Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
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Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
I don't know if anyone else is watching this, but it's fully fascinating. Just google it and you'll come up with a live stream.
The information about Facebook, what information it gathers, how it tracks our devices, etc., is more complex than I ever imagined. The Q&A is like on online tech course. Enjoying it, glued to it, fascinated and disturbed by it.
And just for the record, I think there's a whole lotta Aspie going on. I find myself observing him in favor of absorbing the responses he's giving. IMHO, he's more fascinating than the issues.
;-)
The information about Facebook, what information it gathers, how it tracks our devices, etc., is more complex than I ever imagined. The Q&A is like on online tech course. Enjoying it, glued to it, fascinated and disturbed by it.
And just for the record, I think there's a whole lotta Aspie going on. I find myself observing him in favor of absorbing the responses he's giving. IMHO, he's more fascinating than the issues.
;-)
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
Interesting, Jersey Girl. I haven’t had a chance to watch. Had watching the testimony had any effect on your opinions about Facebook?
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
When I get past being sucked in my Zuckerberg himself, I might have more to say about Facebook. I could write up a pretty nice observation of Zuckerberg though.


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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
One thing that I thought was outstanding was that in the beginning of my viewing I was listening to the questions about regulations and wondering why they just don't get Zuckerberg involved in critiquing and proposing more effective regulations and DAMN if one of the senators didn't do just that.
Put him and Gates, and whomever else, in a room and let them draw up workable regulations. Make their critiques and proposals, explain this to reps and see if anything sticks in terms of viability.
Put him and Gates, and whomever else, in a room and let them draw up workable regulations. Make their critiques and proposals, explain this to reps and see if anything sticks in terms of viability.
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
ETA: They'd likely say that it's near impossible to keep up with the technology but seriously, who better to use as expert resources?
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
Throw the Apple guy into the panel. I wonder if they could be impartial?
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
Jersey Girl wrote:When I get past being sucked in my Zuckerberg himself, I might have more to say about Facebook. I could write up a pretty nice observation of Zuckerberg though.
LOL. That would be interesting to read as well.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
My two favorite following Zuckerberg's testimony:



"If you consider what are called the virtues in mankind, you will find their growth is assisted by education and cultivation." -Xenophon of Athens
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
He's live and back in the hot seat again today.
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress
Res Ipsa wrote:Interesting, Jersey Girl. I haven’t had a chance to watch. Had watching the testimony had any effect on your opinions about Facebook?
So I'm not Jersey Girl but I just now got around to watching the 2 days of back and forth and I really only walked away with 2 nuggets worth sharing. First, I remain confident that my idea to eschew Facebook was 100% the right call (YMMV). Second, that there remains a relatively simple fix (read as "really good starting point") to some of these protection issues. Jack Balkin professor of law at the little known school of Yale has proposed the idea of making these kinds of cloud based providers as "information fiduciaries".
I'm no legal expert, I'd love input from someone smarter than I on the topic, but the concept is pretty straight forward. Just like we do in medicine, finance, and other industries, we tell Facebook and Co. that they can't act against the interest of their users. Essentially it regards the relationship between user and company in a privileged status and puts the onerous on the company to protect and preserve that.
I don't think this will solve all the issues (monopoly-like control and fake news impacts are still a big deal) and it will certainly need to be an ongoing process. But this has a couple of major benefits compared to some others proposed; Zuckerberg has already expressed interest in the idea as recently as the hearings, the general framework for how this would work is already being done in other industries, and it could technically be done without passing something through Congress (always a dicey path) using existing precedent.
For those wanting some more information on Balkin's plan, you can find it here (PDF warning).
"If you consider what are called the virtues in mankind, you will find their growth is assisted by education and cultivation." -Xenophon of Athens