Facebook is giving me the ****s

[Humodour]

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1...ing-advertisers

 

PRIVACY SHREDDER Facebook is going into overdrive to convince its users that advertisers are their friends.

 

Realising that advertising and privacy concerns go hand in hand, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg slipped into marketeer mode by making the rather grandiose claim that "We [Facebook] think making the world more personal and social is having a profound impact on the way we relate to the people, communities and institutions around us." Indeed, never before has so much personal information been so blatently up for grabs to the highest bidder than after the rapacious crew at Facebook got their paws on it.

 

Making the case for those who will make Facebook its billions, Sandberg continued by saying that "advertisers are social too". It wouldn't be advertising if companies were discreet about how they treated people, would it, Ms Sandberg?

 

Apparently the two 'bergs - Sand and Zucker - believe that "social advertising" will compliment how users use Facebook. Social advertising should be more accurately described as the culmination of personal data, preferences and habit collection methods, sold on the open market. Of course Facebook would prefer to label that sort of activity innocuous sounding "social".

 

Like a runaway train, Sandberg continues flogging Facebook's social advertising programme throughout her sales pitch. She seemingly pauses mid-stride for a moment, deciding it would be best to allay the privacy fears that have dogged the social notworking site in previous months. So Sandberg proclaims that the firm "designed Facebook to provide relevant and interesting advertising content to you in a way that protects your privacy completely." When you put it like that, we wonder what all the commotion was about. Clearly there was, and is, more to it than they'll admit.

 

Sandberg's post veers off course as she tries to sell the virtues of social advertising by first saying, "Our system chooses which ads to show you, we don't need to share any of your personal information with advertisers in order to show you relevant ads." Then a little later Sandberg goes onto admit, "Advertisers can also request that we display ads based on the things you have said you liked in your profile." How do the advertisers know what you have "liked"?

 

Which is it, Facebook? Are advertisers calling the shots or is there some closed source ad-brokerage software that distributes adverts to what Facebook's overlords deem appropriate? Not surprisingly, Sandberg's self-serving screed fails to recognise much less address these legitimate subscriber concerns.

 

The admission that Facebook does provide data to advertisers is punctuated with the claim that all data is "aggregate and anonymous data", which will apparently only provide advertisers with viewing figures for its adverts. This claim is belied by the ad targeting pitch, though.

 

With Sandberg desperately trying to paint a picture of how Facebook's advertisers, not users are getting a bum deal, it makes you wonder why any advertiser would want to spend mega-bucks to have such useless metrics to track success of its campaigns, without gaining anything more. That is, unless Sandberg isn't painting the whole picture.

 

For that, we might have to wait until the next privacy snafu hits Facebook, or it is forced to divulge information during discovery proceedings in lawsuits that have already been filed.

[Gorgon]

They have you by the balls. Especially if you organise a large portion of your social life through that site. There is no going back, no quitting, it would be too much of a hassle for everyone on your friends list.

[Gorgon]

I see you lurking, giving me the evil eye, but you know it's true.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm so glad I don't have a Facebook.

Well, actually I do, when I created one so I could look at a Twitter friend's Facebook photo she posted, but I used a fake name and haven't logged in since.

[Humodour]

lol Gorgon.

 

I really despise their recent move to remove freedom of what you enter in interest/hobby/music fields, requiring you to subscribe to one of their existence tracked-for-ease-of-advertising groups instead.

 

Because of this I decided to remove all such hobby/music/group information from my profiles. If they want to **** with me, I'll **** with them.

 

It doesn't stop them from mining and selling the data I post in the form of updates or comments, though.

 

And the problem is, I DO use Facebook for legitimate real-life purposes. A lot. It's how I manage to keep friendships with my mates who are 400km away (over half of them) and organise visits and parties so easily.

[213374U]

I'm so glad I don't have a Facebook.

[Syraxis]

I'm so glad I don't have a Facebook.

 

Waiting for the time to come when this "web 2.0" bull**** finally dies out.

[Purkake]

Google Me and Diaspora are coming eventually.

 

As long as you consider everything you post on Facebook public, I don't really see the problem.

Edited July 8, 2010 by Purkake

[Gorth]

I have a facebook account. Stripped of everything except my name and an email address (one of the 'expendable' email addresses, in case it gets compromised). Mostly for old friends in other parts of the world to have a portal to get hold of me. I visit the place about once every second month. On special occasions maybe several times within a day (when a few messages get exchange).

