alt Hacker NewsI quit facebook over a decade ago. Then, a few months back, I was under some pressure to sell something, and the facebook marketplace appears to be the way to go locally. So I tried to create a facebook account.
They wanted to scan my face, and in a moment of weakness, I performed the ritual. Thirty seconds later, they suspended my account due to violations of their terms of service: "this decision cannot be appealed". So now they have my face and I still can't use the marketplace.
I can only assume I'm suspended due to the behavior of somebody who tried to use my identity for something during the decade when I had no facebook account. Apparently not even my face is strong enough authentication for me to convince them that I'm not whoever it was that caused whatever the problem was.
This is why biometrics will never make sense. They're too immutable. Maintaining multiple accounts is not a bug, it's a debugging mechanism. Since I have only the face that I do, I can't even figure out why I'm banned.
We need to instead stop trusting people merely because they have an account. 10k upvotes/likes/5-star-reviews should mean nothing if I don't explicitly or transitively trust the upvoters/likers/reviewers. We have to build things that make decisions by traversing the trust graph so instead of being banned with no recourse, I can create a no-trust identity and elevate it back to personhood status by convincing my meatspace friends to trust it by having a conversation with them in meatspace.
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Meta, obviously the same company, has four separate pages that handle the creation of a “page” for a business.
They all prompt for the same information to do the same job.
You are required to make one of these “pages” to be able to advertise on any Meta property.
None of them work, and they have non-functional error handling. And if you keep trying, getting zero feedback about what’s wrong, you get the “scan your face and give us your biometric data” wall.
As such I cannot advertise on Instagram. Like, I can’t give them money, even when I try. It’s impossible that I’m the only one in the world, and it’s costing them money. Directly.
You would think that with their infinite AI resources they would be able to recognize problems, identify the source, and unfuck themselves… right?
In days, not years… right?
At least that’s what we’re told. But it seems reality doesn’t quite agree.
I tried to make an account while forgetting my VPN was engaged. Another US IP address but one from a block of IPs I’m sure is used for nefarious purposes. So because I briefly shared an IP block with ne’erdowells, I am, without an option to appeal, banned from interacting with Facebook forever.
Google Ads is ghosting me too. I really could get behind legislation that requires companies to have a human point of contact in these cases, but I guess a private company has the right to ignore people they don’t want as customers.
I bought my last car on Craigslist. It was quite pleasant and I like the car. Not that there isn't garbage/scams there, but there's garbage on marketplace too (more, to my eye). I make a point to always go to Craigslist first. It still exists, and it's kicking!
I had the exact same experience. Never used Facebook. Wanted to create a page for a product. Suspended. Did the face scan. Now they have my face and I'm still suspended. Absolute joke. Zuckerberg can go suck a fat one.
I had the same thing, tried to set up an instagram account for a website I run. It locked me out instantly and asked for a face photo; after I uploaded it it went to review; after about 40 minutes that brand new instagram account was permanently suspended for posting content which breaches the terms of service, with no appeal possible. It did let me download the full account data which of course had nothing in it and no further info about why it got permabanned.
It is obvious something is broken but they are quite good at blocking you from accessing any possible avenue of support once the account is in this state.
On the off chance someone from Meta is reading: Please unban the account "rareboc" :-)
When a xiaomi 15 phone asks to scan your face for phone unlock, it specifically warns that a photo of you may be sufficient to unlock the phone. Not sure how it works with other brands/models, but i don’t think the way they are doing face verification is the right way to do it
That happened to me to! A similar moment of weakness: I got tired of being locked out of like half of small business profiles. A local brewery (very small brewery, but top tier beers) posts on instagram if they’ll even be open that day.
Caved, tried to sign up, asked for my face, then rejected me forever.
Same thing happened to me. Except I created a new Facebook account using my work email. I had to use my personal Facebook account. Meta has become so awful.
we programmatically created a system with implicit trust and now that trust is washing away. business logic should probably be guaranteed and have to pass a series of tests in order to provide expected service
Hmm, that also happened to me. Scan face, account lost forever?
It should also be noted Facebook does nothing in good faith because Zuckerberg's core personality is what it is
It isn't that biometrics might never make sense but when it comes to Facebook? He's a black hat hacker who deserves prison
I'd push back on your theory that the problem is your biometrics having been abused by a third party (rather than merely being abused by Faceboot...). I'd say the base incentive is that they really don't care about adding new users, so their false positive rate is set way too high. They think you need them more than they need you. And for Faceboot Marketplace they're probably right (about 3-4x the selection of Craigslist IME, and a corresponding difference in interested buyers). I'll still browse and post things on Craigslist, and when I see something for sale on both I'll respond with the Craigslist method to support its mindshare (also straightforward email/SMS is a heck of a lot easier than having to use Faceboot Messenger and then nudge the conversation over to SMS for the actual meetup).
I don't think you can assume your identity was compromised. I know the Facebook denial dialog suggests that "unusual activity" was detected and you need to access it via your mobile device. Of course as you know that doesn't help.
I signed on for Meta enhanced support for a month (nb, don't bother doing this, it's a waste of money) and had numerous voice calls with pandering support people who assured me it had nothing to do with identity and everything to do with vague "Community Standards violations" that can't be identified. FWIW the restrictions are indefinite and can't be appealed.
FB is set up like it's based on the film "Brazil" mated with Sartre's "No Exit."