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Off-Facebook Activity

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Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s rolled out in Ireland, South Korea and Spain to start, more countries are coming soon.

Sorry, but my point stands. In Facebook's case, there is absolutely zero reason to assume good intentions, give the benefit of the doubt, have general good-will, or believe its employees regarding privacy aims.

It doesn't stand in those countries obviously it is available there. There is no reason to assume bad intentions either and your first statement was just a lot of assumptions and already has been corrected for being not completely true.

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#72
post #2

This is the clear history feature that was announced a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16969325 . See also the engineering post that explains some of the challenges in implementing this: https://engineering.fb.com/data-infrastructure/off-facebook-...

Why is it no longer a "clear history" feature?

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#73

Hmm, a clear history feature that does nothing of the sort. Sounds like Facebook! The product manager in charge said: “people were able to mentally connect that with how their browser controls work, where they can clear their history. We clearly state that … the information isn’t connected to your account.” [0] So, they deliberately designed it to make people think it works like a browser's clear history feature (whi…

Anyone still using Facebook at this point is insane or has some direct financial motivation to continue using it. I don't know what else people need to see to stop using it.

Or they simply don't care about Facebook building a profile of them to show them ads because they are happy with the value they get from Facebook.

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#74

Lately I've been thinking that the phrase "your data" is a deceptive use of language. It encourages the fantasy that you have some kind of ownership over the data that your actions produce. And that you have some natural right to control how it is used. The reality is that once data leaves your device, it's not yours anymore. It will almost certainly be used to track and manipulate you. If someone is talking about gi…

Digital rights holders very much hold tightly to the fiction of "your data", and use the teeth of the law to fight anyone claiming otherwise, or copying it in a manner they did not authorize.

(IANAL) At what point can we claim that Terms of Service statements are agreed to under duress, and regain rights to our data as the rightful copyright owner of such data?

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#75
So I've all but given up on trusting these big corporations to delete all of my data when I turn off data collection/clear history.

However, I think these activity tools are extremely useful. They allow me to see all (or at least most) of what Facebook/Google has on me and it allows me to practice and implement strategies that prevent the corps from collecting the data in the first place.

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's for kids to share memes under fake profiles and boomers to share fake news under real profiles. A hard cut from facebook is surprisingly easy. The biggest challenge is getting over the mentality of fear that it will somehow be challenging.

It’s to keep a loose connection with distant people and organize private events and find out about non-personal events and happenings. Just because the people you added on facebook filled it with bullshit, doesn’t mean it’s like that for everyone. I’d love to get away from them, but I have yet to find a workable alternative.

Block the memes at the source. Each time I see it, I block it. If the people on your page are like mine, they are reposting from these meme groups and not manually uploading these pictures.

The result is my feed is pretty free of this garbage.

My block list is probably over 100 of these stupid groups.

I wish it could be exported and shared.

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s to keep a loose connection with distant people and organize private events and find out about non-personal events and happenings. Just because the people you added on facebook filled it with bullshit, doesn’t mean it’s like that for everyone. I’d love to get away from them, but I have yet to find a workable alternative.

Block the memes at the source. Each time I see it, I block it. If the people on your page are like mine, they are reposting from these meme groups and not manually uploading these pictures. The result is my feed is pretty free of this garbage. My block list is probably over 100 of these stupid groups. I wish it could be exported and shared.

I used to regularly block pages and posts that reached my feed that were from entities who weren’t in my immediate network. Pages people liked, news articles and their organizations. All these things that make Facebook money. I stopped reacting to anything that wasn’t made by someone in my network and cleared out my generated “interests” multiple times, but they’d always come back.

After being off it for a couple of years, whenever I look at someone’s feed I’m absolutely blown away by the saturation of things that are at best ads. It seems like 4/5 items on a timeline would be an update from something that wasn’t a directly-added friend. Facebook shoves the impersonal stuff in my face while all I wanted is the personal stuff.

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone still using Facebook at this point is insane or has some direct financial motivation to continue using it. I don't know what else people need to see to stop using it.

A better alternative to groups and planning for the non technical user? I don't use Facebook as much, but I see the appeal.

I've found Meetup.com beneficial. It isn't free for group creators but I'm OK with that since it is a lot simpler than creating a Facebook account, pouring through all the privacy and security settings, turning off as many notifications as possible, etc.

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#79
post #2

This is the clear history feature that was announced a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16969325 . See also the engineering post that explains some of the challenges in implementing this: https://engineering.fb.com/data-infrastructure/off-facebook-...

Since no one else has asked yet: You seem like a nice guy who could probably get a job elsewhere easily. Why are you still at FB?

Re: Off-Facebook Activity

#80
Wait how can I set my preferences for the activity they're tracking on me if I don't have an account?

I'm not under any illusions they're not trying to track me despite me not having an account with them.

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