Facebook FYI

[swan_tower]

I'll post a more detailed explanation later, but if you happen to be someone who follows me on Facebook, be aware that I'll be deleting my account in a few days. (The lag is to give time for people to save any contact info they might need.) They keep doing this round of privacy violations both deliberate and accidental, and I'm done with it. The marginal value I get from the service is not worth putting up with their crap.

Comments

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

That doesn't surprise me. The German government has issued an official warning about the use of Facebook because of the security issues. We're more picky about that stuff here.

Though I doubt it'll prevent the kids from using it. ;)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I wish we were still picky about it over here.

[selenya.livejournal.com]

I've been considering doing the same. The privacy issues are really starting to bug me.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

And what does Facebook give me in return? Brainless games, and the ability to be found by old friends who don't remember how to spell my name. I don't need the former, and those friends, well, they can just live with it.

[selenya.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I've met a lot of my old high school friends but...that's what phones are for? The world's not that big!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

And frankly -- to put it in cold terms -- how much do I actually end up interacting with those people thanks to Facebook? Not much. Is that interaction valuable enough to merit the cost? No.

[selenya.livejournal.com]

Bingo. I love seeing that they're doing well, but it's not worth having my private information being put in the hands of people who do not need it.

[pentane.livejournal.com]

I've never understood this whole 'privacy' problem.

That is, I don't put anything on Facebook that's not well known about me and since there's people 2-3 tiers up the management chain reading my updates, there's nothing there I wouldn't have a problem being publically associated with me.

Am I just weird that way?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I haven't given them truly private information, either -- but I still object on principle to the company taking steps to sell what information I've given them to advertisers and data miners, especially when this constitutes an explicit and sinisterly-managed violation of the service's original promises.

That's the short version; the one with details is coming.

[kthanna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really isn't.

However, my husband and I have both tried to delete our facebook at least once before. Just be aware when you 'delete' your account, most times it will just suspend your information until you wish to reactivate it.

So I thought I'd link this to you http://www.groovypost.com/howto/security/permanently-delete-your-facebook-profile-account/
because deleting your facebook account is freaking ridiculously difficult.
Hope this helps, and good luck :)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one of the links I've got saved for when I make the longer post. "Deactivation" is easy but meaningless; actually deleting requires a lot more leaping through hoops. Which is part of what pisses me off.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I'd guess a first step should be to purge all information from your account. Then take the step of trying to delete it.

That, or make up fake information and wait for it to propagate into backups.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

What privacy issues? I never read the damn thing--but I did get one, and add anyone who asks.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Stay tuned for a future post. It's too long to explain in a comment.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

This Wired.com story explains the privacy issues quite well:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-rogue/

I only use facebook for one particular use: for that I can generally avoid logging on more than 3-4 times/week and I spend as little time as possible. I find it frankly a real pain and a real waste of my time to go through to get the info I need. It's poorly designed, as well as being run by a bunch of jerks.

[octavia-b.livejournal.com]

I deleted my account a couple of weeks ago for similar reasons - I was finding the whole thing creepy. However, after reading the comments to this post I've realised that I probably just deactivated rather than deleted it. Crap! I'll be following the links posted above to make sure that my deletion is more permanent. Thank you!