Had Enough Of Facebook’s Duplicity And Incompetence? - Comments Page 2

Collusion is not a crime as such.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/12/what-is-collusion-215366
Even so, what tRump etal. "allegedly" did is not the same as what Obama "allegedly" did. 45 to be and his surrogates "allegedly" met with foreign agents to circumvent election laws, many time it would seem. FB gave an unsolicited campaign contribution of valuable information to 44, probably also illegal if the contribution was not reported, but at the same level? I tend to doubt it, but I'm a bleeding heart liberal
As a Liberal I have noticed a fair number of my left leaning friends were just as taken in by Russian trolls and still won't admit that Hillary is not the criminal mastermind/evil genius she would have to be to pull off and get away with the dozens of hits and other crimes of which they are convinced she is guilty even though tens of millions of dollars was spent trying to pin something, anything on her.

Hi Bob,
No surprise about FB selling private information. For years they have been snooping into my search history to post up "targetted adverts". I have countered by using a seperate browser only for FB, so they cannot mine my usual browser searches. Ha!!

Second thing is that my FB personal data is nil and I use a fictitious user name. Double ha!! Nonetheless, FB have been unscrupulous and devious and deserve the approbation of the public.

Finally, heir shameless acceptance of many snake-oil adverts illustrates their worship of the almighty dollar over civic responsibility.

Rant over.

Facebook, for MANY people, provides 'support groups' for people with various medical and psychological problems. Think of all the cancers, auto-immune diseases, OCD, PTSD, - among hundreds of others. Think about a pet you love who has a manageable disease - how do you find out about veterinary diseases and how to treat your Self or your pet when we all know at an office visit you only get the 'high points' consisting of only 3-4 'bullet points'? You can't -- often the best people to talk to are those who are living with a disease or sick pet.

The advice is free, and people who have been through cancers or sick pets know FAR more about common every-day living problems than any Doc, Surgeon, or Vet. Unless you have been in a fire-fight, you simply CAN'T 'get' it. Until you have accidentally dosed your dog twice with Vetsulin many people have NO idea what to do.

Facebook is sometimes the ONLY way these people can get medical or self-help information, and find a way to socialize with others. While something like nasal cancer is very curable, you don't often see people out in public with great gaping holes from their nose back to their ears. And they, like most people, crave the company of others. Sometimes the only way to find it is in a 'group' where you can 'share your day' with others. Throat, Tongue, and tonsil cancers (HSV or caused by Ag chems or smoking) CAN leave you without a voice at all - where do you find people who understand and with whom you can share your feelings and experiences?

Often we don't think about the marginalized people living around us when we start condemning 'The Great Satan".

AOL once had 'chat rooms' - but I haven't seen one of those around for YEARS.

For all the 'evil' that Facebook contains, it also contains Hope and Light for Many Millions of People around the world, and you'd be surprised how good the advice from someone in Vietnam can give to someone in Algeria.

Funny, I don't recall any issues with this when Obama did it. In fact, he and his campaign were described as geniuses for doing it.

Facebook like Bell telephone is too big for its own britches and needs to be treated like Ma Bell was under antitrust monopoly laws. Facebook must be broken up into at least four (4) competing entities that we-the-people can transfer back and forth between (transferring our accounts and information) like we can with cell phone companies today.

"How-to Geeks" just posted this article today "Facebook Container Isolates Facebook From The Rest of Your Firefox Browsing". https://www.howtogeek.com/fyi/facebook-container-isolates-facebook-from-the-rest-of-your-firefox-browsing/

During a speech for the launch event of their new Jini technology on 25 January 1999, Sun Microsystems' CEO Scott McNealy addressed a group of reporters/analysts and stated that consumer privacy issues are a "…red herring." Adding that "You have zero privacy anyway," and "Get over it."
I am inclined to think that the "50million" number is but the tip of the iceberg. Let us not even add the Equifax breach numbers and data cache in the 'master' depository. Living life without a facebook is easy but not so with google/android. Even if you are a refusnik, yourself.

That's It! As of now I'm not doing anything on the the internet anym

Ha! I did the Data Selfie App and this is what it said FB had on me... me being a man of course:
Robert
$ Summary _____ You're a laid back, conservative female who doesn't eat out frequently and doesn't prefer style when buying clothes and is more satisfied in life than most...

The female and conservative is all wrong... I don't do the apps or questionnaires either and the use AdBlock Plus helps too :)

Why are so many people surprised about Facebook? I resisted ever signing up and humbly suggest that everyone close their Facebook accounts ASAP.

Folks, get over it and "get a life"! You still have the useful tools of email and old fashioned voice calls to keep in touch with friends and family. Did you really need to expose your personal life to the world in order to make greedy opportunists obscenely rich?

So many people have gotten, and continue to get, into trouble over their social media postings that I wonder why anyone uses it.

I've overheard people arguing in the street over Facebook comments and cops routinely bust thousands of people every year for posting self-incriminating pictures or publicly admitting to doing crimes.

This latest data breach won't stop people from using Facebook, just like iPhone leaks haven't stopped people from taking compromising selfies.

This is a good time for someone to create an alternative to FB. If I was a programmer I would take up the mantle!

