Joined FB.........

[Bman]

One of the first pieces of advise I was given about using the internet, is to not use your real name.

Facebook threw that advice out of the window and yet no-body seems to care.

 

[Hover Fly]

I and Ch. Syrphe have pages with nowt on them and not open to searches, just so no-one else can start one.

 

[Fnaar]

For one thing there's the little issue of the facebook app on your phone that gives them permission to read your text messages, see your phone calls and who has contacted you.
Ok it's not online FB but if thats the company philosophy then I don't want anything to do with them.

OK, I can see the potential for abuse of the system, but DO they actually do it? And if so, is it for anything more nefarious than suggesting who you might want to contact? I have 100+ facebook friends, 95% of whom are known to me personally. The others are members of my fave band, all of whom I have actually met in person, but are not close friends as such; some are people I;ve befriended through a mutual interest in cycling, running, walking etc. FBoccasionallysuggestsfriends of friends, but if i don't know them, I simply ignore the suggestion. If FB read my texts, they'll find nowt more interesting than "I'll be home at 7" or "What do you want for dinner" or "Have a nice time" etc etc.

 

[Panter]

Absolutely. As said earlier, it info really is that confidential, don't put it online.
I think the only significant risk is that people can get hold of childrens/pets names etc which could be used to hack passwords. But, such obvious passwords shouldn't be used for anything with financial implications anyway.

 

[RaRa]

OK, I can see the potential for abuse of the system, but DO they actually do it? And if so, is it for anything more nefarious than suggesting who you might want to contact? I have 100+ facebook friends, 95% of whom are known to me personally. The others are members of my fave band, all of whom I have actually met in person, but are not close friends as such; some are people I;ve befriended through a mutual interest in cycling, running, walking etc. FBoccasionallysuggestsfriends of friends, but if i don't know them, I simply ignore the suggestion. If FB read my texts, they'll find nowt more interesting than "I'll be home at 7" or "What do you want for dinner" or "Have a nice time" etc etc.

I think we're rapidly losing the ability to recognise the difference between public and private data. If it was just looking at the person's name I was texting or emailing I could amost let that slide. But recording the contents of your personal mails and texts is too much for me. If I want to send rude or abusive texts (not that i do!) to my nearest and dearest without the possibility of them being recorded and maybe produced in public "a la twitter" then I should be able to.

If you and I were having a conversation in my living room would you be comfortable knowing that a random 3rd party public company was recording and storing every word we said?

 

[MattHB]

I don't think it's that simple though, there's nothing stopping people you know uploading photos of you and tagging you and even if they dont tag you people can find photos/comments on friends FB. Say you meet or know 2 girls who are friends, girlA keeps her FB free of crap and secure, girlB keeps hers open and fills it with photos of her and girlA's drunken antics, you only have to look at the friends FB.

My issue is two-fold, firstly that the information is essentially persistent once you've put it out there so what you think is appropriate at 18 could stick with you forever. Secondly I really dont like the concept of keeping up with people on Facebook, making the need for actual communication largely redundant, no more "what have you been upto?".

I don't really understand the point of your example. Are you saying that a persons drunken antics could be discovered by them being included in someone else's images which are then published? I'd find it hard to be sympathetic.

If you don't see the point, than that's absolutely fine, as obviously it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But just to correct you, it's a common mistake that people think social communication lines reduce or somehow impede 'real' ones, when it's much more likely that they actually augment and often facilitate face to face social interaction by bringing people together and making it easier to make plans.

The dynamisism of online communication is very wide ranging and often those of us (me included) who haven't always had it find it very hard to empathise with those whose life it has become part of.

Instead of being frightened by it, I feel it is much more useful to embrace it.. If we fail to do that we risk a big inter-generation communication problem later on.

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

I've never joined....my kids say that they think I'd be seriously uncool on Facebook and embarrass them. Can't think what they mean.

You must join jut to annoy them.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

OK, I can see the potential for abuse of the system, but DO they actually do it? And if so, is it for anything more nefarious than suggesting who you might want to contact? I have 100+ facebook friends, 95% of whom are known to me personally. The others are members of my fave band, all of whom I have actually met in person, but are not close friends as such; some are people I;ve befriended through a mutual interest in cycling, running, walking etc. FBoccasionallysuggestsfriends of friends, but if i don't know them, I simply ignore the suggestion. If FB read my texts, they'll find nowt more interesting than "I'll be home at 7" or "What do you want for dinner" or "Have a nice time" etc etc.

Yes Facebook do it, and they do it on a regular basis in order to build as an accurate profile of you as possible, its more interested in your address book than your texts though to be honest. It wants phone numbers and email addresses. Facebook business model is targeted advertising and the more they know about you the more accurate the service they can sell. Having been behind the front door of Facebook I would never use it. The privacy policy is vauge and open for a reason and has received much criticism due to this. The data mining techniques used by Face book reach far outside of its own infrastructure. If you value your privacy to any extent you should not be on face book imho

 

[MrJamie]

I don't really understand the point of your example. Are you saying that a persons drunken antics could be discovered by them being included in someone else's images which are then published? I'd find it hard to be sympathetic.

