IMO just an excuse for their facial recognition. When they'll be asked about it, they will just say "It's to improve privacy of our users"...
Also mentioned here - https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...n-our-lives-expert-warns.397094/#post-2727873 Sorry @Minimalist , I hadn't seen this thread, although the story I linked is a related story.
FB saying "to improve privacy" is absolute garbage. Anyone who thinks FB actually means this is deluded. What is evident is that FB talks out of both sides of their mouth.
All depends on "how" is your personal definition of Privacy; as i saw it: - For security/privacy geeks like some of us here = Any company should not collect/use/resell datas from our computer behaviors. - For Average Joe using Facebook = no stalking/intrusions/harassment from other users; most won't care if Facebook is using their datas for ads or whatever.
These big corporations have meetings and conferences they all attend where they make policy based on agreed, often political agenda that we as citizens and consumers usually are not informed about. Most times those who are not brainwashed or programmed, aka conspiracy theorists, can get a pretty good idea of what they are trying to achieve by following their actions, not their double talk public press releases. Not that it really achieves much to do so, as most you try to tell just dismisses what you say as conspiracy, and if you try to show them the group who is responsible for the vast majority of what they don't believe to be true anyway, you are accused then also of hate speech so of those who are aware and will say so privately, most are usually too scared of the repurcussions and what it will do to their careers and reputations to be associated with, so called hate speech so they remain publicly silent. So it's pretty much all sewn up. They can do what ever they want and there is no one and nothing to stop them.
@RockLobster - what's interesting recently are the warnings from senior ex-employees about the dangers of the behemoths. The huge amount of attention and research in the company in order to keep the "product" hooked, churning out their personal data for the company's profit, who cares that it's bad for the cattle.
Sadly history is replete with people wringing their hands after obeying orders (and trousering bonuses). It does often ring of crocodile tears to protect reputations. Reading Phil Zimbardo's work also demonstrates how nastily normal people's sense of behavior gets distorted by what they are told by "authority" and this very much affects their reactions to things affecting privacy and law which I feel are "obviously" manifestly wrong - like mass surveillance, parallel construction, fishing and so on.
@deBoetie Yes history absolutely is repeating and fulfilling itself, for all the efforts of those who tried to prevent exactly that there are those who profit from it over and over again. Not being a psychiatrist myself I am unfamiliar with much of the published works in that field but I am sure there are some which explore the way in which a small group of people with malicious intent can subvert the thinking and actions of a much larger majority especially when that majority are unaware or naive or in denial to the fact that there are those within their group or organisation or government with that malicious intent to use deceitful language and downright lies to disguise their sociopathic policies/agendas/actions behind what they present to be for an alternate and relatively acceptable or even legitimate purpose. It takes a certain type of mentality to do that, a very devious, deceitful and criminal mentality which most people would rather believe could not possibly be what they are seeing in the upper echelons of society and therefore prefer not to dispute the lies and doubletalk and live in denial while those criminals with the wealth, power and status to do so, continue to subvert the very fabric of our society and turn it into a twisted parody of what most of us grew up believing it was meant to be and to put in place the structure that will probably facilitate a most catastrophic end.
Same goes for 2FA. While fb claims it to be a security feature, for them it is a convenient tool to enable cross-device tracking. Never ever use fb on desktop and mobile, choose one and never let them link your devices.