 

I made the mistake in the beginning of putting up two email addresses, which of course, despite being marked as "not visible" got spammed right away by scammers. So I knew from day 1 that facebooks "privacy" was an outright lie.

[mkreku]

I once pressed a small blue "Like" button on a.. site with lots of nude women. Apparently that made everyone in my friends list on Facebook see what I liked. Including my mom.

[Tigranes]

We won't judge you, honey.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Never used any of those social sites (facebook, My Space, twitter, etc). When my gf or I organise our social life, we use things like a phone or email. We're so 90s and behind the times.

[Walsingham]

Two points:

 

1. I don't belong to facebook. I spotted the privacy issue staright away. And boy do I feel smug.

 

2. If you want to **** them up, simply trying to keep quiet won't help. That's the point about networks.

To **** them up you need to feed in as much false data as possible, and encourage everyone you know to confuse the signal as well. Flood the network with false contacts, false preferences, and inaccurate statements about birthdays, marriages etc etc.

[Humodour]

To **** them up you need to feed in as much false data as possible, and encourage everyone you know to confuse the signal as well. Flood the network with false contacts, false preferences, and inaccurate statements about birthdays, marriages etc etc. [/size]

 

Given half of my friends are trolls and constantly marrying and divorcing each other and listing each-other as mothers and brothers, I think this base is covered.

[Raithe]

You always treat anything you put on the internet as publicly available...

 

It's always been weird that people treat some social sites as a highly personal diary and then act surprised when "secrets" are known by all and sundry... That strange mix of technical understanding to use computers and the internet with complete lack of awareness..

[Nepenthe]

And the problem is, I DO use Facebook for legitimate real-life purposes. A lot. It's how I manage to keep friendships with my mates who are 400km away (over half of them) and organise visits and parties so easily.

 

Same, 'cept some are further away than that. It's also good for chatting up ladies, if you're in a hurry when you meet them and don't have the time to build the necessary comfort etc. for getting the digits ("You got facebook? We'll talk!".)

[Purkake]

Facebook Defense Force assemble!

 

It just a tool and has its uses.

[Humodour]

And the problem is, I DO use Facebook for legitimate real-life purposes. A lot. It's how I manage to keep friendships with my mates who are 400km away (over half of them) and organise visits and parties so easily.

 

Same, 'cept some are further away than that. It's also good for chatting up ladies, if you're in a hurry when you meet them and don't have the time to build the necessary comfort etc. for getting the digits ("You got facebook? We'll talk!".)

 

 

I've dated two girls this way. It resolves the issue of being so drunk you forget most about them except maybe their first name. It also provides photos to determine whether or not you had beer goggles on.

[Hurlshort]

Facebook is very useful for disseminating information to all of your friends at once. For example, the birth of my child, I can post a picture with vitals and then I'm done.

 

But I don't put anything on there that I wouldn't want the whole world to know. I'm really not concerned about my feelings about the local sports teams getting released to the general public.

[Balthamael]

I once made a facebook account for some reason. It has literally no other information about me except my name and an email address. I still get about one friending request a week from people I have never heard of. I have no idea why, or how.

[LadyCrimson]

You always treat anything you put on the internet as publicly available...

 

It's always been weird that people treat some social sites as a highly personal diary and then act surprised when "secrets" are known by all and sundry... That strange mix of technical understanding to use computers and the internet with complete lack of awareness..

Isn't that strange? I don't understand that either. Even if you're anonymously venting one shouldn't put in too much specific info that someone might recognize. And yet...I can kinda see the disconnect, because of the screen vs. face. I think sometimes people just forget.

[Walsingham]

Having said all this, I think it's a wee bit sad that we can't have the innocent anonymous personae that we want. It just shows gow the supposed emphasis on the consumer comes unstick when you consider more advanced business models.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Facebook is very useful for disseminating information to all of your friends at once. For example, the birth of my child, I can post a picture with vitals and then I'm done.

 

You can do that with email as well.

[Oblarg]

I have a facebook page. I don't use it, though. There is no sensitive information on it - only my hobbies and musical preferences.

 

I check it maybe once a month to see if any friends sent me a message.

 

So, this really doesn't bother me all that much.

[Orogun01]

I knew I would get sucked up into FaceBook!