Yeah it was pretty much just that, you have young people uploading "funny" pictures of themselves and their friends to FB that essentially get branded to them for life. Its not so much about sympathy as much as it is about the vast number of cameras and cameraphones people are using to upload photos. Ive seen plenty of people who have tried to be anonymous on FB only for their friends and family to be gushing information out into the internet. For me its more of a personal thing that I dont like the lack of privacy and control or the difficulty in separating your social groups from eachother, I understand that the majority dont care though.

The dynamisism of online communication is very wide ranging and often those of us (me included) who haven't always had it find it very hard to empathise with those whose life it has become part of.

I've probably sounded like im 70 and dont like this new-fangled technology Im 32 and have always been into computers, internet, programming etc, back when it wasnt common to have net access I was on it every free second racking up silly phone bills and still use it excessively now. I also find it interesting it tends to be my geeky friends who also dont like using Facebook too.

I totally get that my "issues" with FB wont and dont bother most people and thats fair enough

 

[Fnaar]

Yes Facebook do it, and they do it on a regular basis in order to build as an accurate profile of you as possible, its more interested in your address book than your texts though to be honest. It wants phone numbers and email addresses. Facebook business model is targeted advertising and the more they know about you the more accurate the service they can sell. Having been behind the front door of Facebook I would never use it. The privacy policy is vauge and open for a reason and has received much criticism due to this. The data mining techniques used by Face book reach far outside of its own infrastructure. If you value your privacy to any extent you should not be on face book imho

Fair enough, but I really don't mind the targeted advertising. I have the choice to use it or ignore it. Surely it's just an advance on putting ads for washing powder on the telly when they know "mums" will be watching, Christmas ads in the (long) run up to Christmas, ads placed to reflect viewers of particular TV progs etc... it's just advertising, and it isn't going to go away. You just have to be selective over what you follow up. As mentioned before, i don't reckon there's someone sitting in a FB office looking at my profile and twirling their moustacheswhile saying "Hmm, how can we mess up Fnaar's life?"

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Have to say I've been neglecting my FB in favor of CChat find it very handy though, because my friends and family are scattered allover the globe.
It is great when you want to tell everybody a story at once, or share pictures.
I like it also because it keeps me up to date with foreign music, new books, in general things I like, saves me trailing the net to find information.
I'm not one for drunken antics or the likes, so I'm ok there
Don't mind advertising either, my mobile number is known to all and sundry because of work, if I want something to be really private I use email, or my landline.
Anyway, there are options on FB mobile not to link mobile numbers with your account.

 

[Night Train]

....because my friends and family are scattered allover the globe.
It is great when you want to tell everybody a story at once, or share pictures.

I just use a group email and link to a private image hosting folder.

One thing that bugs me is that the theatre group I was with stopped maintaining their website in favour of putting stuff on their Facebook page. However, for 'child and copyright protection reasons' their page is password protected. How are interested non FB and non group members supposed to be able to find out what the group are up to?

 

[Archie_tect]

I don't really understand the point of your example. Are you saying that a persons drunken antics could be discovered by them being included in someone else's images which are then published? I'd find it hard to be sympathetic....

I once was about to give a student a summer job- he seemed really sensible and suitable. He mentioend that he had a Facebook page so I looked it up... Imagine my horror at the things he got up to and said on his pages.... there was no way I'd trust him after that. So, your FB life doesn't go away. I've also seen FB [and CC] messages and images on Google searches even after they've been deleted from the original computer... so your life within the web really does follow you forever

 

[Fnaar]

Also, if I may add, if you are choosy about what you 'put out' on the interweb, then you should apply this to every site you contribute to. I've met, in person, about 10 Cycle Chat people, and they all know (or I've told them) my real name. Ditto for the handful of people I've sold things to or bought things off through this site. I'm cool with that, and none of them have used my real name on here (well, a version of my first name, occasionally) but largely I remain incognito on here, which I like. Without inviting you to do so, if anyone wanted to do a detective job, and piece together all the info about myself that I have disclosed on here, I'm sure they could work out who I am. Indeed, about 4 years ago, as an experiment, I did so myself for 2 people on another forum I frequent. I was able to find out their names and where they work, just through piecing together bits of info (I should have been a detective, i reckon). Also, I have (on 4 occasions, I think) warned people on CC that the cycling route maps they have posted have either/both given away their home address and/or name. I am careful on FB, and I can manage the targeted advertising.

 

[MattHB]

I once was about to give a student a summer job- he seemed really sensible and suitable. He mentioend that he had a Facebook page so I looked it up... Imagine my horror at the things he got up to and said on his pages.... there was no way I'd trust him after that. So, your FB life doesn't go away. I've also seen FB [and CC] messages and images on Google searches even after they've been deleted from the original computer... so your life within the web really does follow you forever

I agree with that completely. But if you're stupid enough to put it up there you deserve the backlash.