What does Facebook have on you

[GreyGeek]

Want to see what Facebook has on you (at a minimum)?
1. Goto https://facebook.com/settings
2. Click "Download a copy of your Facebook data"
3. Wait for automatic email from Facebook
4. Download the ZIP file link in the email
5. Extract it and open 'html/index.htm'

It’s data you’ll never gain control of and Facebook can’t keep secure, even if it doesn’t use it for their own profit, which they won’t share with you.

[Bings]

This latest thing with Cambridge Analytica seems to have gained some traction. Certainly in the UK press anyway. Hopefully it's educated a lot of people away from them. If there's one technology company I'd like to fail it's Facebook. At least with Google and Microsoft you can point at good things they have contributed to the planet that likely wouldn't be here without them, even if they do come with caveats. Facebook though doesn't contribute anything positive and I think the world would be a better place had they never come into existence at all.

[GreyGeek]

The tone for FB was set by Zukerberg when a friend asked why people would submit private info to FB: “They trust me. Dumb f****”.

[jlittle]

I decided a couple of years ago that facebook was especially untrustworthy and I didn't want anything to do with it, but..

... Facebook though doesn't contribute anything positive...

I think that's unfair; many, many people have got in touch, or kept in touch, through facebook, and the service has many uses, such as organizing events. I think social media are positive, just not run by amoral, venal, scumbags, with lots of safeguards, transparency, and ethical oversight.

Regards, John Little

[NickStone]

Well as someone on here once said, with facebook your the product not the customer.

[Bings]

I decided a couple of years ago that facebook was especially untrustworthy and I didn't want anything to do with it, but..

I think that's unfair; many, many people have got in touch, or kept in touch, through facebook, and the service has many uses, such as organizing events. I think social media are positive, just not run by amoral, venal, scumbags, with lots of safeguards, transparency, and ethical oversight.

Regards, John Little

Facebook's services were provided better by other sites and still can be provided better by other sites. Staying in contact with friends relatives? Use a secure respectable messenger like Wire or Signal. Promotion of your event/business/whatever? There is no way that a site behind a login is best for these applications. Groups? They are just forums. My point is, if facebook had never existed, people would have still achieved what they can achieve with Facebook in a better way.

[woodsmoke]

I did this years ago and posted it to my FB which is family a few friends and a LOT of former students and...there was not only no reply there was a big yawn.

They don't CARE...

It is much more important for people to be posting about their last hangnail problem.

woodremovedEVERYTHINGthatrelatestomepersonally... but guess what... the powers that be can get at m through the posts of friends, former students and family...when FB went "to the cloud" they have everything and that is it...

and the great Zuck probably acquiesed to a "special FISAFB" court long ago...how do you think that the police get access to mass shooting peoples profiles so fast? smoke

[Bings]

Facebook employees are upset that their private memos have been read by others https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/30/1...ndrew-bosworth

[ianp5a]

I decided a couple of years ago that facebook was especially untrustworthy and I didn't want anything to do with it, but..

I think that's unfair; many, many people have got in touch, or kept in touch, through facebook, and the service has many uses, such as organizing events. I think social media are positive, just not run by amoral, venal, scumbags, with lots of safeguards, transparency, and ethical oversight.

Regards, John Little

Facebook have actually 'held back' progress in social media. They need a closed network in order to make people have to join Facebook, or nag their friends to join if they want to contact their relatives. Unlike the open networks such as Diaspora, Mastodon etc. In fact most social networks are open.
If you join Facebook, it makes it harder for the open networks to establish a presence, and you'll get people saying the only one they've heard of is Facebook.

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

[dibl]

Want to see what Facebook has on you (at a minimum)?
1. Goto https://facebook.com/settings
2. Click "Download a copy of your Facebook data"
3. Wait for automatic email from Facebook
...

Thanks GG! I started the process, and got the impression it's going to zip up every photo I ever posted ... YIKES! If so, that's going to be an interesting zip file.

EDIT: No, not the zillion photos I've uploaded just a very few of them. I kinda hated seeing the phone numbers of all my contacts, but they didn't get that from me. Happily I used a "throwaway" email address when I signed up for facebook, and our home landline phone where all the sales calls go to voicemail. They appear to know about the email service I actually use, but of course they don't have a user name or password for it. They know where I do some of my banking, but they don't have any information about me or my account there. It's actually not a very interesting read. My high school and college graduations were not in secret ...

