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Reasons not to use Facebook

stallman.org

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Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#51

Post by atmosx »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #18

A friend of mine was turned off of a potentially new employee the other day because the candidate exclaimed that they recognized a customer from their instagram profile and that they followed it, loved it, etc. The customer was obviously embarrased, exclaimed that he had not used instagram in over a year, and promptly left the store. This left an uneasy feeling in my friend (the store owner). Which confused me to be…

Oh men. Working with people is extremely complicated, yet very educative if have the right mindset.

That was an accident IMHO, better not judge by one case scenario. I know a lots of guys and girls, especially youngsters who would love to hear about their facebook/twitter/instagram profiles.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#52

Post by pooogie »

His opinion may seem ridiculous to many here, but the following has happened quite a few times before:

1. Stallman shares radical opinion

2. He's ridiculed for his outlandish claims

3. Some news breaks or things happen gradually

4. Now people say 'Stallman called it' or realize he was right all along

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#53

Post by Frondo »

tome wrote: post #43
Frondo wrote: post #33

My problem with essays like this is that they don't address the more critical underlying point: most people don't recognize privacy as a human right, and most people don't realize why privacy is important and worth protecting. To most people, "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" sounds reasonable . That's the deeper problem at work here. With more people on board to why privacy matters, articles l…

> To most people, "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" sounds reasonable. So what's the correct position, and why?

"Whether you've done anything wrong, what you disclose is up to you."

It is the correct position because privacy is a human right, just like the right to free speech or the right to a fair trial.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#54

Post by revicon »

While I agree w/ some of the points Stallman makes, essays like this that rely on hyperbole to rile up readers turn me off and detract from the issues the author is trying to bring attention to.

One example: Stallman states "Facebook's mobile app snoops on SMS messages" and links to this article: http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=128859

"... during installation, the Facebook mobile app for Android platform seeks certain 'permissions' with the latest update going a step ahead in asking users to allow the app 'Read your text messages (SMS or MMS)'."

So during installation (on android), Facebook is asking permission to access SMS, which you can choose to enable or not. This is a far cry from his statement that "Facebook's mobile app snoops on SMS messages."

There are good points in this essay, but the amount of alarmism mixed in makes it much harder to sift through.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#55

Post by kragen »

paulsecwhatt wrote: post #45

I honestly don't understand why people value Stallman's opinions on these matters so highly. I completely disagree with him on essentially everything he writes about these topics. Granted, he's an incredible programmer who contributed immensely to the development of our modern operating systems and the tools we use, and people here love to bring that up ("what - you DON'T KNOW WHO STALLMAN IS? SHAME? HOW DARE YOU CRI…

People value Stallman’s opinions on these matters so highly because he has a remarkable history of being right about them ten or fifteen years before it becomes clear to everyone else that he was right, and he takes the risk of saying what he sees even when it will offend people. In fact, that’s why he’s famous; he’s certainly a good hacker, but the world has quite a number of good hackers who aren’t famous because they didn’t notice the political and social aspects of what they were doing the way Stallman did.

I am not going to bother to rebut your examples in detail, but I will say that I seriously doubt that you were present when Facebook decided on its names policy or that you have much access to information about what effects it has had, and you seem to think companies didn’t exist before 1995.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#56

Post by muyuu »

paulsecwhatt wrote: post #45

I honestly don't understand why people value Stallman's opinions on these matters so highly. I completely disagree with him on essentially everything he writes about these topics. Granted, he's an incredible programmer who contributed immensely to the development of our modern operating systems and the tools we use, and people here love to bring that up ("what - you DON'T KNOW WHO STALLMAN IS? SHAME? HOW DARE YOU CRI…

I disagree with Stallman on many things but I cannot see anything wrong with that collection of real issues about Facebook, and also with the general message that most people should avoid using Facebook completely or use it exclusively with fake identities and several other provisions.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#57

Post by kragen »

revicon wrote: post #54

While I agree w/ some of the points Stallman makes, essays like this that rely on hyperbole to rile up readers turn me off and detract from the issues the author is trying to bring attention to. One example: Stallman states "Facebook's mobile app snoops on SMS messages" and links to this article: http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=128859 "... during installation, the Facebook mobile app for Android platform…

It is not correct to say that you can choose to enable this permission or not; or, rather, it is true only in a narrow technical sense — if you choose not to enable this permission, standard Android will refuse to install the Facebook app. And what legitimate reason could Facebook possibly have to request that permission in the first place?

There may be some examples of hyperbole in that article, but the example you chose is not one of them.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#58

Post by tedunangst »

__david__ wrote: post #21
gaadd33 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

man ls, on my various servers, doesn't have an AUTHOR section, just HISTORY which says: An ls command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

You're probably on a Mac, which comes from the BSD heritage. Try "man diff".

    HISTORY
         A diff command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

Re: Reasons not to use Facebook

#60

Post by peteretep »

pooogie wrote: post #52

His opinion may seem ridiculous to many here, but the following has happened quite a few times before: 1. Stallman shares radical opinion 2. He's ridiculed for his outlandish claims 3. Some news breaks or things happen gradually 4. Now people say 'Stallman called it' or realize he was right all along

Some examples, please
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