Facebook got caught. Google, Apple, and Twitter have not yet. There are so many other choices where your privacy is respected. Take a look at https://www.privacytools.io/ for e-mail, on line storage, social media, and many other privacy respecting options. And with cell phones, maybe Bob can talk about Sailfish OS. I am really looking forward to this Linux build for the smart phone. It would be nice to cut the ties with Apple and Google with the smart phones.

"...illusory pleasure in exchange for...."

Bob: Excellent phrasing. Illusory pleasure...

Isn't that what Americans crave the most? TV, movies, video games, drugs . . .now "Social Media".

Most Americans are in a catatonic dream state.

Hi Bob, Thanks for the timely and informative article. Keep up the good work. Ignore the Russian trolls commenting here. It's shocking how so many people have given up caring about their on-line privacy.

When you have a company whose founder began the company by stealing others ideas and concepts, why would you be surprised that he would then steal your data. That being said this whole Cambridge Analytica story is nothing but a smoke screen to hide the far more serious issues with Facebook, Google, YouTube et al. First what Cambridge Analytica did was a small subset of what Facebook itself did for Obama, Clinton and the DNC. Cambridge had access to maybe 50 Million users, Facebook gave the Democrats access to ALL their users and ALL their data and helped with the data analysis.

But again, your and my personal data is a horse that left the barn years ago. The real problem with Facebook, Google, YouTube et al is that they are now openly and flagrantly manipulating their users access to content based on their left wing biases. They have demonetized conservative content creators that have millions of followers/viewers and at the same time Facebook has gone from a model that let its Users' desires, likes, follows, etc. to determine the Individual User's content to a top down managed content newsfeed.

Where in the past if a User liked and/or followed Breitbart, Drudge, Heritage, Federalist Patriot, Dennis Prager, Hillsdale College, Rush Limbaugh or other conservative viewpoints, his or her newsfeed would populate with the content he or she would have likely sought out themselves. It was weighted by the number of views, likes, followers, etc. and thus the networks that were built were the ones that people tended to prefer. Facebook, Google, YouTube, et al grew at an enormous rate due to at least the appearance that Users were building the Network they wanted.

This allowed like minded people to find each other, to share concerns, content and information with others who shared their interests. The principles of Facebook, Google, YouTube et al were among those who really, really disliked the results of the last Presidential Election and have been both subtly tweaking their algorithms to break many of these natural networks, but more maliciously have started to fill peoples newsfeeds with leftist propaganda and worse are actively blocking extremely popular content and limiting its reach on their platforms.

They are demonetizing content providers with millions of views and followers, virtually all of whom are conservative. At the same time due to their sending content people do not want, they are forcibly increasing page views for left leaning content by placing it in the newsfeeds of people who have never subscribed to it, followed it or liked it. This is a gross abuse of the implied contract these providers entered into with their users. This is the really scary thing that these exceedingly powerful, monopolistic companies are pursuing.

It is a risky move in some ways on their part in that they are actively destroying the things that caused their user bases to grow, but they are now so large (and so profitable) that this risk is mitigated to a large extent by inertia and their very size. Look at Amazon, which for years sold goods at or near (or in some cases below) their delivered costs until they built a User Base so large they could change their model, start charging higher prices, raise margins, reduce service levels and the momentum of their size has allowed them to prosper for the last few years despite a far less attractive User experience.

It appears that the very few principles of Facebook, Google, YouTube et al have now decided they can openly manipulate their Users for a period of time (perhaps long enough to effect serious political change) before they are sufficiently impacted by their betrayal of their Users. For so few people to control so much of the information flow to not only the United States but to virtually the entire world and for them to be willing, able and determined to utilize this power despite the negative impact on the popularity of their products should be frightening to anyone who has an open mind.

These companies owners are now so wealthy that they can buy virtually any competitor, they control an audience so large that content providers need them far more than they need the content (at least for a while). They are so large that they are now acting with impunity, they are far more powerful than most governments and certainly than any individual politicians. Most of them although technically adroit and relatively ruthless have very little actual wisdom or even knowledge of the larger social contracts that have held our nation together and therefore they have little if any concern for the preservation of the same.

I agree wholeheartedly with what Granville Alley said. Well said, couldn't agree more!

Have never had any social media account, yet I somehow manage to get through each day.

I consider this article a truth that some cannot stand to read. I got off Face Book almost as quickly as I got on it with more reasons than data miners. I really feel bearing your sole to the public a bad idea. As for all the unfortunate minds that see political slander, they are still busy looking the other way and probably always will. Some folks are guiltier of doing nothing in the face of tragic situation than those making some effort to ease the damage.
Thanks, PMW

Facebook is not the problem... how did anyone figure Facebook was going to make money, the only commodity it has is your data. Many people think Trump is the problem... he is a known serial liar, what did people expect? Both Facebook and Trump are the problem they are merely symptoms of a deeper disease within our society... its the lack of critical thinking skills.

Why is facebook required to protect your information for you ? If you gave the information up freely over the social media internet how could any one expect that to be private ? Selling of preference lists has been going on for ever in the advertising world....same in any political format ....Face Book isn't responsible for me...I am !!!