[GreyGeek]

What does Facebook have on you

Thanks GG! I started the process, and got the impression it's going to zip up every photo I ever posted ... YIKES! If so, that's going to be an interesting zip file. [emoji14]

EDIT: No, not the zillion photos I've uploaded just a very few of them. I kinda hated seeing the phone numbers of all my contacts, but they didn't get that from me. Happily I used a "throwaway" email address when I signed up for facebook, and our home landline phone where all the sales calls go to voicemail. They appear to know about the email service I actually use, but of course they don't have a user name or password for it. They know where I do some of my banking, but they don't have any information about me or my account there. It's actually not a very interesting read. My high school and college graduations were not in secret ...

About 15 years ago the amount of info I could find on people amazed me. Their address, phone numbers, Ages, birth certificate, place & date of marriage, number & Ages & sex of children, education level, school grades, places of employment and salaries, bank records, value of Home and the taxes paid or owed for all the years they’ve owned it, military service, SEC filings, profits and loses, and more that I can’t recall right now.

While essentially ALL of that has been put behind firewalls a/o paywalls, or blocked from general access altogether by the general public, ALL of it is available to the giant socials and other corporations. I suspect that what FB said it had on you is only the tip of the iceberg. And they’ll never delete it because it is “meta data” the gov demands that they keep, as if they needed prodding by the gov.

FB and the others are collecting from their members AND nonmembers as well. They do that with hot pixels, buttons, phantom tracking cookies, etc. Even if you didn’t create a google account they’ve created one for you. When ever you use google to do a search the first few pages of links are crafted to show the domain name but the url contains info linking your pc to those links if you click on them. That’s why I use DDG or StartPage.

I also add
127.0.0.1 Facebook.com
to /etc/hosts

Do that for google as well and see how much stuff you didn’t know were linked to Google fails to load. It will surprise you.

[TWPonKubuntu]

GG thanks for the hint on adding Farcebook and Google(r) to /etc/hosts
Looking forward to seeing which sites are more trustworthy than others...

[edit]

I've been running this change in my /etc/jhosts file for about an hour and the only thing I notice is the lack of the popup login and sharing widgets. This is not a problem because I would Never allow a third party to manage my account details.

Part of the lack of visible changes is that I run NoScript which blocks many, many third party (and some first party) scripts. This is working well for me and only in rare cases do I momentarily disable NoScript. There are the occasional news story which uses third party text/images/videos as part of the story and I usually don't bother trying to selectively enable some scripts.

I do wish other website designers would try hard to avoid using third party tools (Google, YouTube, etc.) They are bad choices and expose their viewers to loss of privacy, at the least.

[dibl]

That’s why I use DDG or StartPage...

Yep I've been a StartPage user for several years now. Once in awhile it falls short and I resort to google, but StartPage is the default search engine on my (SRWare Iron) browsers.

[GreyGeek]

Yep I've been a StartPage user for several years now. Once in awhile it falls short and I resort to google, but StartPage is the default search engine on my (SRWare Iron) browsers.

I like StartPage better because it also includes the "One Year" timeline as an option. DDG doesn't.

Also, today Cloudflare introduced their new public DNS server (no 4/1 joke!) at
1.0.0.1 and 1.1.1.1
and
2606:4700:4700::1111 and 2606:4700:4700::1001

I get a 5ms response time for the 1.1.1.1 and 13ms for my IPv6 Hurricane Tunnel.

So, this is another way to avoid Google.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
nice thread

"the problem" is not "the availability of good social stuff" it is...as referred to below about the number of pictures or whatever...

it is...the "history of socialization" between the people on the app and GETTING THEM TO CHANGE...

dibl mentioned Startpage of which I was not aware...

there is a "Mainland China" app which is stated to be BETTER than FB in terms of linking videos, pictures etc...

but...well it is Mainland China and the communists openly state that ...

they have a PERSON who actually looks through ALL OF THE POSTS...for "your group"... for "offensive stuff"...

In other words...

"Somebody"..."the state?" PAYS somebody to be a "moderator" for your SMALL GROUP... to check for anything "offensive"...

But...apparently, if you are willing to put up with that...

it DANCES around FB ...

except for not seeing "sponsored" adverts that FB likes because it is being PAID to put them there...

A LONG TIME AGO...
and FAR FAR AWAY...



I was a developer at a distro that tried to put IN THE DISTRO...

A fully functional alternative to FB...

Guess what...

the users...

big ho hum...

Because people LIKE THE ADVERTS...the "sponsored" clickbait to the SHOCKING ALLIGATOR...or THE WOMAN WHO HAS LEGS UP TO THERE...

yes...Nick...

Walmart sells products...

your local bistro sells coffee...

"the great unwashed" just do not understand that...

As NickStone said...

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE... you are EATING people!!!



FB...sells people...thanks NickStone

woodlikesNickStonesmoke