Leaving FB.

[false_aesthetic]

I recognize that I used FB and I was subject to their whims.
I realized that ads + everything else was targeted toward me + my social group.
I'm not surprised that people would try to use this to their advantage, etc.

The first step was about 18 months ago when I removed the bookmark from my computers.
Then, about 1 year ago, I deleted the app from my phone.

The new news didn't surprise me. I actually said, "What did you expect?" But shit just isn't sitting right with me for whatever reason. So I downloaded all my images and deleted my account.

Who else as ended their FB romance? What were your reasons?

[Alistair]

I'm wondering, what is the new news?

I tried FB back in 2014 for almost a year iirc and didn't care for it very much. The way that they ran the thing seemed heavy handed and not democratic, which I thought was rubbish. I obviously wasn't very invested so it made it easy for me to close my account.

Nothing I've read or heard about FB since has ever given me reason to second guess my decision, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything that would somehow improve my quality of life. I guess I could be wrong about that last part, but really, I don't think so.


Alistair.

[ides1056]

How do you erase your account?

I felt like I'd been dipped in dogshit after the election. I'd followed a friend of my brothers to try to understand his point of view. I'd push back against his racism, etc, and it was just like we were playing tennis: sport, is all.

[false_aesthetic]

delete here: Log into Facebook | Facebook

News Here:
How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions - The New York Times


To be fair: Right wingers would be really pissed if data was used to elect Hillary and I probably wouldn't be as bothered . . . but I'd still be bothered.

[j44ke]

All these social media companies are in the business of making money on personal information. There is a lot of money in Russia, China, Turkey and the Middle East for this information. If Facebook accepts the premise that there is an ethical responsibility that comes with selling personal information, they aren't going to get much of this money from these places. All these social media companies are feeling tremendous pressure to be profitable. Today the people at Facebook advocating for ethical responsibility lost. Interestingly Sheryl Sandberg, one of the left's darlings (especially among women,) is on the side of pursuing a more customer-agnostic approach to selling personal information.

Facebook is just a corporation. If you wouldn't give all this information to Ford Motor Company or Raytheon or Dow Chemical or Vladimir Putin, why would you give it to Facebook?

[snotrockets]

Quitting social networks is like going off the grid: you're inconveniencing yourself more than you're hurting them. They'll just keep running your shadow profile. If we accept this industry has potential for harm, then we should treat it just like any other industry that could be harmful, and regulate it.

[caleb]

I think Facebook came along about 2005, which was my junior year of college. I never joined, and to this day I have never had an account. I think whatever I've missed out on has been outweighed by what I didn't miss out on.

[snotrockets]

I never joined, and to this day I have never had an account.

You have an account, just not one you can login into. FB is known to maintain shadow profiles even for users who don't join it.

[jumphigher]

I never understand people's hostility towards social networking sites. As I always say, 'FB is what you personally decide to make of it'. If you choose to involve yourself in political discussions and other subjects that make you angry, that's a choice you made. Nobody forces you to read anyone's posts or to comment on them. Dont like something? Ignore it or unfollow whoever is posting it. I never involve myself in negative/political discussions, and though i certainly dont agree with lot's of stuff I see on the site, I also think people are entitled to their opinions.

For me, I consider the site to be a positive addition to my life. My wife and I have lived in several cities over the last few decades, and we've made many friends and acquaintances over those years, people that it would be impossible for us to keep tabs on without a site like FB.

I can understand some people not being interested in FB, and that's totally fine. If you dont like it, dont join up. It's really not a big deal either way.

[Too Tall]

This is shocking how?

[bigbill]

This is shocking how?

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

Captain Renault:
I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

[aloud]

Captain Renault: Everybody out at once.

[thollandpe]

Why not treat it as a tool, and limit its access to your data? It's not your friend, even if it helps connect you with friends.

Don't overshare. I can't think of a reason it needs birth year, where I went to school, or who all my relatives are. Yeah you can certainly connect the dots, but you can also blur the lines.

[Cookietruck]

pretty sure they don't actually delete any of your info, ever, my brother did the "permanent delete" something like 4 years before he went back to grad school. in school he decides to sign up again, his login stilled worked and all of pictures and friends popped right up.

google is probably just as bad. every single click you make on the internet they are tracking and selling i imagine.

