Anybody Delete Your Facebook Account?

[Don Lampson]

Originally Posted by Wadcutter

Just read where 10% of FB users have deleted their accounts because of the recent data privacy issues. Anybody here delete yours? I did FB years ago and deleted my account after about 6 months because it was such a time thief. Being an official “grumpy old man” at 68 years old, I’ve come to the conclusion that social media is on the whole a monumental waste of time. But I could be wrong. Wonder if AGF is considered “social media?” If it is, I will make an exception for the AGF in my broad brush condemnation.

Dropping Facebook because your privacy has been mined seems like locking down the barn after the horse has already been stolen, to me. Somebody has already created a profile on you. I can't imagine putting anything on Facebook that I'd really consider "private"...

So what if FB knows what I like so they can flood me with ads, hoping I'll be a great customer for the consumer goods they offer to fit my profile. Heck, I can always just ignore whatever it is they're trying to sell me...

Don

[Mr. Jelly]

Here's some things that Google knows about you.


Where you work
When you sleep
How much you make
The color of your skin
Your health
What you eat
How you vote
Your age
Hobbies and interest
Your religion
If you practice your religion
The age of your vehicles
The sex of your children
Your sex life
If you have insurance

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by Don Lampson

So what if FB knows what I like so they can flood me with ads, hoping I'll be a great customer for the consumer goods they offer to fit my profile. Heck, I can always just ignore whatever it is they're trying to sell me...

Total agreement. If Facebook is a time waster, whose fault is that? If FB notes my interests so as to send me more focused ads, why is that a problem? I've bought several items that way I would not have otherwise been aware of. If FB deletes my posts for reasons of their own, well, doesn't that happen here? Their playground, their rules.

In my view, bashing Facebook has become a "thing" akin to blaming the tool for the actions of it's operator. For me Facebook is, on balance, more positive than negative. Consequently, I have no reason to alter my use of it.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

Total agreement. If Facebook is a time waster, whose fault is that? If FB notes my interests so as to send me more focused ads, why is that a problem? I've bought several items that way I would not have otherwise been aware of. If FB deletes my posts for reasons of their own, well, doesn't that happen here? Their playground, their rules.

In my view, bashing Facebook has become a "thing" akin to blaming the tool for the actions of it's operator. For me Facebook is, on balance, more positive than negative. Consequently, I have no reason to alter my use of it.

I appreciate your rational perspective.

[seannx]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

Total agreement. If Facebook is a time waster, whose fault is that? If FB notes my interests so as to send me more focused ads, why is that a problem? I've bought several items that way I would not have otherwise been aware of. If FB deletes my posts for reasons of their own, well, doesn't that happen here? Their playground, their rules.

In my view, bashing Facebook has become a "thing" akin to blaming the tool for the actions of it's operator. For me Facebook is, on balance, more positive than negative. Consequently, I have no reason to alter my use of it.

Have you taken the time to download your Facebook data file? Seeing the detail, quantity, number of advertisers that had my personal information, etc. was very disconcerting. This goes way beyond noting your interests to send more focused adds. Every post you’ve made or clicked on, every message you’ve sent or received, literally everything you’ve done on Facebook is there. Personally, I’m not comfortable having my life known and recorded to such a degree.

[RedJoker]

I still have my FB account and currently have no plans to delete it.

[Bunnyf]

Never been one to post on FB but got an account to see pix posted by the kids. I do think that generally FB is a waste of time. I'd rather be making music. The recent privacy breech concerned me but the censoring of content was really the final straw. I have deleted my account.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by chitz

I have no secrets there for anyone to steal.

That you know about!

I got the hell off FB years ago. Don't get me started on tweety twitter.

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by seannx

Every post you’ve made or clicked on, every message you’ve sent or received, literally everything you’ve done on Facebook is there.

Again, if you posted it online you have sent it to someone else's computer and it is on record. Their record. Who did that? Did Mark Zuckerwhozis reach into your mind, pull out the words and post them on FB, or did you put them there?

If you're uncomfortable with all this, it is truly prudent for you to withdraw from FB. But I must ask you if you believe AGF is in any way different? I don't.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by seannx

Have you taken the time to download your Facebook data file? Seeing the detail, quantity, number of advertisers that had my personal information, etc. was very disconcerting. This goes way beyond noting your interests to send more focused adds. Every post you’ve made or clicked on, every message you’ve sent or received, literally everything you’ve done on Facebook is there. Personally, I’m not comfortable having my life known and recorded to such a degree.

