facebook......

[mbhenty]

Yes, I don't have my name under or over my door bell.

If you don't know who's door bell your ringing you don't belong here.

I prize my privacy.

Many things in this world are cheap...........in some countries it's "life".

In this country its "friendship."

The concept of friendship has been adulterated to the extreme. Facebook has made a mockery, dare I say, a charade out of the institution of friendship. Friendship takes dedication, affection, esteem, admiration, devotion, and a liaison of many other significant attributions.

Instead facebook is like a runaway freight train towing flat cars packed with people ready to travel the web naked, put them selves out there. It's like trench warfare and standing on a soap box shouting "HEY, I'M OVER HERE.

Everyone wants to belong....., to be loved....., to be desired....., and facebook is just an extension to these human aspiration, a hook, a craigslist for hustling attention.

I am easily bewildered and bemused by human behavior. Why Place yourself out there because everyone else is. I don't understand.

Facebook not for me. I value my privacy to much to just, "PUT IT OUT THERE".

Such a cheap medium, a bogus and pseudo comradeship.

I for one value friendship, and like the wisdom of love and family, my friendship is not to be posted and sold for nil or given away to an insensitive world.

But, each to his own.

If some chose to sell their privacy it's there right.

If friendship is a circus for some, so be it.

After all, that's how P.T Barnum made a successful living.

[kssunflower]

I abstain from Facebook too, although I have a couple of friends that keep urging me to join. No thanks. To each their own.

[Angel]

Well, I value my privacy too, and I'm not one who posts on facebook every time I scrub the floor or eat an apple, but I choose to share certain things with my friends. I have reconnected with old dear friends even from grade school and have derived much satisfaction in learning that they're happy and healthy and have had their lives turn out the way I had hoped for them. And I have gotten feedback from them about my history with them in school, etc. that I had forgotten or seen differently, and it has cleared up a lot of things and made me feel quite good about the things they remember. If one is selective about what one puts on facebook it can be quite a terrific thing to be in touch with people one had thought were lost forever. I have had some people die in my life and I had thought a lot of shared memories had died with them, but I have found friends who still share the history, so it makes me feel good that there are still people that I can talk to about those things.

[twinsrwe]

I avoid Facebook as well. I have done a great deal of research regarding Facebook and so far, want nothing to do with it.

Facebook is suppose to be “a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them”. Why should any of my friendships be mediated through a social utility site operated by a 26 year old super-geek in California? If I choose to connect with my friends and family I will send them a private e-mail or I will use the uniquely individualized experience of picking up the phone, calling them, and actually talking to them! Is the Facebook world really a more enjoyable place to be than the real world? If this is true, then I find that to be very sad; very sad indeed.

Is Facebook really “a social utility” service? In reality aren’t the members really joining an internet money making computer advertising program that is set up to look like an internet social network service, for the public? Isn’t Facebook’s “social utility” service nothing more than a cover for a computerized advertising empire designed with only one thing in mind, that being the bottom line profits for Facebook investors? I believe it is.

Furthermore, I find Facebook to be an evasion of not only it’s member's privacy, but their friends privacy as well. Let me explain…

I have been invited to join Facebook by three people; the last invitation I received was from a friend of mine. When I received this invitation, I just happened to scrolled down to the middle of it and found a section titled, See who else has invited you to Facebook. There is listed the other two people who have invited me to join Facebook. Then, I scrolled down to the bottom of this invitation, where I found a section titled, Other people you may know on Facebook. There I find seven people listed, and to my surprise, I know all seven of them!!! To make a long story short – one of these people really got to me, because they happen to be a member of the Lizzie Andrew Borden Forum. Now, my question is: How does Facebook know that I may know, this person or any of these people, for that matter???

During my research I found a web site that explained how Facebook knows about my connection to these people. It’s because people often give Facebook access to their e-mail contact list, when they first join the site. In my opinion, this is an invasion of not only their privacy, but MINE!!! As far as I’m concerned, Facebook has no business asking for e-mail contacts from anyone!!! Granted, it can be argued that the member gave Facebook access to their e-mail contact list, however, Facebook is out of line in asking for access in the first place. This is an invasion of privacy, on the part of Facebook, no matter how you look at it.

Privacy is a basic human right. The only reason Facebook gained its massive audience was the promise of privacy, which is closely tied to freedom. If someone wants to control you and knows everything about you, they can control you and take your freedom away. If someone wants to control you and they have no information about you, it is mighty difficult for them to control you.

