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Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

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Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#111

Post by throw2016 »

Every problem is an opportunity and potential solution. The current centralization will bring with it all the problems of centralization. Individuals can't simply depend on goodwill. That never ends well. Power is arbitrary, concentrates itself and seeks its own expansion making individuals irrelevant.

The bigger problem is the potential solution. What seems to happen in the market economy is once any potential 'solution' takes off, the money and greed involved also do, and the solution becomes the exact same problem it was attempting to solve. Or it was just 2 powerful vested interests fighting all along masquerading as change.

There is plenty of wealth floating around, resources and power are increasingly centralized, the barriers to entry are getting higher exponentially, distract yourself, avoid it, accept it or vie for change, but most change-agents have been betrayers, merely replacing one set with another, hence the devil you know.

This is not to advocate helplessness but to think carefully about potential solutions and not blindly support self serving interests promoting change.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#112

Post by mattlondon »

Deimorz wrote: post #9

Personally, I think Google is just as terrifying, possibly more. As an example, just take a fairly normal life situation like going out for dinner with some friends, and think about how much of it goes "through" Google: --- One of your friends sends an email to 6 others, to ask if everyone's free for dinner on Friday. 5 of the 7 people involved use gmail or a google apps address. You've never heard of the restaurant…

You can go a long way to blocking a lot of these by using some alternatives:

* Using DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/). It is really decent and has good desktop and mobile integration.

* Using a browser like Brave (https://www.brave.com/) that blocks trackers etc. Android app is superb.

* Using a Maps replacement like OSM (https://www.openstreetmap.org) on desktop and OsmAnd on mobile (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand)

* Pay in cash, or pay using pre-paid credit cards that you change every couple of months.

* For real paranoia, get a VPN app and pick a new country & server every day.

Email is harder if you are emailing people who use gmail. For what it is worth, as of June 2017 gmail no longer scans email content for ads (in both commercial and consumer/free gmail - https://www.blog.google/products/gmail/g-suite-gains-tractio...) Personally I use my inbox as my calendar - dont think you're missing much by just not using calendar at all unless you have a very, very hectic schedule.

I deleted my facebook account many years ago. I've not missed it.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#113

Post by glibgil »

beagle3 wrote: post #98
dannysu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is like a Casino. They'll try to maneuver to keep you engaged and contain you in their bubble. However, if you're able to leave or cut your usage, they extend no influence whatsoever. (Don't have mobile apps installed, block their trackers, don't use Facebook login, etc) There are lots of ways to communicate outside of Facebook, including other messaging apps that help you form social networks outside of it.…

> However, if you're able to leave or cut your usage, they extend no influence whatsoever. My friends often upload pictures of me, tagged with GPS coordinates and user; And even though most have stopped tagging me (as I have asked), Facebook often does offer them to tag me, which means that Facebook has enough pictures of me to identify me in random pictures (even though I never uploaded a single one myself). Google…

You can turn this off. You don't need to ask your friends to stop. https://www.facebook.com/help/187272841323203

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#114

Post by minkzilla »

cisanti wrote: post #4

The authoritarian regimes' secret police would be delighted at something like this. People actually (well, not all of us) give them information themselves, and those who don't, sure do get tracked across the web. "Thoughts control" is very much a real problem, as the Google Memo scandal showed us. People dug out the irrelevant donation of Brendan Eich. Think about the power FB has, they know exactly who is the enemy…

An interesting perspective. Could you elaborate more on some similarities for someone who is only vaguely familiar with the Soviet Union ?

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#115

Post by timrichard »

dTal wrote: post #90
aphextron wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no evil overlord at the top of either company (I hope) We'll have to disagree here. I think Zuckerberg is an evil, amoral person to his core. This hardly needs reposting, but I can't recall Brin or Page ever going on the record calling their users "dumb fucks".[0] [0] http://www.businessinsider.com/embarrassing-and-damaging-zuc...

Sure. And former Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously remarked on the subject of privacy, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Whatever you think of the people, corporations are not people and their behaviour is only partially directed by them. The most reliable predictor of their direction is their bottom line, and the intelligence of the people…

Personally - I'm very aware that both track people obsessively, and I don't really go in for cheerleading US megacorps. However - Facebook feels a lot more evil to me.

It's the constant cat and mouse game. I go in periodically to tighten my security settings and close off more notifications, and they find new vectors to spam me into coming back into their walled garden. Their "frictionless sharing" always feels more like "frictionless privacy betrayal", as it's totally in their interest to disseminate whatever info they can gain as widely as possible. To blur the line between private and public for their benefit.

I don't close my account completely, because I go in once a year to thank people for the birthday greets. They find 21st century AOL more convenient for this than email.

In contrast, I'm one of those oddballs who still uses Google+. Almost exclusively with remote family, to share photos that we've taken during the week to talk about during a hangout. The default sharing "circle" is limited to close family, and that works well.

