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Never Trust Facebook

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Re: Never Trust Facebook

#51

Post by Zelphyr »

guelo wrote: post #19
i0exception wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually deleting content would be a very expensive operation at Facebook's scale. Flagging it as deleted is the most optimal way. What's troubling is that this content somehow got undeleted on its own. Not once, but twice.

Every operation at Facebook scale is expensive. But they have the resources. They don't do something because they don't want to, not because manipulating their data is hard. They do complicated things to their data all the time.

Agreed. I'm not buying the "its hard/expensive" argument that so many people seem to be submitting in this thread.

The fact is, when Facebook gives you the option to "delete" something there is a reasonable expectation that by doing so that post, picture, etc... will be deleted. Removed. Gone. Permanently. If they want to give you the option to retrieve it later in case you accidentally delete something then call it "Flag for deletion" instead.

To do ANYTHING else is disingenuous at best. Otherwise known as a lie.

This is yet more proof that users of Facebook are the product and will be treated as such. Whoever pays Facebook actual money gets to dictate the terms and they are the people that want Facebook to never delete your data.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#52

Post by hannibal5 »

novum wrote: post #7

FB has, over the years, gradually lost my trust until I deleted my account in November 2010 after having been a member since late 2004 when FB was college-only. As a 20-something living in SF, it's a daily thing now: I don't get invited to parties, I don't know about birthdays, I don't see my friends' photos, I don't have any contact with anyone from high school or college anymore. There is a real social cost for som…

Growing number of my friends are in FB with fake names and identities. It's more complicated when you add new friends or they want to add you, but otherwise it's ok for keeping touch with close friends.

Yes, its against FB user agreement but fuck that.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#53

Post by Peroni »

hannibal5 wrote: post #52
novum wrote: post #7

FB has, over the years, gradually lost my trust until I deleted my account in November 2010 after having been a member since late 2004 when FB was college-only. As a 20-something living in SF, it's a daily thing now: I don't get invited to parties, I don't know about birthdays, I don't see my friends' photos, I don't have any contact with anyone from high school or college anymore. There is a real social cost for som…

Growing number of my friends are in FB with fake names and identities. It's more complicated when you add new friends or they want to add you, but otherwise it's ok for keeping touch with close friends. Yes, its against FB user agreement but fuck that.

I'm (real life) friends with a handful of minor celebrities. Most of them have a 'public' profile for PR and every single one of them has a 'private' profile under a pseudonym using generic, non-descript images as their profile pic. It's pretty common.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#54

Post by pyvek »

Another thing to note is that they don't want their users to delete stuff or do any action that may suggest abandoning the platform. I thought that I deleted my profile 1.5 years ago but I tried logging in last week (after seeing a similar HN thread) and was surprised to find that it was all there. It occured to me that I must have deactivated my profile. Then I tried looking for delete option but couldn't find it anywhere. All I could find was a _deactivate_ button. I had to use a third party (Google) to find out about how to delete my profile.

Facebook has made it unnecessarily hard to delete accounts and instead pushes the _deactivate_ option in a very psychologically manipulative way. Even after using the delete option, I'm sure that they're going to retain my data for as long as they like. I still did it for my own sake, prevent myself from using it at all.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#56

Post by BWStearns »

novum wrote: post #35
roc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of friends are they, that don't notice and/or care to invite people except through Facebook? Also, birthdays? Aren't those the sorts of things you find out about once per friend and then add to your own contacts? I've never had a Facebook account, but that's not a problem I've ever experienced. Granted, I don't automatically know the birthday of every single person I meet or even get a number/email from. Bu…

I don't think there's any malicious intent. In my demographic, (almost) all events are set up through FB because your friend graph, mass-invites, and guest lists are built in. My flatmate's boyfriend is fond of throwing large house parties with hundreds of invitees, then hiring a doorman to check names off against the FB RSVP list. If you're not on it, you're not admitted. My closest friends remember me and send me i…

Since killing my account (because they kept resetting my privacy settings to public... bastards) I've outsourced my Facebook Birthday/Party monitoring to my girlfriend.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#57

Post by pnathan »

hannibal5 wrote: post #52
novum wrote: post #7

FB has, over the years, gradually lost my trust until I deleted my account in November 2010 after having been a member since late 2004 when FB was college-only. As a 20-something living in SF, it's a daily thing now: I don't get invited to parties, I don't know about birthdays, I don't see my friends' photos, I don't have any contact with anyone from high school or college anymore. There is a real social cost for som…

Growing number of my friends are in FB with fake names and identities. It's more complicated when you add new friends or they want to add you, but otherwise it's ok for keeping touch with close friends. Yes, its against FB user agreement but fuck that.

Pretty sure that a sufficiently deeply filled out social graph can be leveraged to figure out who Foo Bar is, even if he has no info about himself.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#58

Post by rickdale »

novum wrote: post #7

FB has, over the years, gradually lost my trust until I deleted my account in November 2010 after having been a member since late 2004 when FB was college-only. As a 20-something living in SF, it's a daily thing now: I don't get invited to parties, I don't know about birthdays, I don't see my friends' photos, I don't have any contact with anyone from high school or college anymore. There is a real social cost for som…

I had my account around the same times as you did. And deleted for various reasons. When I deleted my account people were up in arms, "Why would you get rid of facebook?" And I am more the type of "why would you want it?" Now I miss out on all sorts of stuff like new babies and marriages, but at least it means really catching up with people when we do get together. Facebook is what I was into when I was growing up on AOL, then it would have been cool. But is it really beneficial to be linked with everyone you have ever met?

On the Saprano's they said something like 'nostalgia is every mans weakness'. In my eyes facebook breads nostalgia, thus I keep away.

Re: Never Trust Facebook

#60

Post by donniezazen »

Not having facebook makes you look like an anti-social element irrespective of what it does to your mental health and well being. At the end of the day, I feel like make a small circle of friends that engage with you on deep level and not just superficially. What kind of friend it would who couldn't or forgets to text or call you?
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