Have you deleted Facebook yet?

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Facebook is a monster to me.

They built their reputadion as a safe and fun social media site with a similar moral turpitude as Google, Microsoft, ebay and other Internet giants.

Behind the scenes they monetized your privacy, selling it directly and indirectly to manipulative political organizations and unscrupulous vendors. I work in in industry that deals with this daily -- thousands of people duped by unscrupulous advertisers selling snake oil. Ever tried a free sample (just pay shipping!) only to find out you're been signed up for 2 monthly subscriptions of Testosterone pills or anti aging cremes for $100 each? From companies with no phone numbers or Internet addresses?
 
"They", as in Facebook directly, while far from innocent, are not always the main culprits here.

Facebook, especially in it's early days, played fast and hard with any and all app developers who were willing to develop anything and everything for their platform, hence Facebook's willingness to then allow these app developers to pillage their systems (via their apps) of all your personal information.

Ask yourself why an app that does a silly "test" and tells you "what My Little Pony you most resemble" (but for one stupid example, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it in the past) needs access to your phone number, address, friends list, email address, all your photos, status updates, etc.

I'll tell you why - because like I said, you're willingly being datamined when you blindly agree to it, and a lot of FB users are either stupid or naive and just click "OK!".

Then that app sits there for years...even decades now, and continues to quietly allow that developer to collect your personal information whenever he/she wants...because YOU agreed to it.

This is Facebooks problem, and if you actually read the technical details behind the blow up in the last week, you'll see that this is mentioned as the main culprit behind many of Facebook's problems - not always Facebook itself.

You'll see changes in the next 6-12 months, I almost guarantee it, and thankfully I think you'll see a lot of these stupid garbage covert datamining apps disappear. It's just a shame that it took FB so long to actually own up to a problem they knew they've had for a long while, but apparently didn't want to tackle to fix.
 
PrivatePilot said:
"They", as in Facebook directly, while far from innocent, are not always the main culprits here.

Facebook, especially in it's early days, played fast and hard with any and all app developers who were willing to develop anything and everything for their platform, hence Facebook's willingness to then allow these app developers to pillage their systems (via their apps) of all your personal information.

Ask yourself why an app that does a silly "test" and tells you "what My Little Pony you most resemble" (but for one stupid example, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it in the past) needs access to your phone number, address, friends list, email address, all your photos, status updates, etc.

I'll tell you why - because like I said, you're willingly being datamined when you blindly agree to it, and a lot of FB users are either stupid or naive and just click "OK!".

Then that app sits there for years...even decades now, and continues to quietly allow that developer to collect your personal information whenever he/she wants...because YOU agreed to it.

This is Facebooks problem, and if you actually read the technical details behind the blow up in the last week, you'll see that this is mentioned as the main culprit behind many of Facebook's problems - not always Facebook itself.

You'll see changes in the next 6-12 months, I almost guarantee it, and thankfully I think you'll see a lot of these stupid garbage covert datamining apps disappear. It's just a shame that it took FB so long to actually own up to a problem they knew they've had for a long while, but apparently didn't want to tackle to fix.
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Thing is the average user doesn't understand what it means to be "data mined" or "digitally exploited". Those long terms and conditions are perfumed with offers that make users overlook some pretty unscrupulous conditions.

That's what Facebook does.
 
Mad Mike said:
Thing is the average user doesn't understand what it means to be "data mined" or "digitally exploited". Those long terms and conditions are perfumed with offers that make users overlook some pretty unscrupulous conditions.
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Whilst I agree with your statement, the fact remains that it's not exactly Facebook doing it all the time, although they pretty much left the door open for anyone and everyone in the neighbourhood with a red carpet leading straight to their users data.

Facebook uses your data, sure..but often for the purposes of figuring out how to market things to you better on facebook itself.

One can always have fun screwing with FB as well - if you want to put a giant bell curve in the stats they're collecting on you, it can be done - I have one friend who's gone out of his way to screw with every conceivable setting and data point. He uses a pseudonym name, I think his gender is "Potato", he's a wiccan (not really, but it's funny), one of his skills is "Nailing Jello to walls", is 120 years old, watches nothing but Pokemon, his only musical interests are showtunes, and he belongs to a single group solely for people to post photos of themselves with Tortillas on their faces. Good luck collecting any useful data from him.
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PrivatePilot said:
Whilst I agree with your statement, the fact remains that it's not exactly Facebook doing it all the time, although they pretty much left the door open for anyone and everyone in the neighbourhood with a red carpet leading straight to their users data.

Facebook uses your data, sure..but often for the purposes of figuring out how to market things to you better on facebook itself.

One can always have fun screwing with FB as well - if you want to put a giant bell curve in the stats they're collecting on you, it can be done - I have one friend who's gone out of his way to screw with every conceivable setting and data point. He uses a pseudonym name, I think his gender is "Potato", he's a wiccan (not really, but it's funny), one of his skills is "Nailing Jello to walls", is 120 years old, watches nothing but Pokemon, his only musical interests are showtunes, and he belongs to a single group solely for people to post photos of themselves with Tortillas on their faces. Good luck collecting any useful data from him.
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I think you missed the point. Facebook is a tool of the masses. They don't care to "Nail Jello to the Walls", they just want to have friendly connections to friends. The don't expect nefarious uses of their personal data.

Facebook has exploited their trust.
 
Mad Mike said:
Facebook has exploited their trust.
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That I would agree with, but I also place a lot of the blame on the millions of FB users that just stupidly leave the curtains wide open and then wonder why people are staring at their private bits.

But the two go hand in hand, FB should make an effort to protect it's users from their own stupidity...as sad as that is to have to say.
 
