I only give Facebook Messenger access to photos that I need to share. Not more, because I don't trust them not to abuse our relationship and misuse anything they can put their hands on, including photos and documents I don't mean to share.
Am I wrong and paranoid? Maybe, but it's not my fault that that's my perception of big tech. It's their own actions.
And that an average Joe doesn't realize how much access to his private life he gives them? Looks like somebody decided that these predatory tactics are not cool and even people not in the know should be protected.
> According to Italy’s regulator, Facebook requested access to the gallery via a single authorisation valid for the entire app, preceded by a generic notice requesting enabling of other features, which did not allow users to understand that they were also authorising suggestions from their gallery.
Yeah, I think normal people will accept the app permission to their gallery in order to send a photo. It seems reasonable to be able to opt-in to this very basic functionality of a messaging app without also implicitly consenting to FB training ML models on your entire library.
I wish, but unfortunately EU countries don't fine Big Tech enough and Big Tech just keeps breaking the law, treating the fines as normal cost of operation. Meta in particular is just profiteering on crime (phishing/fake ads) at this point, there are many leaked internal documents about it.
I know there will be lots of back and forth about whether or not Meta deserves this fine. But the broader question I have is whether there are regulators anywhere that allow companies to pre-register their products and get a "compliance certification" beforehand.
That is, there are obviously lots of gray areas in regulations. I would be less sympathetic to the view that these aren't just cash grabs by governments if these governments provided a service to say whether a particular product in a current form was compliant. This is essentially what the FDA does with drugs, why not with other consumer products?
EU member states won't hesitate to milk the tech cows of the silicon valley. I feel good about it. The data-hungry social apps with addition forced by algorithm, unleashed by the mega tech on the world, should be countered.
While I'm unhappy about lots of the regulation coming from the EU lately; this is one of the things that has the potential to actually make the world a better place.
Now I'm imagining something like "When I copy and pasted that text from my uncle Gigi that said that Facebook was not authorized to use my content, they didn't respect that!"
I’m saying they don’t give a flying fuck about the amount, and Italy doesn’t give a flying fuck about anything Facebook does, they just wanted some money to pay off the mob or something. Italy is about as globally relevant at Ghana, which is to say not at all.
It sure is not, but compared to an Average Joe’s wallet, it’s a drop in a bucket for him. At the end of the day this price is the cost they are paying for doing business in free mode.
What is this financially illiterate nonsense? It's a fine that is certainly high enough that it incentives change (you don't want a repeat €805m fine on your balance sheet) and presumably that is what we care about. Because we are adults, and it's not about vengeance. It's about pushing people to do the right thing. Right?
Wrong! These fines for them are just cost of doing business.
You might naively believe that these fines would move the needle, but nothing is going to change unless these billionaires a. Are blocked from doing business unless they act appropriately or b. Go into jail
Am I wrong and paranoid? Maybe, but it's not my fault that that's my perception of big tech. It's their own actions.
And that an average Joe doesn't realize how much access to his private life he gives them? Looks like somebody decided that these predatory tactics are not cool and even people not in the know should be protected.
This sounds so benign to me.
Not sure about this particular case.
That is, there are obviously lots of gray areas in regulations. I would be less sympathetic to the view that these aren't just cash grabs by governments if these governments provided a service to say whether a particular product in a current form was compliant. This is essentially what the FDA does with drugs, why not with other consumer products?
Right...?
You might naively believe that these fines would move the needle, but nothing is going to change unless these billionaires a. Are blocked from doing business unless they act appropriately or b. Go into jail