Why I Canceled My Facebook Account • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#21

Post by [deleted] » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:01 PM UTC

kmavm wrote: post #16

joezydeco wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information? I think that's what pisses me off about FB the most. This entire website was built on the backs of hundreds of millions of eager users. And sure, the users get some benefits (meeting old friends, finding a new job), and some downsides (affairs, posting that picture of you drunk for the boss to see). But…

"Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information?" Out of curiosity, do you hold AdSense to the same standard? After all, a pixel and a cookie on 70% of websites by hit is being used to infer your interests, location, demographics, and purchasing history, all so ads can be better targeted at you. Why is it more shady for Facebook to do this with inform…

[deleted]

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#22

Post by joezydeco » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:02 PM UTC

kmavm wrote: post #16

joezydeco wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information? I think that's what pisses me off about FB the most. This entire website was built on the backs of hundreds of millions of eager users. And sure, the users get some benefits (meeting old friends, finding a new job), and some downsides (affairs, posting that picture of you drunk for the boss to see). But…

"Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information?" Out of curiosity, do you hold AdSense to the same standard? After all, a pixel and a cookie on 70% of websites by hit is being used to infer your interests, location, demographics, and purchasing history, all so ads can be better targeted at you. Why is it more shady for Facebook to do this with inform…

No, actually I hold AdSense and Google to the same standard.

But I also believe people are way less aware of what Google is going with the Adsense click data. They're also blinded by the smörgåsbord of goodies flowing out Mountain View. And maybe to most that's a fair trade. Google is at least giving out free email servers, gigabytes of cloud storage, navigation, docs, etc etc etc.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#23

Post by frazerb » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:14 PM UTC

philk wrote: post #10

gaius wrote: post #5

Yes FB is definitely becoming less useful. For example, it used to be that if I listed my employer and set it to "friends only" then that was that. Now, if you visit my profile, it's still friends only - but if you go to my employer's public page, my name is (actually was) listed there! Same with all my previous employers, the colleges I attended, my interests, etc etc. Hometown too maybe! So I have removed all of th…

FB also seems to get less useful over time as you add more people. Initially, when you have a few people you know really well and get on with, you can post quite freely knowing that it's unlikely to come back and bite you. Later, as you gain a truckload of acquaintances you have to be much more measured and it winds up feeling like you're running some sort of discount PR agency.

This is an interesting departure from Metcalfe's Law [ the value of the network is proportionate to the square of the number of nodes in the network ].

Perhaps Metcalfe's Law applies up to a certain size, and then tails off thereafter.

There is a limit on the number of people that us humans can reasonably be expected to have friendships with. I have a feeling that it is substantially smaller than the number of 'friends' that facebook attracts.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#24

Post by what » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:15 PM UTC

kmavm wrote: post #16

joezydeco wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information? I think that's what pisses me off about FB the most. This entire website was built on the backs of hundreds of millions of eager users. And sure, the users get some benefits (meeting old friends, finding a new job), and some downsides (affairs, posting that picture of you drunk for the boss to see). But…

"Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information?" Out of curiosity, do you hold AdSense to the same standard? After all, a pixel and a cookie on 70% of websites by hit is being used to infer your interests, location, demographics, and purchasing history, all so ads can be better targeted at you. Why is it more shady for Facebook to do this with inform…

Except you can opt out when google does it: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#25

Post by SlyShy » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:19 PM UTC

I'm malicious, so I wouldn't actually delete my account. I'd just gradually falsify all my information. That way they don't get any data mining benefit from my account, in fact, their data collection is being confounded by it. ;)

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#26

Post by kmavm » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:23 PM UTC

what wrote: post #24

kmavm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't you think you should be entitled to earn some of that money that Facebook is making off of your information?" Out of curiosity, do you hold AdSense to the same standard? After all, a pixel and a cookie on 70% of websites by hit is being used to infer your interests, location, demographics, and purchasing history, all so ads can be better targeted at you. Why is it more shady for Facebook to do this with inform…

Except you can opt out when google does it: http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

You can opt out on facebook as well; and when you do so, you stay opted out. The above button works on one browser, until you happen to clear cookies.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#27

Post by philk » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:24 PM UTC

frazerb wrote: post #23

philk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FB also seems to get less useful over time as you add more people. Initially, when you have a few people you know really well and get on with, you can post quite freely knowing that it's unlikely to come back and bite you. Later, as you gain a truckload of acquaintances you have to be much more measured and it winds up feeling like you're running some sort of discount PR agency.

This is an interesting departure from Metcalfe's Law [ the value of the network is proportionate to the square of the number of nodes in the network ]. Perhaps Metcalfe's Law applies up to a certain size, and then tails off thereafter. There is a limit on the number of people that us humans can reasonably be expected to have friendships with. I have a feeling that it is substantially smaller than the number of 'frien…

For FB I suspect that the ideal would be a network with lots of nodes but few connections; I want to be able to find my friends but I don't want them to be connected to so many that they have to sanitize their posts/thoughts.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#28

Post by philk » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:26 PM UTC

SlyShy wrote: post #25

I'm malicious, so I wouldn't actually delete my account. I'd just gradually falsify all my information. That way they don't get any data mining benefit from my account, in fact, their data collection is being confounded by it. ;)

With the possible drawback that anyone who you're connected to thinks that you're becoming a Belgian monk with a goat fetish.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#29

Post by cmos » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:26 PM UTC

I have never joined facebook, and am thankful for this. But I was suckered into joining linkedin, and when I saw they had uploaded my contacts list from my gmail account, I had to leave.

Still not quite sure how they did that.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#30

Post by eplanit » Sun, May 02, 2010, 2:30 PM UTC

FB is ingenious in how it leverages three amazingly powerful forces: Advertisers, individuals' Ego, and Group Psychnology (put more bluntly, herd mentality).

FB and the Advertisers are harvesting value from the herd, day after day. Brilliant (I'm not being facetious....this time).