PrivatePilot said:
That I would agree with, but I also place a lot of the blame on the millions of FB users that just stupidly leave the curtains wide open and then wonder why people are staring at their private bits.

But the two go hand in hand, FB should make an effort to protect it's users from their own stupidity...as sad as that is to have to say.
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Agreed more or less. FB has created a sense of security, not a sense of skepticism around their brand. Users expectations have been exploited -- you're seeing the backlash now.

Facebook has lost what? $90Billion USD in the last week? Zukerberg is now hanging with Wynne and McGinty!
 
Seems to me the harm of datamining isn't to individuals but to society. It's not like those 50 million people got their identities stolen or were swindled out of anything. They were just sorted through until CA found a large enough number of people who matches a target profile that they could influence the outcome of the election of the most powerful person in the world. And they elected a puppet to the new most powerful person in the world; Putin.

So now Facebook has removed the ability of apps to draw data from your followers without their knowledge, and people are more wary of using apps, but nothing's changed as long as people willfully reveal their whole lives to a one source, the data is going to be mined. While FB might not provide it to third parties, there's no way they'll just sit on that treasure trove of data. Instead they'll become the gatekeepers, and keep user data in their hands while still allowing companies to target the demographic they want with the message they want, for a price of course. No app needed.

The only way to stop it is to stop revealing our lives, our interests, our locations, our spending habits, our network of connections all online. Unless there's an overwhelming benefit, people need to keep their private info to themselves. Of course that's easy for me to say, I'm a recluse to begin with, but the point remains that oversharing just opens us up to another vector for exploitation from the powers-that-be.

If the founding fathers were writing the constitution today there'd be an article on safeguarding personal privacy while ensuring access to public info. The world has changed just a smidge since then, and the obsession over the second amendment completely glosses over the way governments and industry overpower us today.

One of the warning signs of exploitive online services are those that require users to create an account before they can view other users info. So FB, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, especially if they require your real identity... I'm OK with Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud, and forums like this. I don't think they're nearly as valuable for private data as some of those others.
 
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deactivated my main account some time ago
was really just a waste of time
pics of peoples dinner, or their kids, or their dog

created a secondary account with just a few contacts
family and close friends
this account is only used for Messenger

I know Messenger gets a terrible rep for all the permissions on a phone
but if you're traveling it is a great communications platform if all you have is wifi
texts, photos, voice calls.....anyone with millenials in their life will understand the limitations of email

I've never posted anything to FB with this secondary account
not much about you for FB to snoop on if you don't post
and you don't need the FB app on the phone at all, just Messenger
 
JavaFan said:
deactivated my main account some time ago
was really just a waste of time
pics of peoples dinner, or their kids, or their dog

created a secondary account with just a few contacts
family and close friends
this account is only used for Messenger

I know Messenger gets a terrible rep for all the permissions on a phone
but if you're traveling it is a great communications platform if all you have is wifi
texts, photos, voice calls.....anyone with millenials in their life will understand the limitations of email

I've never posted anything to FB with this secondary account
not much about you for FB to snoop on if you don't post
and you don't need the FB app on the phone at all, just Messenger
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Same here and for exactly the same reasons. I never started the 2nd account; you can close your FB account and still use messenger on your phone, so I've been rolling like that. It does the job for me.
 
JavaFan said:
I've never posted anything to FB with this secondary account
not much about you for FB to snoop on if you don't post
and you don't need the FB app on the phone at all, just Messenger
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Actually that is probably not true ... because FB has collected apparently a lot more **** from the phone than one would expect. That is if you have Android phone ....

Otherwise, WhatsApp all the way for text communication, incl. images and video. It can do groups too, you just have to make your pals download it ... which is the reason why more people don't use it.
 
I haven't. Use it for business. Free advertising just with a share of a post from my business to a local car group can make me a 1k from a purchase. It used to be a car part supplier might have to go to local shows to advertise, set up a tent, table, have a bunch of stuff to display. Now a single (or multiple) picture does all that for free.
A quick paroose once Evey few hours of local car groups to answer some questions, link them to my online store, and I'm making money while pooping.
For me, it's probably going to stay.
 
mxs said:
Actually that is probably not true ... because FB has collected apparently a lot more **** from the phone than one would expect. That is if you have Android phone ....

Otherwise, WhatsApp all the way for text communication, incl. images and video. It can do groups too, you just have to make your pals download it ... which is the reason why more people don't use it.
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it's on Android

secondary account is not in my real name
and have never posted to FB with this account
the gmail address registered to the phone is also a throw-away

so yes, the Messenger app is going to get some info from the phone
but not in a way that can be connected to who I actually am
unless someone wants to drill down to IP and MAC address details

WhatsApp is a facebook company, wanna bet the DB's are shared?
and is wildly popular overseas
don't know anyone that uses it back home
 
Never got around to signing up for FaceBook. I love tech, hate all the social media stuff and do not use any of it. Don't feel like I am missing out on anything... well I know I am not missing out on anything.
 
DJM said:
I did just now. Had enough of the BS from that t-shirted, spectrum git. What a cancer on society it's become.

I had stopped posting on it quite a while back because of my reservations about it but kept it active to watch my nieces and nephews grow up. I'll have to find other ways. Now just have to avoid logging in for the next 14 days and it's gone forever. So they say....
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There is always instagram for photos. That’s where I keep in touch with my relatives from Scotland.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've never had an account with twitter FB etc. Never will.
Ditto for online banking-never even attempted ...paypal? never.
I do use my landline phone. Gave up my cell phone 6-7? years ago. Device? never. GPS? never, but I do have a pretty good collection of maps...

When a cashier asks if I have a shoppers/soybee/gas/rewards card I no longer say "no"- I just say "no thank-you." Stops the the sales pitch before it even starts...
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