I was thinking that every website I can find seems to have a log-in-through-facebook feature, and being that facebook never deletes any information on it's site and users, this could be a privacy concern.
Does Facebook Have it's Fingers Everywhere?
- Thread starter CuttingEdge100
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You opted in when you signed up.
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Yes. Not only is it everywhere, but it watches everything you do. Even when you turn your PC off.
You know when you get that feeling of being watched, but when you turn around, no-one's there? That's Facebook, that is.
Also, this:
Did you know that if you give Facebook your phone number, then Facebook will like totally have your phone number!? That's invasion of privacy, man!
In all seriousness though, we have to remember that Facebook is a corporation. It behooves them to have their tentacles everywhere they can reach, because then that means they make more money. So of course several sites will have a feature to log-in through Facebook.
In all seriousness though, we have to remember that Facebook is a corporation. It behooves them to have their tentacles everywhere they can reach, because then that means they make more money. So of course several sites will have a feature to log-in through Facebook.
Just don't tell Facebook anything you don't want people to know. I can't think of a simpler explanation.
This is it, exactly.
The problem is that you unknowingly give Facebook much more information than you think you're giving them, and that's especially true if you happen to be a novice user who doesn't understand how the Internet works.
1. There is the information whose existence is not obvious. Simple things like “friend” relationships can tell a lot about you, especially if Facebook has all of them, and that's sometimes hard to miss especially when you forget how the whole is sometimes more than the sum of its parts. Facebook can also have the times of your visits, the profiles that you read, your approximate location (IP address), etc.
2. There is the information that you do not control. People can tag you in photos, they can request your friendship, they can like your posts, they can post comments, they can have some of your friends as their friends (without you having them).
3. There is the information they can collect outside of Facebook. It's not just Facebook logins, just the buttons that are hotlinked to Facebook servers can be used to gather more information about your browsing habits.
And that's just what I can come up with as a non-Facebook user, I guess there's a lot more.
The worst part is that they have a significant portion of the Internet users and have a presence on a large portion of the web which allows them to have much more information that can be correlated and linked together to create even more information.
In short, if you give a random web site your information you'd be telling them less than if you did the same at Facebook.
That's why I'm hoping for a decentralised social network to be developed. In it you'd choose which service you trust with your information, nobody has the entire information in one place, there's no central point for a government to block, mine or subpoena, there's no central authority to control the network, and you can run your own node in which your information as a whole is not shared with anybody (only the pieces of it are).
And hopefully, if that happens it will also be designed in such a way that the other privacy issues can be reduced to the absolute minimum.
Sure I want to tell everything to the world, but not more!
1. There is the information whose existence is not obvious. Simple things like “friend” relationships can tell a lot about you, especially if Facebook has all of them, and that's sometimes hard to miss especially when you forget how the whole is sometimes more than the sum of its parts. Facebook can also have the times of your visits, the profiles that you read, your approximate location (IP address), etc.
2. There is the information that you do not control. People can tag you in photos, they can request your friendship, they can like your posts, they can post comments, they can have some of your friends as their friends (without you having them).
3. There is the information they can collect outside of Facebook. It's not just Facebook logins, just the buttons that are hotlinked to Facebook servers can be used to gather more information about your browsing habits.
And that's just what I can come up with as a non-Facebook user, I guess there's a lot more.
The worst part is that they have a significant portion of the Internet users and have a presence on a large portion of the web which allows them to have much more information that can be correlated and linked together to create even more information.
In short, if you give a random web site your information you'd be telling them less than if you did the same at Facebook.
That's why I'm hoping for a decentralised social network to be developed. In it you'd choose which service you trust with your information, nobody has the entire information in one place, there's no central point for a government to block, mine or subpoena, there's no central authority to control the network, and you can run your own node in which your information as a whole is not shared with anybody (only the pieces of it are).
And hopefully, if that happens it will also be designed in such a way that the other privacy issues can be reduced to the absolute minimum.
Sure I want to tell everything to the world, but not more!
But at what point is someone supposed to be responsible for their own actions? It's not like Facebook doesn't have everything laid out in the privacy policy and terms of service.
All true. If I am worried about FB knowing any of this, I have ways around it. But usually I don't care.
Also true, although I don't see how any of this is really Facebook's fault. They offer the functionality and people use it. You can't really control what people say about you on Facebook, however you can try to have friends who aren't idiots, and avoid pissing people off who might want to make you look bad.
Yup. You can also avoid this by using a different browser where you aren't logged in to Facebook.
Yeah, but what do they want the information for? Marketing. They don't seem to care much about it otherwise. It's just a way to make money. Same as Google. I would be in favor of stricter laws regarding what they can collect and what they can do with it, though.
I don't really see that happening. Part of Facebook's appeal are the games. A decentralized social network is unlikely to have those--at least not up to the level FB has them. Lots of people use FB for the stupid games. Sad but true. I hate them.
I didn't. Back in MY day facebook was nice, simple, and restricted to people with university emails.
I didn't. Back in MY day facebook was nice, simple, and restricted to people with university emails.
You are free to opt out at any time.
Those were the days.
I didn't. Back in MY day facebook was nice, simple, and restricted to people with university emails.
Most prosecutors and defense attorneys and their staff are trained to hunt down Facebook entries on defendants, witnesses, experts AND police officers. All that personal information, pictures, etc. can be and is used for whatever point of view is necessary. For instance, you deny you have ever owned a gun? Well looky there, a friend has a picture of you holding a gun. You deny you're in a gang? Hmm what's that picture doing on Facebook with you wearing gang colors and making signs?
Those were the days.
I didn't. Back in MY day facebook was nice, simple, and restricted to people with university emails.
It was when I first started seeing high school kids with accounts. That's when I knew it was going downhill.
Also, Facebook doesn't have it's fingers everywhere. Just thumbs.
Not exactly, because others can tell Facebook details about you. email, phone number, your face, the last party you went to, etc, etc, etc... Facebook doesn't need you to sign up to get to know this.
So don't have stupid friends?
I for example didn't want my email in the FB database (long before I joined, and then I joined using a different address). But some of my friends searched for me by entering my private email address. Didn't find me. Entering my business email. Didn't find me. Entering my name. Didn't find me. Entering my name, my email address an my region. Didn't find me. But Facebook already had a nice dataset about my person. There's no privacy setting against this.
Is there an app for that?
A lot of spammers probably have the same information, really. One solution might be to make it unlawful to gather certain information about people who aren't members (and therefore haven't agreed to Facebook's policies.) Could be a bit sticky.
Wouldn't that be nice?
