Who here is ON, and who NOT ON, facebook?

[661-Pete]

Just wondering.

I'm NOT, before anyone asks. Never have been. So I don't have the option of making a succinctly rude public comment (a GBCW in effect) and then closing my account.

So just what is the evil allegedly being perpetrated? And what do people want to do about it?

[thirdcrank]

Just wondering.

I'm NOT, before anyone asks. Never have been. So I don't have the option of making a succinctly rude public comment (a GBCW in effect) and then closing my account.

So just what is the evil allegedly being perpetrated? And what do people want to do about it?

In Judge Pickes mode, "Can you please explain to the jury what's a GBCW?"

[bovlomov]

You don't always have a choice.

I have a friend who isn't on Facebook. Neither am I. But one day my wife was scrolling through Facebook, and she casually noted that there was a picture of my friend in a pub. I found this highly disturbing. Even though neither of us had chosen it, I knew something about his movements that I had no right to know. His sister in law had taken the photo, put it up on Facebook, where it passed along a chain of Facebook 'friends' (his wife and mine) to me.

Faces in photographs can be tagged without any recourse to the victim, and those tags can be linked. Forever. The Privacy Settings aren't worth a bean.

As it happened, there was nothing scandalous or embarrassing about the photo. There might have been though. And anyway Facebook is harvesting personal details of people with whom the company has no contract; people who have never given consent, and who might not appreciate being exploited to promote commercial interests and political causes.

[kwackers]

Just wondering.

I'm NOT, before anyone asks. Never have been. So I don't have the option of making a succinctly rude public comment (a GBCW in effect) and then closing my account.

So just what is the evil allegedly being perpetrated? And what do people want to do about it?

In Judge Pickes mode, "Can you please explain to the jury what's a GBCW?"

Goodbye cruel world.

I'm on FB, it's another of those "OMG, they're using your data!" things - or rather I think someone created one of those crap quizzes that abound and used that to 'use your data'.

[mjr]

So just what is the evil allegedly being perpetrated? And what do people want to do about it?

The evil is harvesting user accounts and the links between them, including people not on facebook (thanks to uninformed users agreeing when their apps ask "send all your contacts to facebook to help you find your friends?" or something like that, despite it being pretty clearly illegal under UK law - and probably EU law - to say yes to that unless you have consent from everyone in your contacts book), and collecting various information that they can use to predict one's beliefs and decide who is susceptible to what fake news and how best to target them.

I think this one is different because it wasn't only some dodgy app (like those quizzes), but included some sort of raw data dump from facebook (what Twitter used to call "the firehose" when they used to offer it, back in their early days).

Here's a detailed channel 4 news report:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zb6-xz-geH4

I want the regulators (information commission, I guess) to charge facebook with a privacy data breach and seek the maximum penalty and (electoral commission, I guess) to charge Cambridge Analytica with corrupt election practices and seek the maximum penalty.

I am on facebook but primarily for cycle campaigning, although I did use it for referendum campaigning too. I don't trust it for news - this forum is more trustworthy and I wouldn't trust it as a single source either. The tendency of so many people to put pretty much everything from their lives in facebook status updates horrifies me.

[kwackers]

I have a friend who isn't on Facebook. Neither am I. But one day my wife was scrolling through Facebook, and she casually noted that there was a picture of my friend in a pub. I found this highly disturbing. Even though neither of us had chosen it, I knew something about his movements that I had no right to know.

Photo taken in a public place - there is no right to privacy. Whoever took the picture can put it anywhere they like.

If your friend didn't want tagging in public photos then there's an option in the privacy settings to turn it off.

[thirdcrank]

... Goodbye cruel world. ...'.

I thank you. I prefer to try to work these thing out and I'd got to Great Big but Iwas stuck for a C-word.

[kwackers]

I thank you. I prefer to try to work these thing out and I'd got to Great Big but Iwas stuck for a C-word.

Like the guy sat next to the pope on a plane.

Pope was doing a crossword and was stuck so he turned to the guy and said; "Excuse me, four letter word ending in 'unt' and the clue is Pertaining to female".
Bloke thought to himself "I can't say that to the pope" so he said no.

Several minutes later he had a eureka moment, turned to the pope and said "Aunt".

[kwackers]

Here's a nice quiz to see how much Cambridge Analytica know about you:

How much does Cambridge Analytica know about you?

[bovlomov]

I have a friend who isn't on Facebook. Neither am I. But one day my wife was scrolling through Facebook, and she casually noted that there was a picture of my friend in a pub. I found this highly disturbing. Even though neither of us had chosen it, I knew something about his movements that I had no right to know.

Photo taken in a public place - there is no right to privacy. Whoever took the picture can put it anywhere they like.

If your friend didn't want tagging in public photos then there's an option in the privacy settings to turn it off.

In this case it was a pub. Is that a public place? It happens in people's homes too.

My friend had no agency in this. He was the one being snapped. Not being a Facebook user, he has no Privacy Settings.

[kwackers]

In this case it was a pub. Is that a public place? It happens in people's homes too.

I've yet to find a pub that didn't allow photos and were the public weren't allowed; that makes it public.

My friend had no agency in this. He was the one being snapped. Not being a Facebook user, he has no Privacy Settings.

I could post a picture on here and tag someones name. In that regard this forum is as rubbish as Facebook.

[squeaker]

Here's a nice quiz to see how much Cambridge Analytica know about you:

How much does Cambridge Analytica know about you?

[Audax67]

I'm on FB for family & some of my chums. I find it increasingly annoying, though, and handing my stuff to a bunch of amoral profiteering casuists does not appeal very much. It's also wearying to find that someone you otherwise know only as, for example, a great photographer, is also a heavy-duty Christian who projectile-vomits his religion at all & sundry on FB and has political opinions that make Hitler look like a leftie. I'm continually thinking "I'm outta here" followed by "hang on, I'll lose contact with X, Y & Z if I quit".

Don't join is my advice.

[Psamathe]

...
Deleting your account entirely is a extreme step – but one that people are taking in the wake of yet another data scandal

A growing movement to delete Facebook is spreading across the world.

In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal – in which it emerged that Facebook was being used to gather information to help the Trump and Brexit campaigns – people are leaving the site in protest at the data that is being collected using the site and how it is being used. Some experts have argued that the controversial bits of Cambridge Analytica's tracking aren't actually unusual or remarkable at all, but instead a central part of how the site works.

And I don't even have an account to delete.

Ian

[Audax67]

Here's a nice quiz to see how much Cambridge Analytica know about you:

How much does Cambridge Analytica know about you?

Timeo Danaos etc.