NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Don't Always Assume the Worst! - Facebook Falsely Accused of Purposely Blocking Data Downloads
Don't Always Assume the Worst! - Facebook Falsely Accused of
Purposely Blocking Data Downloads
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001038.html
Regular readers know that I'm no fan of Facebook -- I don't use it
myself and I'm surviving very nicely without it, thank you.
But common sense gave way to fuzzy thinking and rumormongering today,
when a story spread like wildfire across the Net -- via Slashdot,
Reddit, and an array of other sites, claiming that Facebook was now
purposely blocking users from downloading their "timeline" (still
often called "wall") postings data, as had been previously possible.
This rumor may have started with an angry blog posting at a site which
I'll not provide with link juice here today. The posting apparently
wasn't inaccurate in describing problems that the author was having
downloading their Facebook data, but rather in the implication that
this was a purposeful policy change by Facebook -- and this latter
concept became the tinderbox that set off angry comments and dialogue
around the Web.
I suspected from the outside that this was likely just a bug. I now
have confirmation from two Facebook engineering sources that this is
indeed the case, and that a fix is likely to go live within a few
days.
There were multiple reasons from the outset to suspect that we were
dealing with an engineering glitch and not a policy change.
Perhaps the most obvious of these is that it simply would not make any
kind of sense for Facebook to make such a change! I've been pretty
critical of Facebook's handling of various privacy matters over time,
particularly in terms of their specific user-facing implementations.
But to suddenly block this type of user data download would be
ludicrous on its face and incredibly counterproductive to both
Facebook and its users. The negative PR and in some countries
regulatory blowback would likely be enormous. It would be utterly
illogical.
Other clues that this was just a bug were also apparent.
The relevant Facebook help pages regarding data downloads and exports
said nothing to indicate that such a policy change had taken place.
There was enormous inconsistency in user reports regarding this
situation today. Some users reported that the data in question was
missing from their downloads. Some claimed they couldn't download at
all. Others were able to export all their data -- including
timeline/wall data -- completely intact without difficulties.
While it's always possible that variations in user experience are the
result of an engineering change being gradually rolled out across the
platform, this just didn't seem to make sense in today's instance,
especially given the other facts.
I understand that it may be human nature much of the time to
emotionally believe the worst, but seriously, today's policy change
rumors should really have been suspicious to just about everyone,
given even a bit of real thought.
In an age when all manner of bizarre and inane conspiracy theories
thrive, I can't say that I'm surprised when a false rumor like this
gets traction bouncing around the Web's echo chamber.
But let's face it -- if we're actually going to automatically assume
evil decisions every time there's an operational issue in these highly
complex systems, it's a pretty sad commentary about our society
overall.
I'm pretty sure we can do much better than that if we try.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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