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Get your loved ones off Facebook

salimvirani.com

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Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#291

Post by kafkaesq »

SaintSal wrote: post #283
kafkaesq wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, if I were to completely close down my Facebook account, I would lose all of the passive information that is sent to me. Or you could just do a quick inventory of which of those groups / are still important to you. And then sign up again using a different device / email address. Along with, of course, a totally fake user name. And (slowly) sign up again for those pages. Which I guess would against FB's terms…

Creating an account with a fake name doesn't help. Facebook will ascertain your real name through a combination of: - knowing who you communicate with - tracking your online behaviour (on and off site) - collecting your name and contact information off your friends devices and accounts Even if you provided a fake name, you still agreed to the TOS, so they can proceed as if you're still bound by the legal implications…

Facebook will ascertain your real name through a combination of: - knowing who you communicate with - tracking your online behaviour (on and off site) - collecting your name and contact information off your friends devices and accounts.

We know they "can", in principle. But will they? That's something different.

Of course, the better solution is to never sign up with a real name in the first place.

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#292

Post by kafkaesq »

marricks wrote: post #219
mcgrath_sh wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not be him that is dependent on a commercial product. I rarely, if ever, use Facebook as an active product. By this I mean I may post a generic status once or twice a month and may actively check my feed once or twice a week. However, if I were to completely close down my Facebook account, I would lose all of the passive information that is sent to me. This includes invitations to parties, people letting me kn…

I think the article details well how useful you are to facebook even if you are a light user. They get info you still say, they get what sites you visit and what content is there, they get what you and your friends say to each other... like even as a partial user you still get MANY of the bad affects. Not to mention, for me and many other people I bet, "cutting down" doesn't ever really work. They spend tons of money…

Not to mention, for me and many other people I bet, "cutting down" doesn't ever really work.

As with any serious addiction.

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#293

Post by kafkaesq »

scottschulthess wrote: post #278
kafkaesq wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm simply not willing to cut people out of my life and miss out on things that are important to me because my data is mined and might be used against me. I concur that FB can be useful for finding out about stuff going in your world. But if not using a certain commercial product -- any commercial product -- means "cutting people out of your life" to any significant degree, then well... you might want to think about…

IME it's all about keeping in touch with people that you can't physically because they've moved away.

Which people used to do just fine via other means, not too long ago.

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#294

Post by iak8god »

rrix2 wrote: post #231
berdario wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution is: go through every chat that you had in the last 2 years, and "mute" it. That way you won't get the red dot notifying you about it when you log into Facebook, and you can blissfully ignore any message there. You might still want to check messages there every once in a while (every couple of weeks, maybe) If you have other contacts (advertised on your Facebook about page, even!) and you let your friends…

Your parent's explicit usecase is "sometimes people make ad-hoc plans with me through messenger", and ignoring those for weeks on end sort of defeats the purpose and encourages those folks to not make plans with them...

That is the issue. I'd be more willing to try training my friends to contact me through other means except that, having recently moved to a new city where I knew no one, none of the people I currently spend time with IRL actually have much invested yet in being my friend, so tossing up hurdles seems unwise.

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#295

Post by linkregister »

ricardobeat wrote: post #265
linkregister wrote: post #227

I'm surprised to be the only one to point out that many of the examples the author uses are misleading. "Facebook is impersonating you to post things!" -> Facebook clumsily attaches an advertisement to a post with a prominent Related Post header. "Facebook selling your data to Mastercard!" -> anonymized data is being sold to Mastercard to understand browsing habits and interests. "Facebook buries posts that it doesn'…

To offer a counterpoint, I don't find those deceptive at all - your depiction is the one that sounds too forgiving and downplays the real impact. Also, "anonymised" data just doesn't have your name attached to it, but can still be a very detailed personal profile. All it takes is one link between your identity and that data to de-anonymise it.

In that case, is it properly anonymized? It's just lip service then. Lip service is enough to be in breach of contract with the end users.

Also: you don't feel deceived by having at least two claims to be completely unsubstantiated (the broken links)? You don't feel deceived when someone tells you a truth that implies a completely different conclusion because they omitted a crucial detail?

