Facebook, Google, and OAuth

Another thing that is troubling to me is how hypocritical users are about their use of "Facebook login" to log in to apps. When you use "Facebook login" to log in to an app, the login screen clearly states that you are granting the app permission to access whatever parts of your Facebook profile the app lists (for example, access to your email address or to your "likes"). Thus, when users used "Facebook login" to log in to Aleksandr Kogan's "This is Your Digital Life" app, they granted him access to whatever parts of their Facebook profiles the login screen listed. See here for the documentation. Google offers similar functionality. The protocol that Facebook and Google (and many other platforms) use to enable this functionality is OAuth. For people to use this self-documenting login and then to claim that their data ended up where they didn't want it to be seems similar to the way in which people signed subprime mortgages with clearly stated terms and then later claimed they were deceived. I am a believer in personal accountability. If you agreed to be bound by the terms of a contract (whether in a subprime mortgage or on a login screen), you are bound by the terms of a contract. You had better make sure you understand those terms before you sign or click.

The end result of the "2008 Financial Crisis" was the elevation of Elizabeth Warren as a new demagogue on the Left and her creation of the leviathan CFPB. I wonder what new demagogue on the Left will be elevated as a result of the so-called "2016 Cambridge Analytica Data Breach" and what new leviathan agency will be created to "protect the consumer."