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Comment by mirkules | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible to bring about a similar complaint against Facebook with the FTC? Or, if the FTC is the wrong agency, what would be the right one?

Of particular concern are "shadow profiles" - dossiers on people who have never even used or consented to using Facebook[1]. I'm no lawyer, but there could be precedent per this Vizio case.

In my opinion Facebook is hugely overstepping people's privacy bounds, even if they do bury what they do with some of the data in their terms of service. I never even knew about DeepFace, or mouse cursor movements, or any of the multitudes of violations of privacy outlined in the article below, and frankly it scares me and makes me angry.

[1]http://veekaybee.github.io/facebook-is-collecting-this/

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By using FB, you consent to them using the information about you that others and you yourself provide. Dont like it? Dont use FB.

don't like the single de facto platform for communication online? don't use it. i'm sure your friends will get ahold of you somehow. maybe whatsapp?

On the one hand, Facebook is ubiquitous enough that the government could probably step in and regulate them and it wouldn't be entirely unreasonable. On the other hand, I don't use Facebook and I'm getting along just fine. I have an account but log in about once a year. "Don't use it" is a legitimate option.

They still track you even if you don't have an account. Your friends give them more than enough info for them to create a detailed dossier.

> dossiers on people who have never even used or consented to using Facebook

I think you misread the comment. These are people that already don't use Facebook.

By that logic, we shouldn't buy or use Vizio TVs either. But the issue here with the FTC complaint is that there was not a prominent warning that the data was being collected or used in such a way.

I certainly never read or even saw any warning about facial matching in all my photos or my children's photos.

Besides all that, people with shadow profiles who never even used Facebook or agreed to their TOS are being tracked. This is not ok.

I feel like there is a double standard here: we are vilifying Vizio - a company that has mutliple competitors - for much less wrongdoing than what Facebook is guilty of, even though FB has a de facto monopoly on social networking.

Edit: there is a link on the ftc.gov website where you can file a complaint against a company with concerns how it handles your privacy: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/Company#crnt

> By that logic, we shouldn't buy or use Vizio TVs either.

Burn it all. Facebook and Vizio.

And every other company. Go live in a cave because thats where all companies are going and no one is slowing the process down. This consumer choice gambit very well be a false statement in the future.

Except a lot of people are forced to use FB either for work or by friends/family. Without the right IRL social network these people are very disadvantaged given that practically everything social (as in, real life people hanging out, not "social" media) is on FB nowadays

crickets

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