Facebook's latest troubles

[Underseer]

The NYT article that started the latest round of yelling: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html

Latest problems have affected stock prices: https://www.newsweek.com/facebooks-...rity-has-knocked-31b-mark-zuckerbergs-1221018

Video of discussion about this controversy on MSNBC: https://www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/watc...at-s-next-for-facebook-1372814915849?v=railb&

I remember the tech press raising alarm bells about Facebook while the 2016 elections were still going on, and even back then it was obvious that Facebook was just trying to deny and deflect rather than own up and do something to fix the problem.

Honestly, I was suspicious of social media in general because I kept reading in the tech press about tech people raising concerns about privacy issues. Then I and others kept running into problems with Facebook's insane automated moderation system. Now we know they profited from undermining democracy and American sovereignty.

It was nice being able to connect with friends and family I had lost contact with, but at this point, the negatives far outweigh the positives.

 

[RVonse]

Suit yourself. Personally I like facebook and don't feel harmed by the Rooskies. I like to post my family photos there and let someone else do the free hosting for me. So I use Facebook all the time but if you dont like them then dont use it.

As for invasion of privacy, I feel far greater harm by the telemarketers than facebook ever could dream of. At least the target ads on the internet are about crap that I might actually want to buy. But with the cold call telemarketers, they consume my time and freedom answering advertising for a product or service completely irrelevant to my personal consumption.

I wish the telemarketers would go out of business and die and burn in hell. But Facebook is just fine by me.

 

[Underseer]

Suit yourself. Personally I like facebook and don't feel harmed by the Rooskies. I like to post my family photos there and let someone else do the free hosting for me. So I use Facebook all the time but if you dont like them then dont use it.

As for invasion of privacy, I feel far greater harm by the telemarketers than facebook ever could dream of. At least the target ads on the internet are about crap that I might actually want to buy. But with the cold call telemarketers, they consume my time and freedom answering advertising for a product or service completely irrelevant to my personal consumption.

I wish the telemarketers would go out of business and die and burn in hell. But Facebook is just fine by me.

Funny. The intelligence agencies described it as an attack. For the record, it was an attack on our sovereignty. It sounds like you have an ideological reason to not have a problem with this that goes beyond merely connecting with friends and family. Perhaps some kind of ideological need to be subservient to others? An ideological need to surrender in the face of attacks? Are you one of those Grits-Eating Surrender Monkeys?

Anyway, this is a couple months old, but worth bringing up again:

[YOUTUBE]vEDGJWocYd8[/YOUTUBE]

Again, if you're not paying for the service, you're the product being sold, and Facebook is unusually good at manipulating their audience, which in part is what made our elections vulnerable to foreign tampering.

 

[scombrid]

Suit yourself. Personally I like facebook and don't feel harmed by the Rooskies. I like to post my family photos there and let someone else do the free hosting for me. So I use Facebook all the time but if you dont like them then dont use it.

As for invasion of privacy, I feel far greater harm by the telemarketers than facebook ever could dream of. At least the target ads on the internet are about crap that I might actually want to buy. But with the cold call telemarketers, they consume my time and freedom answering advertising for a product or service completely irrelevant to my personal consumption.

I wish the telemarketers would go out of business and die and burn in hell. But Facebook is just fine by me.

Cold calls aren't invading much. I don't have a land line. I get about one telemarketer call a day on my cell and I never answer because it spoofs my area code. I don't know anyone that has the same area code as my phone so it is quite easy to screen the call.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Scombrid has the FB Messenger application on her phone because her grandmother likes to use that instead of regular texting. Messenger app spies on your voice all the time. I had oatmeal for breakfast the other day for the first time in a very long time. Next day there was an advertisement for oatmeal on my facebook. The messenger app on her phone picked up on the conversation and sold the info to Quaker and I got an add. Just having the phone powered on and in the room got them the detail of what I ate for breakfast. That is fairly invasive. I don't have FB or Messenger on my phone. I'm trying to get Mrs. to delete/uninstall. I'm really close to scrubbing my account all together.