Data Aggregation

[stellinacadente]

Something in my world is right again... now that I have resumed the delivery of the NY Times

Although a horrifying story was featured in yesterday's business session. It was entitled "Facebook is using you".
I have always been a bit weiry about this FB stuff, but indulged for the sake of family and friends overseas who would be otherwise estranged from my life...
put up with the privacy bs FB has tried to pull over the years, but this article took the whole FB thing to a new dimension.
Net:
Since there aren't laws about data aggregation here in the US, companies can use FB data to put you in a consumer or payer category or another and the next thing you know, your borrowing power is affected with no better explanation (because companies are not obligated by law to provide a reason).

I am really sorry I am unable to share the link to the article...because it is behind subscription level 

but this is truly distrurbing... let's set FB on fire man! 

[Aggie]

Don't get me started... again.

I've been ranting about related topics all over the forum...  CBC has some good radio programs on the social impacts of technology, and what it's capable of.  I'm not sure if anyone can get this outside of Canada, but:
http://www.cbc.ca/spark/category/episodes/

[Griffin NoName]

On a slightly different tack, a program on TV last night about girl who committed suicide (14 yr old) due to being bullied on Facebook. Apparently this is very common - the bullying.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Facebook is a public venue, a place where to start you state who you are, therefore, the owners don't feel compelled to guard your privacy. I you go to a public place -like a plaza- and you take off your clothes, you can't complain about privacy, even if it was your friends who got you naked in the first place. Facebook is worse because it's a public place for ALL the people you bloody know, imagine all family, coworkers, old pals, and acquaintances crowded in the same place all of the time, something worse than the small town mentality.

The only way to avoid all this is either avoiding FB all together or make sure that your public image is squeaky-clean all the time.   

[stellinacadente]

On a slightly different tack, a program on TV last night about girl who committed suicide (14 yr old) due to being bullied on Facebook. Apparently this is very common - the bullying.

SAD... but my comment to that would be : hang the parents.

What is a 14 yr old doing on FB unsupervised?

[stellinacadente]

Facebook is a public venue, a place where to start you state who you are, therefore, the owners don't feel compelled to guard your privacy.  

True, but there is a big difference between guarding one's privacy and making money out of data that should not be anyone's business...

if I go to a pubblic plaza I do not not do it to show everyone my bra bought at Victoria's secret, I do not shout my sexual preferences at the top of my lunges and I do not disclose intimate details to strangers....

that is what FB is doing right now...and since I like the idea of being able to keep in touch with my loved ones... I would rather pay for the service other than having them sell my aggregated data...

My two cents

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Don't get me wrong, I do not condone what FB does at all, what I'm saying is that by being in that public venue suddenly far more info becomes public than any of us would like if we understood it's reach. They will track all the info that they can get, therefore you have to be sensitive what you give them even unwittingly, for instance, if they are tracking cookies from other sites, don't do your shopping in the same browser you do FB, nor open commercial links from FB. Use one browser with your boring life and let FB see that, and use a different one to do what you don't want them to see. Using privacy mode in a browser also helps, but you have to compartmentalize, don't do FB and, say, shopping, in the same session, etc.

[The Meromorph]

I've asked several FB devotees what they think FB's product is and what they are selling to make a profit. Everyone of them has answerd 'Social media' (or some equivalent description) and 'advertising' respectively.
In fact FB's only product is its 'users' data and it sells it to make almost all its money. The advertising and other revenue streams are trivial in comparison.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Totally have a facebook. Totally careful about what gets put on there. I also recommend Ghostery, which blocks scripts and such, and is intended to help users maintain their privacy.

[stellinacadente]

Scrible! THANK YOU!!!!
Ghostery??? Totally AWESOME!

[Griffin NoName]

Ghostery looks interesting. I wonder whether knowing would prove scary.

[Roland Deschain]

Facebook can be quite insidious if you are not careful, yes. The company knows all your information, so if you don't want them to know whatever it is you do, you follow the above advice and use different browsers/browser profiles, or just don't put the info there in the first place. As for not letting certain people know certain things, you really need to delve deep into the settings to customise them to your liking. For most people that's a real pain in the buttocks, but if you don't want your employer knowing stuff, you can stick them in a group all by themselves, and block them from viewing that info. Failing that, don't add the boss!

I have pictures of my friend and I molesting bronze statues in Bratislava, one of them showing me taking Napoleon from behind (he was bending over a bench; what was I expected to do under the circumstances? ), and many others of me and assorted people in varying states of drunkenness, but nothing that I would consider to be a serious cause for concern to an employer (unless they were a fundie). I've also been deep into the settings to disallow friends of friends from viewing my profile. I thought i'd stopped anyone but friends viewing my profile by selecting the correct settings for this, but it turns out that there's a sub-setting that's hidden deep down, and this has a tick box for friends of friends. That was a little tricksy to find.

For the really paranoid, visit the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), and read some of the stuff on there.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

When I first joined Facebook, you could input your credit card number. I was astounded to find that there were people who actually did that!

[Roland Deschain]

^ That's ridiculous. I think I remember that, although it's been an awfully long time. The older FB gets, the more you have to delve into it to discover its secrets.