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howard941today at 4:24 PM1 replyview on HN

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."


Replies

__MatrixMan__today at 4:47 PM

I do strange things, so it's possible that the cause has to do with some quirk of my behavior while closing the account in 2011, or while attempting to reopen it in 2026, and not somebody else's behavior in the interim.

I don't really care about facebook, I found a buyer for the thing. I'm just saying that the use of biometrics is bad engineering because it amplifies the severity of adjacent bugs to "blocker". Starting over with a new identity should be painful enough to discourage bad behavior, but it should be possible to enable users who do strange things sometimes to navigate the system.