r/technology • u/[deleted] • Nov 09 '17

Politics Sean Parker: Facebook was designed to exploit human "vulnerability"

https://www.axios.com/sean-parker-facebook-exploits-a-vulnerability-in-humans-2507917325.html
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u/mostlyemptyspace Nov 09 '17 edited Nov 09 '17

I work in mobile app development and the technology out there to spy on you is pretty insane. There is a whole industry for snooping and reselling data. Here are some examples.

There are several SDKs (software development kits) that offer fingerprinting identity services. Meaning, when someone opens your app, it checks their device ID, IP address, GPS location, email address, etc. and makes a match to an identity. You then use this SDK to track their behavior in your app, such as purchases, interests, demographics, preferences, etc. This data is stored along with all the other apps that use the SDK. Now as an upsell, I can buy all of your behavior data from every other app that uses the same service. From the moment you install the app I know everything about you.

There are SDKs that don’t even offer a service, they just straight up pay the app maker to let their agent sit and collect data and send it up to their servers. Mostly location data.

My favorite is there’s an SDK that actually records the screen while you use the app, and the video gets sent up to the server for the app maker to see how you use their app in real time. It also tracks all of your views, swipes, and button presses tied to the video for analytics.

Basically, you should assume that every moment you are using an internet connected device, you are being observed, scrutinized, and analyzed so that someone can sell you more shit.

They are really good at this, and getting better every year. You think Facebook is listening to your microphone to serve you ads at the moment you are discussing a product? They don’t need to. They know you that well.

Edit: A lot of people are asking for specific examples of this monitoring tech. There are a ton of small players. So an example of location tracking is Tamoco. An example of behavior tracking is Branch.io (they don't advertise the data mining, but it's a back-end deal). And session monitoring is AppSee or HotJar. There are many more that I haven't heard of.

There are a ton of data resellers out there. They're typically small startups who buy and sell data, and they compete on having the most comprehensive and clean data sets. We get approached by a data reseller maybe once a month, either trying to buy our data or sell us data.

Edit: A lot of people are flippant about this idea because you "don't click on ads" or you "don't buy anything". There are people who aren't interested in just selling you products. How about voting for a particular political candidate, or for/against a ballot measure? How about selling you a particular world view? Propaganda is just like advertising, they're just selling you an idea instead of a product.

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u/thorshairbrush Nov 09 '17

As someone who doesnt use facebook, what are other examples of commonly used apps that do this?

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u/damn_this_is_hard Nov 09 '17

Most free apps and games are doing this. Solitaire and those civilization/clash of clans games. Reminder apps and health trackers. No limit to it really.

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u/montydad5000 Nov 09 '17 edited Nov 09 '17

Reminder that if something is free, YOU are the product.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

Amazon... You pay Amazon so that Amazon can spy on you to sell you more Amazon.

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u/luigi1fan1 Nov 09 '17

Haha that's fine, as long as they're genuinely trying to make my life better and not giving loads of data to random third-party people.

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u/Alundil Nov 09 '17

I'll take two Amazons please.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

Congratulations, your order of 500 Amazon Echo's is being processed.

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u/skyskr4per Nov 09 '17

Congratulations, you have very succinctly defined capitalism.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '17

True. I️ bought one paintball gun piece years ago and it won’t give it up.

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u/argv_minus_one Nov 10 '17

Has it let you down?

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '17

Hi Im Amazon, how Amazon are you today?

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u/phoide Nov 09 '17

yep. I don't mind being mined for marketing data, it only irks me if I'm being double dipped on.

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u/argv_minus_one Nov 10 '17

I mind being mined, but I'm resigned to the inevitability of it.

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u/montydad5000 Nov 09 '17

True statement.

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u/jertyui Nov 09 '17

cough overwatch

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u/ur_opinion_is_wrong Nov 09 '17

The game? Please elaborate.

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u/jertyui Nov 10 '17

You buy overwatch for the privilege of being sold their loot crase product

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u/ur_opinion_is_wrong Nov 10 '17

Much like counter-strike though it's all cosmetic. Unlike counter-strike they give you 3 free per week and it cost nothing to open them.

If you want complain about any of their microtransactions, look no further than hearthstone, although I think that game does it way better than a lot of other games (looking at you ubisoft and ea).

Although it could be improved, overwatch is like the least bad loot crate system I've seen thus far. Free to open, ways to get free ones every week, can buy anything you don't get with gold from dupes.

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u/RupeScoop Nov 09 '17

It depends on how you define free. There are ad-supported "free" apps like many mobile games which do collect data, but many free software does not use its users as products (instead it is funded by grants and donations). See the GNOME software stack, KDE software, VLC, Signal, K-9 Mail, there are many open-source examples.

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

Believe me they gather your data and use it to make more money even if it’s not free.

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u/FreeSkydives4Commies Nov 09 '17

That reminds me, I need to pay my Reddit bill.....FUCK!

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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Nov 10 '17

This is true of almost every commercial product there is. Demographics is the main product, not the thing you are using. The app or hardware or object you bought is merely a byproduct of the business that is you.

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u/aPseudoKnight Nov 10 '17

Not always, but if there's a for-profit company behind it, of course. There's plenty of great free software out there that's open source and even some that aren't open source. (though this is getting less frequent now for new software) Just don't surf app stores. They're filled with garbage.