Leaving FB.

[sk_tle]

The main issue with social medias is you can still be tagged/mentionned/whatever even when you never had an account or deleted it. Another issue are impersonation and homonyms that can give you a bad name. Most "public people" have to create an "account" and make it recognized as "official" on every possible social media in order to avoid being impersonated.

[jumphigher]

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.

That is a ridiculous situation, colker. Honestly though, despite my post above saying FB is a tool for me to keep track of friends, if I were banned I'd be done with it. I wouldnt even attempt to return. I just dont care enough about it to feel it'd be a major loss. I do sometimes wonder what the future is for FB, as I work with a lot of teenagers and I've noticed many dont even use the site at all. I could see it one day going the same way as Myspace.

[dgaddis]

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.

Correct, they don't "delete" anything, ever. They just hide it from view, but it's still on a server somewhere. Anything that doesn't charge you for their products - YOU are their product. Gmail, hotmail, etc.

That said, even if there was a paid-for email service I wouldn't trust them not to be storing and selling data on me either.

I'm getting ready to do another 'friend purge' on Facebook. A while back I got rid of a bunch of folks I just decided I didn't need in my life (even if only in my FB feed), and with a baby girl due any day now I'm more and more aware of what I share and with who. A good friend of mine was posting pictures of his daughter all dressed up for prom the other day, and I thought I hope he knows exactly who he's sharing those pictures with. Anyhow, I have a lot of 'friends' I've never met, bike industry folks, wheel customers, even some folks from here, but I'm about to delete pretty much everyone I haven't actually met and shaken hands with.

[colker]

That is a ridiculous situation, colker. Honestly though, despite my post above saying FB is a tool for me to keep track of friends, if I were banned I'd be done with it. I wouldnt even attempt to return. I just dont care enough about it to feel it'd be a major loss. I do sometimes wonder what the future is for FB, as I work with a lot of teenagers and I've noticed many dont even use the site at all. I could see it one day going the same way as Myspace.

"Another issue are impersonation and homonyms that can give you a bad name. Most "public people" have to create an "account" and make it recognized as "official" on every possible social media in order to avoid being impersonated." Thomas
It´s a dangerous tool and should be on very carefull hands only. They are good techs but mass psychology is a dangerous ground for anyone to play control.
We have seen only the first steps. Meddling in the US elections was the next step.
Here in Brasil, the governement transfered some of their contact w/ the population including registering on important events .. to facebook. It´s dumb and careless.

[colker]

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 ......

I don´t fully understand the whole scope of the Russia affair w/ facebook but the whole Fb experience was a time bomb waiting to happen. I don´t feel sorry for their adminsts no matter how good they swear on their intentions. Those techs have no business dealing w/ mass psychology and mass control let alone personal data.
FB turned politics on a personal level into a living hell. It just exasperates intolerance. It´s the opposite of their intentions.

[Andrevich4]

I left FB 6 years ago. I was halfway around the world and felt like I was spending too much time worrying more about what everyone else was doing than where I was and who I was with. What I realized is that social media was people just showing me what they wanted me to see vs. what they really were.

Upside to the decision: less stress, more time, when I do see people I actually sit down and chat with them to catch up.
Downside to the decision: I'm a bit behind what's happening in the world but I think most of that is surface level.

Two other things I've done/am considering in the future:

1. Went off all news emails last May (except FT, for the data). Good call there.
2. Considering getting rid of my iPhone but really like having the camera and ability to share pics immediately. May still go back to a flip phone, especially since the iPhone 5 is being slowed down apparently, but I'm a lot more deliberate about when I use it and how.

[davids]

This is shocking how?

Mh hm. And this morning my FB was full of all the reports on how FB was manipulated by Cambridge Analytics. Oh irony.

I've used FB to share vacation photos with friends; arrange reunions with long-lost friends; and to link news and opinion articles for causes I care about with friends.

I don't connect with anyone I don't know. I don't share un-vetted shit. And I don't pretend FB is the real world at all. It's worked out OK for me. I'd miss it a little bit if it disappeared.

[dgaddis]

Here's a fun thing to check if you have an iPhone.

Go to Settings -> Battery. Scroll down just a bit and you can see how much of your battery various apps are using. Click the clock symbol in bar above the app list and you can see much time you've had those apps open (both on screen and in the background), and you can look at it for the last seven days and/or the last 24 hours.

