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Comment by cobbzilla | Hacker News Reader

> A Facebook spokesperson claimed in a statement that “there was nothing ‘secret’ about this”, yet it had threatened legal action if users publicly discussed the Research program.

Will wonders never cease?

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The cavalier attitude says to me that this company is still a start up at heart. Early-stage companies often break a lot of rules that’s how you get big. Facebook is just still doing it.

This "it's ok to act immorally and illegally when you're a startup" attitude has to die in a fire.

Problem is governments never really acted aside from the US congressional hearings. While this is happening, Facebook's profits are up.

There's really nothing compelling Zuck and Facebook to act morally and legally.

The EU had a hearing as well. The UK had one after that and Zucc didn't show. I guess the other EU members are satisfied to know that FB doesn't give enough of a shit to actually show up when asked to show up.

It's not immoral or illegal. It's just "will convict in the court of public opinion". And as a startup you should ignore that.

Please don't attribute Facebook's lack of values to all other startups, that's a gross generalization.

A company's values reflects the values of its people, especially the founding people. Facebook's immoral behavior can be traced all the way back to its start and ultimately its maker.

Privacy is not a principle Facebook is willing to act on.

I didn’t say anything about values.

The attitude says to me "We've lied or misled the public so often, they're not even going to try to pin us down on this tiny one".

NDA's are ripe for abuse, and should be severely limited by law.

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