I deleted it long before the Cambridge Analytica fiasco.
I’m quite privacy conscious but nevertheless I tried several times to give it a go and like the product (making an informed decision to share some of my private data) but I just can’t. Maybe I’m not “social” enough but I really don’t have the time nor desire to “share” everything and flood my friends’ feeds with stupid meme videos or anything like that. Gave it a try multiple times and always ended up deleting it (well that’s what FB wants me to believe) a month later.
The fact that it also magically figures out which people I interact with and suggests them to me is quite creepy - a lot of people have my number and email for professional reasons but it makes me uneasy seeing those people appear in the suggested friends; presumably since I can see them there they can also see me in their suggested friends and I’m not ok with that.
I do miss the ability to lookup anyone just by name and add/message them that way (easier than exchanging numbers/emails) but that’s a trade-off I’m willing to accept.
That’s the ‘shadow profile’ I referred to earlier. When your friends and acquaintances share their contacts, or otherwise let their email and other social media accounts be accessed by Facebook, Facebook then harvests that data and uses it to suggest friends to you. Simplifying grossly; you’re friends with X, Y and Z. X, Y and Z are friends with A. So Facebook will suggest them to you.
This is an extension of the more common conspiracy theory that having the app on your phone opens you up to Facebook listening to your microphone. So in your case, the app could’ve potentially been monitoring your SMS and email activity.
I’m not a subscriber of that theory as that kind of monitoring would probably require a lot of processor power so you’d notice your battery going down obscenely fast. Plus, I’m no mobile developer but, I don’t think it’s possible on iOS as it’s so locked down though Android is a little more open for app developers to integrate more deeply into the OS so there’s a chance that it could be happening in some cases but I still think unlikely.
Facebook allows you to import your contacts from major email providers by giving them your email credentials, so while I didn’t do it I would expect some people to do it and thus get their entire email history harvested.
Back when Facebook initially opened up access outside universities i looked at it and couldn’t see it adding value to my life. Nothing i’ve seen in the intervening years has changed my opinion.
All my relatives are heavy users of Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram and, unfortunately, i doubt even these latest scandals will change things for them.
I had deleted it a while back. Sadly though, my new job use a secret group for communication so I’ve had to get it back.
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Anarchist
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29
Its only real use for me, which I miss a bit, is groups. There were a few local groups around here which were useful in getting recommendations for local tradesmen, or new businesses opening up and the like.
I couldn’t delete it even if I wanted to, my job literally relies on Facebook. But I wouldn’t anyway - it’s how I keep in touch with relatives far away, how I get invited to friends parties, how I know who’s getting married (or breaking up) and what people are up to. I would lose contact with dozens, or hundreds, of people without Facebook. And for those who suggest you can’t be that close if you are only in touch via Facebook, I would ask why it matters how I keep in touch, I may not be making calls to them every week but I don’t feel I need to, I can like and comment and they know I’m seeing their updates.
No plans to delete it. With any ‘free’ online service you need to accept the compromise is that ‘you’ are the product on sale. This is no different to Google, so if you have an issue with Facebook, then by extension you should have a pretty big issue with Google.
As far as the Cambridge Analytica fuss is concerned I don’t get it. Facebook really did nothing wrong. There was no data breach. Cambridge Analytica had legitimate data access and used it to full advantage (although clearly their handling was a beach of Facebook ToS).
This is no different to how advertising platforms work on the web in general (Facebook, Google, Amazon etc.) - they’re all harvesting large volumes of data in order to influence you in some shape or form.
Agreed. 99% people will have moved on from last week and be focusing on something else. Yes, misusing people’s information is bad, however so is deleting Facebook. How all these people from past or present going to keep in touch?
Anarchist
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39
Depends on what your issue with FaceBook is really? For me, it wasn’t primarily privacy (I’d already de-activated my account last May). I was mainly concerned that FaceBook was facilitating child abuse, and I wasn’t particularly keen on giving them any information for them to monetise.
But, each to their own. I wouldn’t tell anyone else to delete FaceBook based on my predilections
Very true and for some of us, i.e. Android users, it’ll be a little difficult for them to get away from. I’m much more easily able to switch away from Google to competing sevice providers.
My other problem with Facebook is that I always get friend requests from people I haven’t really been in touch for a long time (and didn’t plan to), but at the same time don’t want to be rude and so feel obliged to accept them as “friends” even though they’re not friends by any means and will never become ones.
A hypothetical example would be an ex-colleague adding me - declining/ignoring it would be rude, but at the same time having them as “friends” would make me uneasy. I don’t mind them keeping in touch every so often via email/texts (happy for them to have my number), but if we assumed I used Facebook I wouldn’t feel comfortable having them on there as “friends”. Again it might just be that I’m not into this whole “sharing” craze.
