Why I Canceled My Facebook Account • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#51

Post by pak » Sun, May 02, 2010, 4:57 PM UTC

jarek wrote: post #48

cmos wrote: post #29

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.

You had to have given them your Gmail password at one point. They keep on asking me to do it. (Yeah, right.)

How evil would it be if they tried using your LinkedIn password with your profile's gmail address to access your gmail contacts? Probably 90% of people would have both passwords set to the same thing.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#52

Post by go37pi » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:03 PM UTC

lwhi wrote: post #50

kjuhgfghjk wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the quality of service and customer response you get with paid for cellphone and cable TV services?

Well, maybe I'm in the minority - but when I'm not happy with something I pay for, I make damn sure it gets changed. It takes a bit of effort - and usually involves a bit of time, but it works. What can we do with a company like Facebook or Google when we're no longer happy?

We can stop using it, and create or support alternatives.

We're used to the cost of a service being its monetary price, or more recently, the demands it makes on our attention. Perhaps a new type of model is being developed in which the price of a service we desire is not in the form of money or attention, but our data. And in this case the way a company uses our data is a real "cost", rather than a mutually beneficial outcome.

I think that threatening to withdraw and withdrawing payment, whether monetary or otherwise, will prove to be a significant balance on the actions of companies. If the changes are significantly detrimental, consumers will take the actions they consider necessary to address those concerns.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#53

Post by jarek » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:09 PM UTC

pak wrote: post #51

jarek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had to have given them your Gmail password at one point. They keep on asking me to do it. (Yeah, right.)

How evil would it be if they tried using your LinkedIn password with your profile's gmail address to access your gmail contacts? Probably 90% of people would have both passwords set to the same thing.

Pretty evil. I wouldn't be too surprised if they did, but that's a shitstorm waiting to happen, and Linkedin is still trying to uphold their 'professional' image.

Personally I don't have my Gmail address as my contact email... but I doubt many people own their TLDs with corresponding mailboxes.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#54

Post by lwhi » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:14 PM UTC

go37pi wrote: post #52

lwhi wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe I'm in the minority - but when I'm not happy with something I pay for, I make damn sure it gets changed. It takes a bit of effort - and usually involves a bit of time, but it works. What can we do with a company like Facebook or Google when we're no longer happy?

We can stop using it, and create or support alternatives. We're used to the cost of a service being its monetary price, or more recently, the demands it makes on our attention. Perhaps a new type of model is being developed in which the price of a service we desire is not in the form of money or attention, but our data. And in this case the way a company uses our data is a real "cost", rather than a mutually benefici…

True, we can stop using it.

However, I think this idea presents a false dichotomy. We need other options which don't involve either remaining compliant or quitting.

While we're told we have freedom, because we can exit - we end up investing so much in a service, that quitting becomes very 'expensive' (in terms of human cost). Quitting becomes a unrealistic option for most.

I think the same can be said for Apple's POV re. the iPhone and competition. They like to say that users are free - and that if they're not happy with the way they do business (or change their terms) then they can go elsewhere.

In reality, users have spent a large amount money on their hardware - and are usually locked into 18-24 month phone contracts. The arguments are disingenuous.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#55

Post by gcr » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:15 PM UTC

Goladus wrote: post #34

I would love for a company that collects personal information and shares it or makes predictions or generates advertising based on it to expose ALL of it to me. Don't just tell me what you're collecting, and what you do in abstract terms, show me exactly what you have and how you use it. If you have data on the frequency with which I visit friend's profiles, I should be able to see it. If you have data on external li…

Google's Dashboard seems like a step in the right direction. Maybe not much more than that, but it's better than nothing.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#56

Post by lwhi » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:21 PM UTC

go37pi wrote: post #52

lwhi wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe I'm in the minority - but when I'm not happy with something I pay for, I make damn sure it gets changed. It takes a bit of effort - and usually involves a bit of time, but it works. What can we do with a company like Facebook or Google when we're no longer happy?

We can stop using it, and create or support alternatives. We're used to the cost of a service being its monetary price, or more recently, the demands it makes on our attention. Perhaps a new type of model is being developed in which the price of a service we desire is not in the form of money or attention, but our data. And in this case the way a company uses our data is a real "cost", rather than a mutually benefici…

Thinking about potential situations which might involve FB users showing discontent, brings striking factory workers to mind.

I suppose when we use FB - we are actually participating in a kind of factory, so perhaps the analogy is apt.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#57

Post by Xichekolas » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:42 PM UTC

That graph amuses me. Notice the benefit to users continues to climb, even if the benefit to "facebook and other companies" happens to climb faster. So even though it benefits you more and more, you will deny yourself that benefit because it happens to help facebook too?

Of course, it's just a made-up graph, and his very first sentence implies the line is really trending downward in his opinion, but I'm always intrigued when an instance of the Ultimatum Game happens in real life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#58

Post by mrvir » Sun, May 02, 2010, 5:58 PM UTC

Goladus wrote: post #34

I would love for a company that collects personal information and shares it or makes predictions or generates advertising based on it to expose ALL of it to me. Don't just tell me what you're collecting, and what you do in abstract terms, show me exactly what you have and how you use it. If you have data on the frequency with which I visit friend's profiles, I should be able to see it. If you have data on external li…

Creating targeted ads is one thing, identifying you personally is another. FB knows your name, birth date, gender, city. That pretty much singles you out. When combined with all the data about your page views on partner sites that could become privacy threat in the future.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#59

Post by motters » Sun, May 02, 2010, 6:13 PM UTC

The main issue from this and other similar articles about facebook which I've read seems to be the lack of control that users have over how their information is used and who it's given to. I still believe that the solution to all of these problems would be an open source peer-to-peer version of facebook, where you have complete ownership and control over what information you make available and who gets to see it.

Re: Why I Canceled My Facebook Account

#60

Post by jacquesm » Sun, May 02, 2010, 6:14 PM UTC

Goladus wrote: post #34

I would love for a company that collects personal information and shares it or makes predictions or generates advertising based on it to expose ALL of it to me. Don't just tell me what you're collecting, and what you do in abstract terms, show me exactly what you have and how you use it. If you have data on the frequency with which I visit friend's profiles, I should be able to see it. If you have data on external li…

There are laws to that effect, that they should disclose what they have on you, for instance, in the Netherlands there is a law that is called the 'wet bescherming persoonsgegevens' (law on protection of personal information), which gives you the explicit right to request all information that is kept on you, and to request deletion of such information.