IMO, Mark Zuckerberg is one scary dude, and I certainly have no desire to have my life controlled by him or his “social utility” service.

I won't go into the primacy reason of why I have no desire to join Facebook, because it involves my religious beliefs. Let's just say that I prefer to stay as private as possible, and therefore, Facebook is not something I desire to be involved with.

As for the Facebook members who enjoy being involved with this site, I think it is wonderful, and I am happy for you.

[Yooper]

I joined Facebook for a short time and gave it up. Old friends and acquaintances were crawling out of the woodwork, some who I hadn't heard from in 30 years (and really didn't miss)! I absolutely agree with Judy on this, there's a limit to what I'm willing to trade for convenience.

[Stefani]

I really like FB and find it connects me with people that I have lost in my life. Not only childhood friends, but old coworkers and new ones too. I find it not too much unlike a forum.

There really isn't any such thing as privacy anymore. When you are born now they give you a social security card. That ends your privacy forever.

[Aamartin]

I like and use facebook.... I have my privacy options set up to my comfort level of sharing...

[Harry]

Looks like time for a poll!

[Fargo]

I don't usually go to facebook that often.

To me facebook is good for finding old friends and that is mostly it.

When I see someone on facebook who has 800 friends I have to ask myself how many of these "friends" have they actually met?

I get people I went to school with sending me friend requests. Many of these friend requests come from people I remember from school, but I never knew them.

On facebook, I found a distant cousin by marriage who I used to play with when we were kids. She is a year or two younger than me and she moved away when we were very young. I have a very good memory. I remember her but I wasn't sure if she would remember me.

I sent my her a message on facebook asking her if she remembered me, telling her how we used to plsy togeather when we were kids. I get no answer.

But I find out later she asked my sister who I was ( she recognized the last name ) my sister said to me 'she said you asked her to join your network " I said 'I did no such thing, I asked her if she remembered me from when we were kids"

To me that was a wierd one. I ask her if she remembers me and she thinks I want her to add me as a friend ? Why? It's a mistake to assume things.

I talk to many people on facebook that I knew years ago without asking them to add me as a friend.

The facebook thing to me looks like everyone trying to outdo everyone else by showing how many hundreds of friends they THINK that they have.

I am not saying that you have to actually meet everyone before adding them as a friend. I have added friends that I have met on line and have things in common with them. Some facebook friends have lizzie in common with me.

[Richard]

THE ILLUSION OF CONNECTIVENESS AND THE CULTURE OF DISTRACTION

I saw the movie Social Network and can understand why after seeing this film, people still drink the Kool Aid of Facebook. It completely leaves unmentioned the most damning argument of all which is that Facebook is collecting our data and selling it to advertisers and no one seems to care. We are collectively providing the free content that creates billions of dollars in revenue for Facebook. Having said that, the movie is condemning enough.

I also find it hard to believe that the same people who just ten short years ago were hurtling verbal venom and intense hatred at Bill Gates who, in my opinion, was just a moderate prelude for Zuckerburg, are now lapping up Facebook and ignoring the obvious.

Does anyone who defends Facebook actually watch Zuckerberg in interviews? Does anyone know the real story? Are they going to see Social Network to see how infantile the whole paradigm is? I see so many people who are not hiding BEHIND Facebook, but hiding within it. It's like the crack cocaine of the internet because it gives you the Illusion of Connectiveness and leads you into a Culture of Distraction.

For some reason, everyone is under the illusion that something like Facebook improves the quality of our individuality. I think it is the exact opposite. All you have to do is hang out with a few 20-somethings to see the devastating social effect that the whole paradigm has had on our culture. Whatever potential was there is now compromised.

Read the book YOU ARE NOT A GADGET by Jaron Lanier. He was an early pioneer in virtual reality back in the 70s and 80s and his take on the whole Facebok/Twitter social-networking-distributed-device-privacy-issue is fascinating from the point of view of a visionary from the generation that tried to define the internet and its progressive potentials. After reading the book I was severely challenged to just unplug from the whole Borg mothership. From a more tempered perspective, privacy is very valuable, but I'm perfectly comfortable putting a few goofy posts up and keeping up with some old friends, and maintaining a fan page for my book, but that's about it. I am very reluctant to put anything personal up there.

I am continually amazed by people who post pictures of their children and give updates when they will be away from their house. It's unbelievable and very dangerous.

Facebook is selling my data and my interests, unwittingly making me into a data-provider to a data-aggregator who makes billions of dollars off the transaction.

