I can’t delete my Hacker News data, comments or profile.

They likely never delete anything. They simply transform you back into a "shadow profile" and keep monetizing everything they know, but conceal the data from you and the rest of the public.

I believe they always retain all data forever, as a trade secret. They don't need no stinking laws to do that.

This is a component of not requiring users to pay for premium service. When you "create an account" you're simply "activating/linking/merging" one of your shadow profiles to your IRL identity (or not-so-IRL personas), which (possibly) has always existed (long before you showed up), claiming it as yours, and publicly exposing whatever Facebook is willing to show you that they know about you/that persona/whoever.

> They likely never delete anything. They simply transform you back into a "shadow profile" and keep monetizing everything they know, but conceal the data from you and the rest of the public.

If they stick to those habits with European users post May 25, GDPR will mess them up pretty bad. It would require just one whistle blower to expose their wrongdoings.

European citizens/residents, we're all counting on you to do your part.

>I believe they always retain all data forever, as a trade secret. They don't need no stinking laws to do that.

GDPR?

Odd to see people begging for what is ultimately an incremental attack on their own ability to remember things.

"your liberty stops where others' begin" they say...

Many of us have a lot of things we’d rather forget.

Is this compliant with GDPR? Could the US or other legislative bodies simply enact a law and say "do what you're doing in the EU over here"?

  Logging

Man, I must have computers on the brain. This isn't about noisy server logs at all.

Being a non-native English speaker, I had to read the article to finally understand this isn't about chainsaws with embedded logging devicel, like 'black boxes' in cars.

...but now that you point it out, I would totally try AI log analytics.

Figure splunk and sumologic are weeks away from product releases, I’m sure.

Either that or it’s already one of their consultant up-sells, for professional service add-ons, before they GA something standard.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal

Helicopter parents don't teach kids about sticks and stones anymore. Instead, they stomp each other to death for minor slights at pee wee hockey. [0]

[0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hockey-dad-found-guilty/

Instagram is still Facebook!

Really!!!! I will use WhatsApp then

>>>Instagram

>>Instagram is still Facebook!

>Really!!!! I will use WhatsApp then

While the whoosh and snark are amusing, they may not work out well for any involved....

  WhatsApp

You know that's still Facebook, rrriiiight?

True, but it does have end-to-end encryption so their ability to leak or abuse your data is a lot more limited.

I doubt they'd need the word "coffee" to infer what's happening when said message gets sent. Who sends it and to whom would be just enough thank you very much...

But they get all your location data. They'll know that you met for coffee.

Is it necessary to give them location data to use the app?

They'll know through your IP.

they will know that this IP sent this much data to that IP but not what was inside it.

Your ISP knows the same when using a web site via HTTPS. They can see you send a request to the website but not what it contained.

You could also use a VPn or TOR if you want to hide your IP.

And they'll know who you contacted and when. That allows for a lot of things to be guessed. Especially with hundreds of thousands of messages per user available to them.

Yeah, but my ISP has to follow the local laws and I can easily switch ISPs if I dislike my current one. Try that with Facebook.

Yeah, I might use a VPN but I'd also have to force all my contacts to use one as well.

As said by others, there are differences. Also, I set Whatsapp to never receive my location data.

But yeah, the networking effect is real. Whatsapp is what everyone uses, so far it seems like a decent compromise based on end-to-end encryption.

The data may ultimately belong to Facebook but Whatsapp is not the same as Facebook.

But everything is made by Facebook, the only difference is branding. It's like saying that Facebook Messenger only belongs to Facebook but isn't Facebook.