[caleb]

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.

If such an account were to exist, would it be visible/searchable with my wife's account? Or is it simply a dataset existing on a server?

Also, given that I have never entered into any sort of user agreement with them, what could they do with whatever data they can gather on me? Yesterday the PA AG was on NPR saying that he was suing FB because they had violated their user agreement. I don't even have a user agreement.

[steve garro]

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

Go Big !!!!

I've never driven a car or owned a cell phone........but man......FB sure sells bikes for me.


I know allot of people would be bummed not to see all the cool bikes being made on FB

Like someone else said - it's what you make it, and if your think anything you put on the WWW is secure you're daft.

Here's a fun thing to check if you have an iPhone.

Go to Settings -> Battery. Scroll down just a bit and you can see how much of your battery various apps are using. Click the clock symbol in bar above the app list and you can see much time you've had those apps open (both on screen and in the background), and you can look at it for the last seven days and/or the last 24 hours.

And the minutes come off your life, not just your "plan"


- Garro.

[Saab2000]

The less I use FB the happier I am. It's not a positive place for the most part. I was a very early adopter, shortly after it opened up to the public. Initially it was fun and allowed me to reconnect with long-lost friends. But then over time I realized why they were long lost friends - we had nothing in common anymore, if we ever did. I've instructed my family members who are not on FB to go nowhere near it as it's a black hole. Once in its gravitational field it's nearly impossible to escape it. My sister did because she is full of common sense and doesn't want any part of her life visible to her employer. Smart.

I've done a few major purges of the friend list and now I accept very few new ones and I've locked down who can even find me or what others can see.

It's long since outlived it's original purpose of being a social, fun network to connect with friends and is now being used for nefarious purposes and is full of negativity and hate. It often brings out the worst in people and rarely the best. The last electoral cycle showed this and it's not going to get better.

[vertical_doug]

I don´t fully understand the whole scope of the Russia affair w/ facebook but the whole Fb experience was a time bomb waiting to happen. I don´t feel sorry for their adminsts no matter how good they swear on their intentions. Those techs have no business dealing w/ mass psychology and mass control let alone personal data.
FB turned politics on a personal level into a living hell. It just exasperates intolerance. It´s the opposite of their intentions.

Well, it wasn't long ago that ISIS was using FB to recruit British people to come join the fight. They have managed to build up so real ill will here.

FB may just be a mirror reflecting society at large, but society is looking in the mirror and not liking what they see. So let's break the mirror.

[colker]

Well, it wasn't long ago that ISIS was using FB to recruit British people to come join the fight. They have managed to build up so real ill will here.

FB may just be a mirror reflecting society at large, but society is looking in the mirror and not liking what they see. So let's break the mirror.

Every mirror is an illusion. Social media is one of those mirrors that distort even more.. Don´t copy an illusion, a reflection, and make it reality.

[colker]

The less I use FB the happier I am. It's not a positive place for the most part. I was a very early adopter, shortly after it opened up to the public. Initially it was fun and allowed me to reconnect with long-lost friends. But then over time I realized why they were long lost friends - we had nothing in common anymore, if we ever did. I've instructed my family members who are not on FB to go nowhere near it as it's a black hole. Once in its gravitational field it's nearly impossible to escape it. My sister did because she is full of common sense and doesn't want any part of her life visible to her employer. Smart.

I've done a few major purges of the friend list and now I accept very few new ones and I've locked down who can even find me or what others can see.

It's long since outlived it's original purpose of being a social, fun network to connect with friends and is now being used for nefarious purposes and is full of negativity and hate. It often brings out the worst in people and rarely the best. The last electoral cycle showed this and it's not going to get better.

I believe this settles the issue so far.

[TTX1]

I joined FB circa '06, for work.

Eventually, inevitably, FB became something else. A clear view of so many isms...

I uninstalled the FB apps on all my devices ~ 3 years ago, and I rarely login. I encourage everyone to do the same.

The reality is that so many of my friends, family, and colleagues willingly provide access to their address books that FB can triangulate and track me even when I don't participate...

Glad to see the EU taking action on consumer privacy.

FB active users in the US is declining - This is good news because it signals that change is coming.