I'm also offended by the Mafia games and sniper games promoted on Facebook. I'm tired of logging in to see how many human beings my friends have "killed" on Mafia wars.

Having said all this, I would never criticize anyone for being on Facebook. It's a lot of fun, addicting, and can get you in contact with a lot of friends. But as soon as someone's friend list starts creeping over 100, 200, even 1,000 and 2,000 friends, I start wondering if that person is seriously addicted or suffering from narcissism. Those are the people who usually sing Facebook's praises more loudly.

I agree with mbhenty that privacy is still worth preserving. Don't be afraid of the quality of friendships over the quantity, where the real strength of being human is required, and emotional reserves much deeper than clicking on the I LIKE THIS button is demanded.

And don't be afraid of turning off the computer, and feeling the solitude, that difficult space in which you have to build a relationship with yourself, the most difficult relationship of all. Most people spend most of their time avoiding that like the plague.

[Richard]

I found this in an interview with Jaron Lanier. It occurred to me that Facebook is also anti-intellectual in the sense that it promotes sound-bite polemics and people seeking "partisan online bubbles in which their views are reinforced." I know this quote is a bit heady, but it's meaningful to me. In many ways I feel that Facebook is moving us away from the informed citizenship that is crucial for a democracy. We are turning our own discourse into media trash.

Jaron Lanier: On one level, the Internet has become anti-intellectual because Web 2.0 collectivism has killed the individual voice. It is increasingly disheartening to write about any topic in depth these days, because people will only read what the first link from a search engine directs them to, and that will typically be the collective expression of the Wikipedia. Or, if the issue is contentious, people will congregate into partisan online bubbles in which their views are reinforced. I don’t think a collective voice can be effective for many topics, such as history--and neither can a partisan mob. Collectives have a power to distort history in a way that damages minority viewpoints and calcifies the art of interpretation. Only the quirkiness of considered individual expression can cut through the nonsense of mob--and that is the reason intellectual activity is important.

[Stefani]

Interesting Richard. Thanks for sharing and posting this. I very much enjoy the intellectual arguments against FB and the social implications of a person's addiction to social networking.

I can see where some would be or could be damaged by too much of this. But I also think that anyone who is would also be damaged by something else if not FB or Twitter. Remember, we must all die of SOMETHING. If you cure cancer, we still die. If you cure heart disease, we still die. Folks looking for connections and rely on technology to bring it closer are not losers or sad sorry sots in my opinion. They are literally reaching out, beyond themselves, to commune.

I really like FB and find it amazing in its ability to connect me with people I want to connect with. I get to keep up in short bursts with the thoughts, ideas, creativity, problems, and daily mood swings of people that I care about----each to varying degrees of course.

I don't like to phone folks, I don't like long emails. I am perfectly content with hearing the news about my friends in condensed form. I feel connected. And I like that feeling.

FB makes me more compassionate. It allows me to scan people's posts and comment on their stories. It lets me merely "like" as post so I can let others that I read what they wrote. It means you are being heard, and that is a pretty empowering feeling.

So I am all for FB and Twitter and Web 2.0 tools. I love technology and enjoy keeping up with trends and new inventions. It suits me. Perhaps not everyone, but it does suit me. I only wish there were more hours in the day. Can you help me with that?

[Richard]

There's certainly amazing potential in all the technology. If you build a rich social life using all these tools and make it productive, that's great. I'm just too aware of the corporate billions that are being made behind the scenes in what I consider to be an unethical way and the social long-term consequences.

Consider arguing the social consequences of casino gambling to someone who just sees playing the slots as a lot of fun, doesn't really lose very much money at the tables and sometimes wins. What if that person who enjoys the casino games has to confront someone whose life has been hurt by the gambling and the community whose quality of life has been compromised? Would that person ignore and dismiss any anti-casino talk because they made some good money at a casino and had a lot of fun hanging around with people who love gambling? After all, there's someone in my family who fits that description and when I try to argue against casinos with him, it's like smashing my head against a wall.

The big difference here is not that I'm arguing AGAINST Facebook per se since I use it myself for many of the same reasons you do, but I'm raising awareness of what it is doing under the hood, including changing the way we think. Television did that too.

Here's a good NPR story that gives some varying viewpoints:

http://www.privacylives.com/national-pu ... 009/10/29/

you can listen to the broadcast here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =114187478

And it's worth listening to!