Yes I did download the archive file they create. Why or how it's disconcerting changes a bit.

At a high or conceptual level you can see why there needs to be a better understanding of how companies monetize individuals. That's something I know but surely not enough people.

In detail you see individuals and consultants who are clearly working for candidates and special interests. I had a laugh over some local government candidates 1000+ miles away in the "Advertisers who uploaded a contact list with your info".

If someone did some detailed analysis of my data they'd see my disappointment or disgust with some politicians and candidates is equal treatment for both extremes.

Reading through the file does explain why my privacy settings are as they are, and also why I pay for some platforms vs let so much of what I type or where I click be monetized.

On the whole I'm fine with what's there. Facebook and their associates know what most of you do - I like stuff such as fine guitars, food, beverages, and pens. The data file tells the true stories that I do a lot with my family, action sports, and travel.

I does not look like my Facebook file approaches what Verizon, Visa, MasterCard, my banks, TSA, a few customs agencies, Kayak and a few airlines know.

[Tenzin]

I have a bit of an advantage having acquired some computer skills over the years. I did have a facebook account. Over the years I have mainly participated with a few music groups and some authors. I have a program (really just a script) that ran and deleted anything I did after 30 days. Nothing I could say would be important after that long . I know there is no such thing as 'deleting' on the internet, but I guess it gave me the illusion that I wanted.

During this time, I also had the script post nonsensical and random posts/links to my own wall, (no one followed me) which of course were also deleted after 30 days.

I also have a script that runs (whenever bandwidth is not being used) that uses various search engines (Yahoo, Google, Bing…) and makes random searches. Right now, it is searching for cars, ties, baby food, adult accessories, leaf throwers, drain cleaners. (I just copied a few things from the log.)

Yes, there's a tonne of info out there on me. A lot of it becomes useless because of random 'junk' I insert.

Does any of this help? I don't know and I make no recommendations for others. It makes me feel better.

[PorkPieGuy]

I like Facebook, but I sure did do a lot of "unsubscribing" in 2016 during the election.

Now, I use it to keep up with friends, former band members, and yard sale pages in the surrounding counties (I'd hate to miss a deal on something I can't live without! ). I try to use it to promote our band, but in all honesty, FB's band pages are useless.

In addition, I like keep up with our church family and my extended family who lives all over everywhere. It seems like I have a lot of [literally] sick people on my FB timeline (I have a cousin who has cancer who lives in FL, my neighbor (who has two kids my kids' ages) may be dying of cancer as I type this, etc.).

My wife uses the FB messenger on her phone to stay in touch with her parents whenever they are overseas doing mission work. We don't know how much a text would be, but just to be safe, we use Messenger.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by imwjl

...

On the whole I'm fine with what's there. Facebook and their associates know what most of you do - I like stuff such as fine guitars, food, beverages, and pens. The data file tells the true stories that I do a lot with my family, action sports, and travel.

I does not look like my Facebook file approaches what Verizon, Visa, MasterCard, my banks, TSA, a few customs agencies, Kayak and a few airlines know.

This is a great point, and one of the main things I find interesting about all this. I think a lot of the resistance, but not all of course, is just people starting to understand the new media and advertising models which have existed for a decade now. It's change, it's different, and it's complex. But it gets painted as more intrusive than the norms people have lived with for the past 60-70 years, and in most cases it's not. Sure there are some new wrinkles, and people definitely should be aware of how to manager their privacy.

But I think there's a huge element here that's older people simply not understanding the technology, the scope, and having a knee-jerk reaction to a company created and headed up by a very young, smart guy who created a system which they really don't understand. His patience answering some of the wildly uninformed (to be kind) questioning by Congress was fairly amazing to watch.

This is not to dismiss the concerns, but to offer a perspective that a rational, measured, and informed reaction would be a lot more welcome than some of the comments we see in the public sphere regarding these kinds of issues.

[Shades of Blue]

I set my Facebook page to only show posts from guitar related companies...highly recommended!

[tippy5]

I put the ugliest pictures of me I could find 7-8 years ago. (That was the easy part). I then randomly and rarely added maybe a page of content since. I knew this was an INFO grab from the onset. So there's my info. Have at it Mark.