I like Instagram, also owned by FB, in part because it's a mostly visual medium, and in part because there is no emphasis on real names - an alias is acceptable (technically, FB policy is that real names must be used, iirc).

My FB account remains active - I still need it for work (another thing to think about! - but participation is strictly limited.

Friends and family know how to reach me. Colleagues connect at LinkedIn (slippery slope over there, too).

For those ready to take the next step...

How to opt out of FB's data sharing:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/19/h...-data-sharing/

How to quit FB:
How to delete your Facebook account - Recode

[dogrange]

I'm like Saab2000 above. Early adopter and it was fun at first, but became a sucker of emotional energy, so I deleted it a couple years ago. It is unfortunate that many of my local bike events and other interesting things use Facebook as their websites, so I miss a lot of stuff, but I still shan't return. Not Facebook, but this seems apropos, posted by an old professor of mine (polymath, smart guy, lots of interests):

A planetary-scale hate machine | ERIC POSNER

[Bob Ross]

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.

Wait, what?

You're saying that Facebook is maintaining profiles for people who don't have a Facebook account? For everyone who doesn't have a Facebook account?!?!

That sounds more like tin-hat conspiracy theory than a legit (if brazen) data-mining technique.

[sk_tle]

Wait, what?

You're saying that Facebook is maintaining profiles for people who don't have a Facebook account? For everyone who doesn't have a Facebook account?!?!

That sounds more like tin-hat conspiracy theory than a legit (if brazen) data-mining technique.

Sure they do it. Every time someone tags you in a picture or accept to share their contact book, plus they log every single users that visit a website using the fb sharing options (including velocipedesalon) for those who aren't using a browser extension to block them. They know about you from different kinds of sources and are able to recoup the data.

They can still sell that data and use if for advertising purpose.

[rwsaunders]

If FB and Big Brother have you worried, don't even think about Tweeting. At a data analytics summit which I attended this past Fall, we were given a presentation by a technology partner of Twitter, who provides them with latitude and longitude metrics, geocoding and reverse geocoding for mobile platforms, as well as mapping solutions for the insurance, financial services, retail and public sectors. The company said that Twitter uses location intelligence technology to support location sharing in Tweets.

The technology targets message based data, not just transactional data and also where the Twitter user is at any given moment...in the world. Twitter uses the information to combine that location data for Tweets with buying patterns, behaviors, preferences and influencers, and cross-reference it with nearby stores or other mobile users within an individual's social network. It uses a smartphone's GPS signal to pinpoint a location and takes it from there. Part of the presentation included discussing a map of a Twitter employee, who agreed to share his location data (plotted on a map) over a four week period of time. That boy sure loved Italian food, movies, Costco and skiing...I hope that he used his PTO days for the skiing.

[TTX1]

Sure they do it. Every time someone tags you in a picture or accept to share their contact book, plus they log every single users that visit a website using the fb sharing options (including velocipedesalon) for those who aren't using a browser extension to block them. They know about you from different kinds of sources and are able to recoup the data.

They can still sell that data and use if for advertising purpose.

Correct. And more.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It's part of the privacy problem FB faces...

They have tentacles across the internet, and their platform tracks eyeballs well beyond their primary domain. Many other media properties use FB directly or indirectly to serve ads (and cookies), track traffic, etc.

And as mentioned above, unwitting friends graciously hand over their own activity - which includes interactions with you. FB knows your name, your phone number, your address, where you went to school, etc., etc., etc.

TH noted that you don't need to volunteer this information to FB, however someone else will certainly do it for you - intentionally or not.

FB has aggregated all of this data, and their mission is to monetize it.

Whenever you see an ad and the content seems prescient ("I swear I haven't searched for Campagnolo on this browser before" - ok unlikely example), it's because you're being effectively targeted by one or more of the major media platforms - FB or other.


The thing that really gets me: Given all the data the powers that be have aggregated about our clicks - they still utterly fail to serve relevant, good content MOST of the time.

Not only is the decor in the casino dated, but the payouts are low and the drinks are the expensive.

Why do any of us return at all?

How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You've Ever Met
https://gizmodo.com/how-facebook-fig...819822691?IR=T

Oldie but Goodie...




This is why I generally limit my social media participation to cycling related "platforms"...