Feels like a pretty different experience from FB to me.

Plus, I think FB's aggressive cultivation of online relationships erodes old meatspace ones. It's human nature that just casually swiping on your smartphone screen for a status refresh and dopamine hit from your sofa is going to be easier than arranging to meet groups of friends in person. I've certainly found this with some people who live in the same city as me. So I wouldn't say FB is useless - I think it's slightly worse than that.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#116

Post by jdormit »

megous wrote: post #22
RobertoG wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you close your account, do they delete the information that they have about you? if not, is there any way to force them legally? It seems to me that would be a "right to be forgotten" that makes sense instead of the current interpretation. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten )

One way I know they don't delete stuff is that I cleared my entire history using delete buttons. Unfriended everyone, removed all the events, etc. The account looked clean. I also cleaned the ad categories or how they call it. It's interests they gather from your activity that they use to serve you ads. When I came back a few days later my ad interests were again filled with stuff obviously deduced from my posts that…

> That may be one of the less legal things they do

Actually, it's in the TOS [0] - although it says you legally own content that you post, FB retains IP rights to your photos and videos. These rights end when you delete the content, unless the content has been shared with other users. This means, in practice, that they have IP rights in perpetuity to everything you post publically!

Now, the TOS does claim that deleted content is deleted "in a manner similar to emptying the recycling bin on a computer". However, "deleted content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time". Make of that what you will - I read it as a legal back door that lets them keep your deleted posts around for as long as they want.

[0] https://m.facebook.com/terms.php

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#117

Post by raverbashing »

dannysu wrote: post #35
Deimorz wrote: post #9

Personally, I think Google is just as terrifying, possibly more. As an example, just take a fairly normal life situation like going out for dinner with some friends, and think about how much of it goes "through" Google: --- One of your friends sends an email to 6 others, to ask if everyone's free for dinner on Friday. 5 of the 7 people involved use gmail or a google apps address. You've never heard of the restaurant…

Facebook is like a Casino. They'll try to maneuver to keep you engaged and contain you in their bubble. However, if you're able to leave or cut your usage, they extend no influence whatsoever. (Don't have mobile apps installed, block their trackers, don't use Facebook login, etc) There are lots of ways to communicate outside of Facebook, including other messaging apps that help you form social networks outside of it.…

(thankfully I guess) there's so much trash in fb it's actually making it less engaging

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#118

Post by pacala »

zipwitch wrote: post #54
RobertoG wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lately, I'm getting even more paranoid with Google. I have the location in my Android inactive and everytime I open google maps I get the message: "To continue, let your device turn on location, which uses Google's location service. cancel - ok" I have to click cancel every time. I think the language is disingenuous, because if you click cancel you can use the maps anyway. I suppose I should stop using Google Maps. I…

You may want to check out OpenStreetMap. http://www.openstreetmap.org/

http://maps.me

For mobile, totally offline, uses OpenStreetMap data.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#119

Post by abootstrapper »

cisanti wrote: post #48
abootstrapper wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People on the right dangerously remind me the fanatic pioneers, who only think one way is right and preach false tolerance. Some are even so stupid that they hold a bible in one hand and a rebel flag in another. Knowing the possibility of the power and the capabilities these people would have if in power. I would say we live in dangerous times.

I'm not from the United States, it's ignorant to think labeling everyone who doesn't agree with you having a rebel flag in their hand. It has nothing to do with me. Outside of the land of free, there are more possibilities than just being liberal or conservative. It's not a binary system. I tend to lean left according to your politics, but the stunts American left is lately pulling are disgusting, especially the labe…

You're not making points, you're just disparaging "the left." I can easily do the same to "the right" by flipping a few of your own words.

Re: Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook

#120

Post by xj9 »

lobotryas wrote: post #32
newscracker wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have listed all the reasons that make Android very valuable for Google. At the same time, do you believe Google can be as evil as Facebook? I personally believe it isn't and won't be (so it's just the lesser evil). I wouldn't trust Facebook to not be evil, based on its poor track record on privacy and treating users badly as well as its highly ambitious and callous founder/CEO. I'm also sure that Facebook has bee…

> Google can be as evil as Facebook Personally I believe Google _IS_ much worse than FB for one simple reason: it's much easier to avoid FB than Google. With FB the story is simple. You'll miss out on some news/invites from FB-centric friends, but it's pretty easy to go without (or to even find new friends who aren't as hooked on FB as needed). "Avoiding" Google in your daily life is much, much harder. Their free mai…

it really isn't that hard to get away from GOOG

I run copperhead on a nexus device (no gapps) use fastmail for email contacts and calendars duckduckgo for search plex and icecast for media matrix for chat mastodon for social media fix standard notes for note taking

YouTube is a challenge, but you can always use youtube-dl and watch via plex asynchronously

the only missing but for me is replacing photos. Plex does and ok job, but it isn't quite as seamless as I would like.

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