“There’s a perceived safety, People are a lot more loose with their information because they don’t realize the trust they’re putting into this application developer. People tend to open up about themselves on social networks, and that kind of candor is worth money. There are now companies that mine social sites for data to sell to marketers."

You see the dangers are not just in Facebook, but the companies that are collaborating with them to make money. All our "stuff" is out there and being indexed and mined and that is far more sinister than just a privacy issue. It's all a matter of whether you want to ignore it or not, like a happy gambler in a casino who wants to ignore who is profiting from the money he loses at the slots.

I guess this is similar to the early days of television when social life, family dynamics, and culture itself, changed forever. Some people loved it, some hated it. Some thought it was trash culture, others thought it had great potential.

Anyway, this whole thing is so ironic since every here become friends from a social networking site!

[Aamartin]

I use Firefox-- and although I imagine my interest levels are still 'sold' -- I have a FF extension that blocks the ads from even appearing on my FB page....

[Richard]

Here's a video that summarizes it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7gWEgHe ... re=related

"...for any purpose..."

The fact you can now control whether "friends of friends" can see your data is trivial. The fact is that Facebook doesn't let you control what they do with your data because they own it. They make money off of it and hand it over to everyone they do business with. That's how they make their billions. I'd rather my ex-wife and my bosses see my data through improper security settings than my birthday and what movie I like are SOLD to corporations without my consent. But of course, they have my consent. It says in the agreement, "...for any purpose..." and I agreed.

I liked the movie SOCIAL NETWORK a lot, but it completely removed any reference to this whole argument. If the movie's purpose was to "expose" Zuckerberg, they could have had a field day with this whole thread of thought. It's curious they left it out to focus more on his personal pathology and dysfunctional behavior. The movie is also a great portrait of Sean Parker, the Napster guy. He's played in the movie by Justin Timberlake and he was a vital player in the rise of Facebook.

Grammar factoid: Data used to be a plural noun. Now it's singular.

[Harry]

There are many places on the Internet that gather personal data. Perhaps Facebook is the most obvious but it is the USER'S responsibility to put or not to put up personal information.

I have bought books on Amazon and now every time I go to their site they recommend similar books I might like. Same with DVD's. Is this an invasion of my privacy? To some degree yes, a sales gimmick yes but I rather like the idea. Saves me some browsing sometimes.

My bank, Bank of America, uses my social security number as my login, so does Janus which handles a few of my mutual funds. I worry about that far more than what Facebook does with my data.

[Richard]

Good points, Harry. But I have a few more thoughts about the dangers involved.

I'm not specifically worried about Facebook by itself. We'll see in the next few years how this whole paradigm plays out. Knowing what books I buy from Amazon is one thing, but there are far more serious ethical issues at stake. I do agree one should be very discrete and very careful about what you post and most of that is in your control, but a lot of people aren't. And it would be nice if we were explicitly told what they are doing and how we can "opt-out."

Facebook allows people to write apps in the form of Polls that have the ability to gather personal information from you. Once you are running the App / Poll, they can hook into your profile and grab data. And this is not Bank of America, Amazon or Janus, this is anonymous people who you don't know and would never in a million years trust with your data. THis isn't like handing your credit card number to Amazon, this is like handing your credit card number out randomly on the street.

A friend of mine was doing a round of interviews for his job and when certain resumes came across his desk, he was told to look at them on Facebook and check their politic status, their religious views, their likes and dislikes to see if they would be "a fit" for our team. That was unethical discrimination. Can you imagine being turned down for a job or even fired because of your private political or religious views? That seems like a throw-back to the 50s.

Here's a story about it:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... 6710&ps=rs

A recent survey found that one in five company managers checked out job applicants on Facebook or other social networking sites. And one-third of them found content that led them to reject a candidate

You are not even supposed to ask on a job interview if the candidate is married, but the new paradigms on the internet is changing all the rules rapidly.

[Richard]

I found this buried deep inside the privacy settings.

I never would agree that my birthday and family members would be accessible to random companies through any of my friends using their applications and websites. When I went to this setting, I saw that all of them were checked, which I never would have agreed to.

Use the settings below to control which of your information is available to applications, games and websites when your friends use them. The more info you share, the more social the experience.

Bio
My videos
Birthday
My links
Family and relationships
My notes
Interested in and looking for
Photos and videos
I'm tagged in
Religious and political views
Hometown
My website
Current city
If I'm online
Education and work
My status updates
Activities, interests, things I like
My photos
Places I check in to

[Aamartin]

There are many places on the Internet that gather personal data. Perhaps Facebook is the most obvious but it is the USER'S responsibility to put or not to put up personal information.