[false_aesthetic]

This is shocking how?

That's just it, I'm not shocked. You gotta pay to play and FB doesn't have my billing info so I've been paying in a bunch of other ways -- I've known that.

Maybe I'm just over it.

Gonna go check out this new thing called Friendster. I hear it's pretty rad.

[BBB]

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

Captain Renault:
I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

[aloud]

Captain Renault: Everybody out at once.

Top effort!

Blade Runner may provide some assistance:

Rachael: It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public.

Deckard: Replicants are like any other machine - they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem.

FB can provide a benefit in terms of keeping tabs on friends you have lost touch with for various reasons (geography for example), but it can be a hazard. And it's a public company, so the share price needs to be balanced into this equation. Maybe it (and the source code) should just be 'retired'.

[ElvisMerckx]

Never joined either. Does that make me seem like a visionary today (or at least retro-actively cool)?

[colker]

I was deleted for no rational reason 3 yrs ago: i had sent a nude pic of a boy through their private mail to a girl who is into classical photography. It was an Edward Weston classical picture. I was immediately banned without warning..
So I called a girlfriend and she did the same: emailed the same pic to a mutual friend. Also banned.
They asked for documents. WE sent them documents. My friend was admitted back. I wasn´t. Then i realized how dependent of facebook my social life became. My friends kept asking me to come back but whenever i had second doubts, someone else´s frustration w/ facebook kept me far away from them.
Facebook seems like a Kafka book. An authoritarian dream come true: you can be banned and expelled for no reason.
I even tried legal procedures through a lawyer i met on facebook and all i got was a huge bill from the courts.
I even went back under a handle just to participate in political discussions: got banned again. LOL. I guess i am not very "adequate".

[bigbill]

I was deleted for no rational reason 3 yrs ago: i had sent a nude pic of a boy through their private mail to a girl who is into classical photography. It was an Edward Weston classical picture. I was immediately banned without warning..
So I called a girlfriend and she did the same: emailed the same pic to a mutual friend. Also banned.
They asked for documents. WE sent them documents. My friend was admitted back. I wasn´t. Then i realized how dependent of facebook my social life became. My friends kept asking me to come back but whenever i had second doubts, someone else´s frustration w/ facebook kept me far away from them.
Facebook seems like a Kafka book. An authoritarian dream come true: you can be banned and expelled for no reason.
I even tried legal procedures through a lawyer i met on facebook and all i got was a huge bill from the courts.
I even went back under a handle just to participate in political discussions: got banned again. LOL. I guess i am not very "adequate".

I wondered what happened, I enjoyed your photography and glimpses into life in Rio.

[colker]

I wondered what happened, I enjoyed your photography and glimpses into life in Rio.

I was so mad, so offended w/ what went on because i actually was giving a lot of my time and creative effort to that community we had there. It was almost like work sometimes.. and yet i was thrown out w/ no explanation.
Why did they let my friend get back while i was banned? Who knows... The worst injustice is when you don´t even know why. I deserved at least an explanation. Did they think i was spreading paedophilia? It´s like "you should know what you did wrong".. that´s the worst kind of authoritarian atmosphere. And yet they pretend to be a nice and politically correct organization. It´s sinister. It´s the devil disguised as lamb.

[vertical_doug]

In the EU, there is a regulation which started in April 2016 called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
General Data Protection Regulation - Wikipedia

Because Cambridge Analytica is a UK corporation, and the researcher who scraped the data is at Cambridge University, the rules will actually apply here. The head of enforcement in the UK was on BBC Radio this morning explaining the potential penalties. Currently it is 2% of world wide turnover the preceding year or 10,000,000 euro whichever is greater. Starting in May 25, 2018 of this year, the fines increase to 4% or 20,000,000. Plus the real bonus here is directors and executives with control functions can be criminally prosecuted for not taking adequate care in GDPR. I know this because it is also a big part of the new miFID2 rollouts which has a huge amount of space related to GDPR and has my compliance people petrified.

The anger in the UK over the current Russia poisoning, provocative flybys on the northern borders, Russian meddling in the elections, misuse of data by Russia from FB/Twitter etc, and now this latest revelations surrounding Cambridge Analytica is just going to create a perfect storm for FB as they find themselves not associated with people making this a better world...... I expect that someone will prove Brexit referendum was interfered with by Russia ......