BREAKING: @CommonsCMS @DamianCollins just released previously sealed #Six4Three @Facebook documents:

Some random interesting tidbits:

1) Zuck approves shutting down platform API access for Twitter's when Vine is released #competition
2) Facebook engineered ways to access user's call history w/o alerting users:

Team considered access to call history considered 'high PR risk' but 'growth team will charge ahead'. @Facebook created upgrade path to access data w/o subjecting users to Android permissions dialogue.
3) The above also confirms @kashhill and other's suspicion that call history was used to improve PYMK (People You May Know) suggestions and newsfeed rankings.
4) Docs also shed more light into @dseetharaman's story on @Facebook monitoring users' @Onavo VPN activity to determine what competitors to mimic or acquire in 2013.

https://t.co/PwiRIL3v9x
5) Interesting contrast regarding "never selling users' data"
6) OK well at least Facebook developers were self aware of their public image (re: bluetooth beacons and call-logs): "Facebook uses new Android update to pry into your private life in ever more terrifying ways - reading your call logs, tracking you in businesses with beacons,etc"
7) @FTC consent decree required that @Facebook get 1A) affirmative consent before the collection of covered info 4A) create a privacy program to address privacy risks

However, docs show lead of privacy program was actively working to evade user consent https://t.co/mcXhDnSg2i
8) Another study in contrasts

@Facebook statements re: Android SMS and Call Log History
1) internal discussion Feb 4 2015
2) public 'clarifying' statement Mar 25 2018
9) Anti-competitive practices can consist of selectively blocking access to the ad network, not just user data:

@Facebook's director of platform offered to 'unblock @Tinder's monetization possibilities' if @Tinder permitted use of 'Moments' trademark:
https://t.co/VkJGD4hp5E
10) 2015 exchange re: whitelisted apps with @Lyft

Q: Are there any contracts or other steps besides whitelisting to launch a feature using the APls?

A: You don't need to worry about any contracts for the api. This is a product we are testing and will be rolling out slowly.
11) Facebook rep discusses removal of 'all friends-list in V2 of Facebook API as an indirect way to drive mobile ad adoption
(NEKO is an acronym used to describe mobile app-install ads)
12) Here is the key 'pay for access' evidence that @DamianCollins hinted at in @CommonsCMS: Apps need to spend at least $250K/yr on @Facebook ads (NEKO) in order to maintain access to data. Apps that don't will have data permissions will be revoked. #antitrust #sellingdata
13) In 2012, Vine and Path were the two fastest growing social networking app competitors to Facebook. #wherearetheynow #competition
14) If you read anything, it should be the email from @Zuck on P49 laying out his vision for platform monetization and growth (echoed by Sandberg).

It most clearly lays out the strategy of the company with regards to platform API and user data:
15) "The fundamental principle that governs Platform usage: reciprocity-an equable value exchange between a 3rd party developer and Facebook" (excluding competitors)

Developers provide: or direct payment/rev sharing
FB provides: access to platform (userdata/friends)
16) Finally, some might recall this exchange between @Zuck and friend from a *slightly* older leak (2004) which illustrates that the issue of bartering access to users' information isn't a new one -- it's @Facebook's primary motivation:

https://t.co/0oh1dGIDvd (ht @EuanDBriggs)

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A common misunderstanding about Agile and “Big Design Up Front”:

There’s nothing in the Agile Manifesto or Principles that states you should never have any idea what you’re trying to build.

You’re allowed to think about a desired outcome from the beginning.

It’s not Big Design Up Front if you do in-depth research to understand the user’s problem.

It’s not BDUF if you spend detailed time learning who needs this thing and why they need it.

It’s not BDUF if you help every team member know what success looks like.

Agile is about reducing risk.

It’s not Agile if you increase risk by starting your sprints with complete ignorance.

It’s not Agile if you don’t research.

Don’t make the mistake of shutting down critical understanding by labeling it Bg Design Up Front.

It would be a mistake to assume this research should only be done by designers and researchers.

Product management and developers also need to be out with the team, conducting the research.

Shared Understanding is the key objective


Big Design Up Front is a thing to avoid.

Defining all the functionality before coding is BDUF.

Drawing every screen and every pixel is BDUF.

Promising functionality (or delivery dates) to customers before development starts is BDUF.

These things shouldn’t happen in Agile.
What an amazing presentation! Loved how @ravidharamshi77 brilliantly started off with global macros & capital markets, and then gradually migrated to Indian equities, summing up his thesis for a bull market case!

@MadhusudanKela @VQIndia @sameervq

My key learnings: ⬇️⬇️⬇️


First, the BEAR case:

1. Bitcoin has surpassed all the bubbles of the last 45 years in extent that includes Gold, Nikkei, dotcom bubble.

2. Cyclically adjusted PE ratio for S&P 500 almost at 1929 (The Great Depression) peaks, at highest levels except the dotcom crisis in 2000.

3. World market cap to GDP ratio presently at 124% vs last 5 years average of 92% & last 10 years average of 85%.
US market cap to GDP nearing 200%.

4. Bitcoin (as an asset class) has moved to the 3rd place in terms of price gains in preceding 3 years before peak (900%); 1st was Tulip bubble in 17th century (rising 2200%).

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The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.