying it’s really bad that they can see your DMs. And people are trying to brush it off as if it’s no big deal

It’s a HUGE fucking deal. And it’s not acceptable in the slightest. There is a reason I don’t have TikTok or Snapchat or Instagram accounts and have never downloaded the apps. And it’s not because I’m super cool with this stuff.

[–] awsamation@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

It's worse because a large portion of people here are the people who don't use Facebook/instagram/tiktok. So while this isn't a new extreme in terms of privacy breaches, it is a new level in terms of what's potentially affecting us directly.

[–] Jajcus@karab.in 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You know, that every post or comment you make on lemmy/kbin can be sent to every federated instance and stored (collected) there? And those comments/posts may contain any of the information from the list, especially when aggregated from different sources and with all the basic meta-data available.

A company as big as meta needs to explicitly state that or they will have serious legal problems.

Of course, we know that Meta will want to abuse that data to monetize as much of it as possible and they have means to do so. On the other hand rogue federated instances could also abuse our data. That is the cost of being open. Company providing closed service can better protect our privacy, but we cannot trust them to do so (especially when the make money by processing and selling data).

I think those problems cannot be solved by technology – open or proprietary, but need to be solved by regulations and law enforcement. And at the same time the regulations should not block all data sharing, as then fediverse could not exist (now I wonder if lemmy/kbin can even be 'legal' according to GDPR, but IANAL). Tough problem.

[–] ppb1701@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

@Arotrios Why would I want an inferior version of mastadon? But seriously I will likely only end up with one if they auto generate it. (a few family use ig and fb as their only communication so it's checked occasionally via web with adblockers etc....ugh).

@m0bi13 @edu4rdshl