I have bought books on Amazon and now every time I go to their site they recommend similar books I might like. Same with DVD's. Is this an invasion of my privacy? To some degree yes, a sales gimmick yes but I rather like the idea. Saves me some browsing sometimes.

My bank, Bank of America, uses my social security number as my login, so does Janus which handles a few of my mutual funds. I worry about that far more than what Facebook does with my data.

I use bank of america as well-- and they let me change my login identity to one of my own choosing.

I just called them up and it was all taken care of via telephone.

[Harry]

I use bank of america as well-- and they let me change my login identity to one of my own choosing.

I just called them up and it was all taken care of via telephone.

Thanks Anthony, I'll look into that. It should be common sense, especially for a financial institution that the SSN should not be used.

[Allen]

I like using Facebook for many of the same reasons Stefani and Angel have already expressed. I am very careful about what information I share. I have set all my privacy settings to share information with who I want it to be shared with. The apps and games ask for your permission to share your information when you try to run them. I just click no. I cannot be searched in the member list. Anyone not on my friends list will see nothing but my picture if they should come across my profile, because it is set to private. I don't put anything on my profile I wouldn't want everyone to know anyway.

Facebook is a public forum.You cannot post information on a public forum and then get angry if it's shared. I'd say anything on the internet is a public forum in general. You can't be sure when you are surfing the internet what information different sites might be grabbing about you, or how they may choose to use it. If this was true we wouldn't need anti spyware, anti virus, firewalls, or be worried about identity theft. I'm sure there are people who post very personal information and have never bothered to set up their privacy settings. Just as there are people who become addicted to gambling. If they are addicted to gambling there is a bigger underlying problem that is not going to be solved by shutting down casinos. Just as shutting down Facebook would not stop millions of people from posting personal information somewhere else online. Dating sites, survey sites, shopping networks, etc. There are dangers to everything if you really want to look for them. You always have the choice of simply not using it.

I have connected with people I have not heard from since High School. I never would've found them on my own because I didn't begin to know where to search. I've kept in touch with people who are too busy to call much or share emails. I share stories and pictures with family members from other states in just seconds. I really enjoy using Facebook.

[Richard]

I don't beleive that people know that Facebook is "public." There is so much public outcry about perceived privacy on Facebook that it is undeniable that a majority of people think it is private and act accordingly. But how would you feel if you went to a food court in a mall and had a conversation with a friend, and saw someone nearby with an omnidirectional microphone recording your conversations. Would the fact that he is only going to sell the tape recording to Amazon and show them what books you were talking about buying at Barnes and Noble make it any less of an invasion?

Or how about you find out that Yahoo is reading your e-mail which you sent to a friend considering it private. Even if you only talked about what you had for breakfast and the color of your dog's eyes, would you be any less outraged by the intrusion and the creepy feeling that someone is watching? Would it help if the intruder said he was doing marketing research for Yelp?

I think the big problem here is that we are talking about two things.

a) Responsible, mature and fun use of Facebook for personal satisfaction and social networking.

b) The ethical and moral issues of the whole paradigm and business practice that is growing on the internet and is only modeled by Facebook.

I think people who enjoy a) are downplaying b) as relatively ignorable, and people who are concerned about the social, political and economic consequences of b) are looking deeper into the growing trends while people who are focused on a) are not and quite content not to.

However, the fact remains that new ethical and moral issues are being created daily. I just read an article in Newsweek called THE END OF PRIVACY which discussed everything I mentioned earlier. Mbhenty mentioned others, Twinsrwe mentioned a few.

If someone takes the attitude of "oh well, if you got burned by posting stuff that was personal that's your mistake, not Facebooks." you are only looking at the upper layers of the issue.

The argument that social networking as practiced by these companies is only as harmful as you want it to be. Just be careful. Don't post anything too personal, etc. That argument is fundamentally wise and sound, but it doesn't address all the other issues that have been rasied.

Privacy issues are not just about personal details becoming public. I'm not talking about what becomes public. That's definitely up to the individual to be careful and wise (although a lot of people are not). I'm talking about all the private business transactions that are done without your knowledge and without your consent, or only with your consent when you don't really understand what they are doing.

But what about my story of being told to check facebook profiles to see a person's religious or political affilitation before a job interview. This is not just a case of someone posting a picture of themselves at a party getting drunk, this is something that should be illegal: employment profiling.