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#296

Post by OJFord »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #155
berdario wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My solution is: go through every chat that you had in the last 2 years, and "mute" it. That way you won't get the red dot notifying you about it when you log into Facebook, and you can blissfully ignore any message there. You might still want to check messages there every once in a while (every couple of weeks, maybe) If you have other contacts (advertised on your Facebook about page, even!) and you let your friends…

here's an easier protip: use uBlock Origin, and completely hide the right-hand column.

Presumably you mean uMatrix?

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#297

Post by batiudrami »

Ntrails wrote: post #268
batiudrami wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For actual communication (messaging) it is actually one of the best. It is fast, reliable, and has genuinely great value adds like group messaging, encrypted messages, expiring messages and photos, location sharing, rich attatchments, seen notifications, integration with facebook profiles means I can find anyone (who has a profile) even if I don't have their contact details. Sure the app is a bit heavy with features…

I can't use it without installing an app on my phone, even when I force desktop (which used to work). Remember when they tried to replace email with facebook messenger? And then tried to replace text messaging/etc? If it's the best messaging client you've used, I'm bemused, because it's honestly no better than AIM was in 2002 for communicating with friends on my computer. In fact I probably find it worse most of the…

Perhaps you and I have different needs. AIM didn't have any of the features I mentioned except group messaging.

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#298

Post by newscracker »

mgorenstein wrote: post #275
newscracker wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scraping pages has limitations, and may also be prohibited/banned on the platform depending on how it's done (there are some Terms of Use and permission request forms to fill in if scraping is done by programs - I'm not sure if it applies to all kinds of scrapers, including personal ones). The way digi.me and other similar solutions work is by getting the user to authorize the app and use that authorization with the…

Yeah, I'd like if there were a straightforward way to access the same content via the API, and perhaps this is possible. I was unsuccessful. I'd made an attempt to grab all photos I've ever been tagged in, which I was able to accomplish using the approach I described in my last comment, solely through the API, but was only able to access those photos currently on my timeline (a much smaller set). My suspicion is that…

I have used it more than a year ago, at which time it was restricted to timeline and pages. It has since added exporting content from groups (and probably others). Basically anything allowed by the Facebook APIs is what it aims to support. The downside is that it stores it in its own proprietary database and needs a subscription to continue to use it (though it's quite cheap, and I certainly wouldn't put the price as a factor against it).

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#299

Post by chii »

jandrese wrote: post #290
chii wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you are unlikely to make more than a handful of "true" friends. as long as those are kept, what remains of the tens or hundreds of "friends" in Facebook is no more than a passing aquaintance, and they do not add much, if any, your life by reading their feeds or comments (any more than comments on HN).

One thing you miss if you only interact with "true" friends is a diversity of opinion. People online often complain about that crazy uncle who posts birther nonsense, but it is important to keep in mind that those people exist and if you want to know them you have to understand where they are coming from. If you don't, they will blindside you when you meet them or people like them in real life. It's too easy these da…

i thought social media is the exact echo chambers you speak - where people post one liners, fake news, and no diversity of opinion. After all, if you don't like someone's feed because their views are so different or so contrary to your own, you'd just stop their posts from appearing!

Re: Get your loved ones off Facebook

#300

Post by throwanem »

Bakary wrote: post #288
throwanem wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I lost account access to Facebook, I'd create a new account and build my network again. If Facebook permits you to do so. They don't have to let you, and it is within their power to stop you. Whether they choose at this time to exercise such power seems to me less important than that they can , and that it's only up to you whether you participate in Facebook's privileged access to your friends, family, loved one…

I really like the way you write for some reason.

Thanks for saying so! I've put considerable effort into the skill, and it's always nice to hear that that's paid off in some way.

I hadn't previously seen your comment [1] describing your experience of not being on Facebook. There is much you recount with which I'm also familiar! But I hadn't thought it through to the extent you have, and your point about unplanned interactions, which had previously not occurred to me, is extremely well taken. I'll certainly be including that in my future commentary on the subject, here and elsewhere, and thanks again!

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14393991

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