Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information
Yet another New York Times hit piece against Facebook. It makes you wonder what a private corporation is supposed to do.
In just this year:<p>1) The New York Times has published an endless stream editorials calling for Facebook to be destroyed [1], insisting Facebook is a thread to national security [2] and declaring Facebook a threat to the republic [3].<p>2) These editorials are joined by &quot;reporting&quot; insinuating that Facebook is working with the Chinese [4] (an obvious lie), accusing Facebook of lying to Congress and giving &quot;data access&quot; to device makers (another obvious lie) and, of course, when in doubt, it publishes pure rumour and speculation about Facebook [5].<p>And now we get yet another hit piece about Facebook&#x27;s &quot;creepy&quot; patents. The reporter decided to pick the 7 most &quot;creepy&quot; patents and insist this shows Facebook&#x27;s &quot;plans&quot; while dutifully ignoring the hundreds of other patents Facebook has generated. The reporter makes no effort to determine whether other companies have similar patents since this would reveal there&#x27;s absolutely nothing special or unusual or &quot;creepy&quot; about such patents.<p>Throughout this propaganda campaign there&#x27;s no mention of any conflict of interest despite the fact that we know the NY Times and other media corporations derive significant revenue from Facebook&#x27;s platform and do not agree with many of Facebook&#x27;s policies [6].<p>So it makes you wonder: what is a company supposed to do when the &quot;leading paper&quot; decides to continually attack them on the most flimsy terms? (Next week in the Times: Zuckerberg&#x27;s creepy new haircut!) What exactly is Facebook&#x27;s play here when its not foreign media waging the propaganda campaign?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;04&#x2F;03&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;facebook-fix-replace.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;04&#x2F;03&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;facebook-fix-repl...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;facebook-china-privacy-data-security.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;facebook-china-pr...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;29&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;facebook-privacy-zuckerberg-society.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;29&#x2F;opinion&#x2F;facebook-privacy-...</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;technology&#x2F;facebook-device-partnerships-china.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;technology&#x2F;facebook-devic...</a><p>[5] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;19&#x2F;technology&#x2F;facebook-alex-stamos.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;19&#x2F;technology&#x2F;facebook-alex-...</a><p>[6] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.adweek.com&#x2F;digital&#x2F;facebook-new-york-times-execs-get-into-heated-debate-over-ad-policy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.adweek.com&#x2F;digital&#x2F;facebook-new-york-times-execs...</a>