I went into my privacy settings and dug deep into the APPLICATIONS AND WEB settings and was very troubled by what I found.

The setting that told me who they are selling my data to was called INSTANT PERSONALIZATION and when I went to uncheck the box, I was given the text that removing this "platform" would prevent me from having a "richer more connected experience." It should have said, "If you uncheck this, we can't make money off of you."

How is Facebook selling my data to Yelp and other companies improving my "social experience"? And don't tell me that when I go to Yelp, they'll know before I get there what I want to buy.

That's one step away from selling your data to people who want to do a lot more than just sell you downloadable music. Think of what happened in China with the government's collaboration with Google.

I enjoy Facebook and check it every day and keep up with all friends and promote my book, etc etc etc, but that has nothing to do with discussing the other issues.

This is not just about whether you have privacy or not on Facebook. You have to assume you don't and leave it at that. But then you have the entire range of issues includinjg business practices, the development of a partisan bubble paradigm with public discourse, the ethics of marketing, government intervention in your private life, employment profiling and the reduction of social and political discourse to sound-bite polemics. All these have to be addressed and they are way beyond and far above the whole petty issue of whether you are "private" or not on Facebook.

I also noticed that no one else who talks about Facebook discussed the movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Is it being dismissed as just irrelevant to this whole discussion?

Oddly enough the movie leaves out the whole privacy issue completely, exscept it shows Zuckerberg getting the idea for Facebook when he hacks into Harvard's dorm databases, steals female students pictures from private domains, and posts them publicly on-line asking the viewer to rate how "hot" they are. At first he wants to put up pictures of barnyard animals next to them and have their "hotness" rated against animals.

He also gets revenge on a girl who breaks up with him by posting private information about her bra size.

[Allen]

The nature of the site makes that pretty clear it's a public forum. Anyone who simply poo poo's the "social interaction" aspect, is already using a "social interaction" network of sorts on this forum. You log in and share stories, common interests, theories, information, and have enjoyable interaction with people you really respect and enjoy talking to. But in most cases you have never met them in real life. Granted this site is minus the apps, games, ads, and "people you may know." I don't need to add anyone to a Friends list. All we do here is chat. But that is "social interaction" is it not? If anyone really wanted to they could find out a good bit of information about me right here. If I went to college, where I live, how many children I have, if I'm married or not, my interests and hobbies, my theories on several topics, my birthday, my religious views, and even if I have a Facebook where they might look me up. An employer could probably gain as much personal information about me here as he could on Facebook.

You personally scan your email list for friends who are already using Facebook. You log into your yahoo, hotmail, or other email accounts, providing user name and password from the Facebook platform, to have this list scanned. Or you can choose not to do the scan. It scans to see if the friends on your list are registered users on Facebook using the email addresses on your contact list. If you are not comfortable with this, then you can block yourself from being found in the member list. Another way they get "people you may know" are by looking at the friends of people you already have on your own friends list. They may even expand the list as far as friends of those friends. This is your "network". I guess the idea is if your friends know them, maybe you do also. Another method is a generated list of people who graduated the same High School in the same year you did. This is taken from the information provided by Facebook users about what schools they attended and when.

There are phone companies, internet providers, cellphone companies, and even magazines that give your information to other companies they are affiliated with. Most companies are looking to make a buck off you somehow. Or scratch the back of companies who will. This didn't start and won't end with the internet. Stores can put you on a mailing lists when you sign up for a discount card or credit card. You can be asked to complete surveys that take your information and use it to generate a list of products for companies to try to sell to you. There are innocent enough sites all over the internet you may browse without knowing information is being collected. Any site you log into or browse could potentially be registering information about you without your knowledge, to use for whatever purpose it may choose, and without your consent. And being posted anywhere on the internet, anyone can log in and see what you've been doing. Facebook might be blatant about doing it, but this has been common practice across the internet for years. That doesn't make it right. I'm just saying if a company really wants information, they will find a way to get it.

The only thing I truly debate is whether this information should be used by potential employers. My friends and I are all in agreement. No. It should not be a factor in potential employment. My issue is not with how public or private what I'm posting is. It's whether or not something I do in my recreational time should be used to evaluate my job skills. No, it most definitely should not. Public forum or not that is something that is done in my own personal time. They might as well come and observe me at a public pool, or check the list of books I've taken out at the library. It's the same principle. But if you post it on the internet, it's out there for all to see. So you take that risk. Potential employers could use a number of sites around the internet to gather information if they so chose. But there are ways of finding out this information barring internet access if an employer is really so inclined. I think my personal free time is my time. What I do with it is not the business of my employer. Unless I'm embezzling money from the company.

[Allen]

I went into my privacy settings and dug deep into the APPLICATIONS AND WEB settings and was very troubled by what I found.

The setting that told me who they are selling my data to was called INSTANT PERSONALIZATION and when I went to uncheck the box, I was given the text that removing this "platform" would prevent me from having a "richer more connected experience." It should have said, "If you uncheck this, we can't make money off of you."

Instant Personalization

Our goal is to give you a great social and personalized experience with every application and website you use. We've worked with a select set of partners to personalize your experience as soon as you arrive on their sites.

These partner sites (currently limited to Bing, Rotten Tomatoes, Docs, Pandora, Yelp, and Scribd), can only access the information and content you've already made available to everyone. All our partners are required to respect your information and we've worked closely with them to make sure they do.

When you arrive at one of these sites, you'll see a notification message and a way to turn off the personalized experience on that site.


Instant personalization is different from social plugins. Social plugin content comes directly from Facebook and no information is shared with the websites themselves.

To turn off instant personalization on all partner sites, uncheck the box below. This will prevent these partners from receiving any of your information through instant personalization, even content you have made available to everyone.

Enable instant personalization on partner websites.

[Yooper]

Interesting that you have to overtly turn off the Personalized Information rather than having to turn it on. I assume the "box below" is checked rather than unchecked when the message is read. This implies that the information has already been shared and it is up to the individual to somehow prevent it? I can think of a better way to avoid unwarranted information sharing, that is to not provide the information in the first place.

[Richard]

Allen, I do agree with you about the employment issue and unfortunately I've seen it in action. I'm afraid it goes deeper than that, however.

I saw a Yahoo headline last night about a woman who lost her job because she wrote something about her boss on Facebook. And a woman whose disability was revoked because she was "caught" doing things they deemed she shouldn't be able to do by looking at her Facebook photo albums. When insurance companies will gather information about you to make determinations about policies or claims, will that be any better than the employment issue?

Think of the 1950s when people's lives were being destroyed by a congressional committee that was digging up evidence that they had been at a socialist rally ten years ago, or that they checked out books by Karl Marx from a public library. Back then, they didn't have massive corporations that were willing to sell personal information about your private life, and they still managed to infiltrate people's private space and harm them.

No matter what anyone thinks of this issue, our entire sense of identity and privacy is changing. I guess some people will be bothered by it or have their lives more affected by it than others will. And in the end, it should remain a free choice of the individual. I just believe there should be more public awareness of the consequences.

[stargazer]

I like Facebook. I am isolated to a large degree, and I can reach many of my friends all at one time. I've been able to share my life in photos, and catch up on people I hadn't been able to track down for years. I can share the reality of my strange desert life with instant pictures of a sunset, a rattlesnake on my porch, etc. If people give me trouble on Facebook, I can block them.

I avoid the applications, and I haven't ever received spam in my email account from Facebook. I have come across old boyfriends only to breathe a sigh of relief that I dumped them long ago when I see how messed up they are now. I may not interact with all of my friends every day, but I do check on them as often as I can. I live alone. I have no family, and some of my Facebook friends do appreciate the things I post. I can't sit in a bar, or church talking about dreams and such. I have control over what I say and who gets to stay in my friend circle. They have the same control over me. People grow apart, and we only have so much energy to share in one day.

Celebrities on Facebook do often speak to their fans in order to clear up rumors, and announce personal news for those of us who care about them as regular human beings when the smoke has cleared. I can understand how some of you don't like it. I live in a town with NO traffic light, and there are not too many people I can relate to. On Facebook, I have better options than I do, currently in Tiny Town. Trips to Las Vegas break up the monotony, and ironically, I hear people discussing Facebook in restaurants, and coffee houses.

[Harry]

Scary avatar there, stargazer. I like it.

[Richard]

Not a single day goes by without some news story like this:

Zuckerberg's going to announce something on Monday that may be big.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/ ... your-email

[Harry]

I'm seriously considering dropping my Facebook account. I do not like the new format at all. Some companies just can't leave well enough alone. Add Facebook to that list. And while I'm ranting throw in Photobucket and the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB).

Now for my 2nd cup of coffee ......

[nbcatlover]

I got on Facebook when I started working on my high school reunion. It's a great way to maintain acquaintances. It is not an appropriate forum for sharing deeply personal and confidential information. Since I am a person who is frequently hard to reach due to my work schedule, I find I can wish someone a happy birthday, etc. at 2 in the morning so they, at least, know they are in my thoughts. I also like being able to keep up with museums, exhibits, concerts, through organizations which have their own Facebook pages. But I don't tweet and I don't text. I don't have time for the mundane minutiae that people spend their time on. I don't want to know what all my friends had for lunch, or that they are drinking their 3rd cup of coffee. That's just way too much information...and generally worthless info at that.

[stargazer]

I don't like the new version, either. I wanted to control who showed up on my friends list, as a reminder to keep them posted, but now the friends list is randomized. I get used to websites, and they "move the furniture around" in the dark. I am getting too old to have to adapt so often. Technology is getting too plain. I go to Flickr accounts, and type in a subject, and I am delightfully bombarded with hundreds of old images. Facebook has trimmed down a great deal.

[mbhenty]

Now you've done it Harry.

You said it to loudly....about, "Some Companies just can't leave well enough alone."

Now look what's happened.

Even the powers at be on LAB "can't leave well enough alone."

It's an ever changing world, and others know what is good for you and me. Thus, we should not complain. heh?

Why?

Because it will not be long before it all changes once again.

If you don't get on the train, there ain't no bus.

[Harry]

Oh no, not the forum too! I didn't expect this. Just thought the server was down.

This is going to take some getting used to.

[Stefani]

I think you will find that the skin "fisubise2" is the closest to the old forum. If that is where you would like to start. Until you get the hang of it. It really is better!

[stargazer]

I am happy when websites are open to public input. I watched ebay go through hell until it became "fairly normal" again. I have always felt that the internet should be simple enough for an 80 year old first timer, and go from there. It's a wonderful tool. The worst websites take forever to load, even with high speed. This forum loads up quickly !

[mbhenty]

Yes, not one who appreciates change.

Not sure I can get use to this new format.

Ok, ok, stop cheering. Not sure I will not be back.

Everytime I come here to the forum, I'm blinded by the brightness of the new color.

Very hard on the eyes.

[SteveS.]

All this talk about evil FaceBook and social networking and corporations making millions. Geeeeesh! This forum in itself is a social network. FaceBook for me, like so many others has allowed me to reconnect to old friends and high school classmates that the years have separated from my life that I would never have been able to find on my own. It also keeps me closer connected to family that is unfortunately scattered across the USA. It's just common sense....user beware, just don't post anything you wouldn't want your Mom to see. As far as corporations gathering info and sharing it to make millions aimed at targeting specific groups for business, well I got news for you on that one...it is happening all the time. From Netflix to Amazon.com to FaceBook.....everything you purchase pretty much or anything you browse on a computer gathers some form of info on you and uses it for commercial means. I don't like it myself but this unfortunately is a fact of life loving in the 21st century. FaceBook, like alcohol or anything else for that matter if it isn't used responsibly can cause you major trouble. It's just a matter of preference I guess though on how one wants to socially interact with others. I am sure there were many people that felt this way when the telephone first was introduced........"Mabel, why you using that dang contraption, it is the devil's work. You sit by yourself in your own house and have a conversation with someone though a box on the wall instead of calling on them with a personal visit. Well I never."

[Angel]

Amen and hallelujah!

[Harry]

Saying goodbye to Facebook. Been getting too many e-mails from companies I never dealt with. Also the novelty has worn off for me.

Now to delete the account ....

[1bigsteve]

I have no interest in Facebook or Twitter. I don't want the whole world knowing what I am doing. I can talk with all of my friends by email or phone. I also don't like big corps like Facebook telling us how "safe" their system is and then we find out that they have been lying to us, have lied to us and will continue to lie to us no matter what. I don't like giving up personal info to people who don't need it just to get something I need.

When getting a savings card at CVS they ask you some personal questions like how many children you have and their age groups. It makes me feel like I'm giving information to a pedophile. CVS does NOT need to know that information and it would not help make my shopping experience any easier. Giving up personal information to get something I want doesn't ring with me. Facebook and Twitter may have advantages but so far I have done very well without either. At least on this social site I can use a "fake" login name or change the spelling of my real name to protect myself from corporate snoopers and identity thieves.


-1bigsteve

[Franz]

Hello everyone, I have just my facebook after a few months. I will be very glad to meet you there.

Here is my page:

https://www.facebook.com/songyang.li.73