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Pretty incredible - especially with how little that a hardware product purchase has to do with a user's data. Imagine for a moment that google required people t

by taurath 10y ago

Pretty incredible - especially with how little that a hardware product purchase has to do with a user's data. Imagine for a moment that google required people to have an account to access all their services - that they have the ability to cut you off arbitrarily across ALL their services for a TOS violation should scare anyone. Imagine if facebook cut your account and thereby ties to many of your friends and acquaintances for promoting a competing ad company? These companies have lulled us into their systems with good intentions and free services, and now they wield tremendous power over our lives. I don't actually want to go back before the days where these services were fragmented and it was very difficult to juggle many closed services instead of a few. Still, its what happens when the company owns the whole vertical of individual user's data.

serge2k 10y ago
> I don't actually want to go back before the days where these services were fragmented and it was very difficult to juggle many closed services instead of a few I do. I'm sick of the giant web companies. Especially since they make their money off fucking ads.
duaneb 10y ago
> Imagine if facebook cut your account and thereby ties to many of your friends and acquaintances for promoting a competing ad company? This is very imaginable. Facebook has never attempted to be privacy or user friendly; DO NOT USE IT. You are the only product they have of value. In general, do not use third party login for anything personal you care about. It's not a password; it's nothing you control.
- brazzledazzle 10y ago
  I remember when Spotify switched to requiring facebook for signup and were pushing linking the accounts on existing users. Perhaps it was a bug but at one point they made finding and following other users very difficult without facebook integration. Apparently they switched back to allowing email signup again some time ago but it left a very sour taste in my mouth. I still have my account today so I suppose that's a testament to how well they've run their service outside of that issue. Anyway, I hope developers keep incidents like this Google one in mind and let people create standalone accounts. Certainly at the very least supporting more than one provider and allowing you to link another email address if they don't feel comfortable dealing with the very serious responsibility of managing and encrypting usernames and passwords.
- justanton 10y ago
  Login with Facebook is a nightmare: I've stopped counting the times I've had a problem with accounts created with Facebook Login. It is pain in the ass to switch that account to a regular one, once you did it.
cmoscoso 10y ago
OMG, I can't even imagine live after being cut out of facebook, all my friends are there.
- moyta 10y ago
  People get banned from Facebook every day for stupid reasons, whether it be Facebook's real name policy or otherwise, and I would encourage you and everyone else to keep alternate contact details handy for your friends. Maybe you should encourage them to get on Signal Private Messenger, so that you aren't SOL if anything happens to Facebook.
  - cmoscoso 10y ago
    sorry, I was being sarcastic.
    - ryandrake 10y ago
      I picked up the sarcasm immediately but it's scary how many times I've been told (HERE, on HN of all places) that it's impossible to live a normal life without Facebook. As in: literally, with a straight face someone would claim they would have no contact with friends if not for Facebook and be totally serious about it. Kind of unbelievable but I've heard it multiple times.
      - kkarakk 10y ago
        i mean facebook gives you the means to provide alternate contact points(phone numbers) to your friends. people don't choose to use it coz of whatever reason deserve to be cut off-why wouldn't you want your friends phone numbers in your phone?
        paradite 10y ago
        Nowadays the means of keeping contact information when making new friends is whatsapp or facebook. So yes, this would not be a problem for now, but it would be in a few years when mobile numbers become really obsolete (hopefully not).

by taurath 10y ago

serge2k 10y ago

> I don't actually want to go back before the days where these services were fragmented and it was very difficult to juggle many closed services instead of a few I do. I'm sick of the giant web companies. Especially since they make their money off fucking ads.

duaneb 10y ago

> Imagine if facebook cut your account and thereby ties to many of your friends and acquaintances for promoting a competing ad company? This is very imaginable. Facebook has never attempted to be privacy or user friendly; DO NOT USE IT. You are the only product they have of value. In general, do not use third party login for anything personal you care about. It's not a password; it's nothing you control.

brazzledazzle 10y ago
I remember when Spotify switched to requiring facebook for signup and were pushing linking the accounts on existing users. Perhaps it was a bug but at one point they made finding and following other users very difficult without facebook integration. Apparently they switched back to allowing email signup again some time ago but it left a very sour taste in my mouth. I still have my account today so I suppose that's a testament to how well they've run their service outside of that issue. Anyway, I hope developers keep incidents like this Google one in mind and let people create standalone accounts. Certainly at the very least supporting more than one provider and allowing you to link another email address if they don't feel comfortable dealing with the very serious responsibility of managing and encrypting usernames and passwords.
justanton 10y ago
Login with Facebook is a nightmare: I've stopped counting the times I've had a problem with accounts created with Facebook Login. It is pain in the ass to switch that account to a regular one, once you did it.

cmoscoso 10y ago

OMG, I can't even imagine live after being cut out of facebook, all my friends are there.

moyta 10y ago
People get banned from Facebook every day for stupid reasons, whether it be Facebook's real name policy or otherwise, and I would encourage you and everyone else to keep alternate contact details handy for your friends. Maybe you should encourage them to get on Signal Private Messenger, so that you aren't SOL if anything happens to Facebook.
- cmoscoso 10y ago
  sorry, I was being sarcastic.
  - ryandrake 10y ago
    I picked up the sarcasm immediately but it's scary how many times I've been told (HERE, on HN of all places) that it's impossible to live a normal life without Facebook. As in: literally, with a straight face someone would claim they would have no contact with friends if not for Facebook and be totally serious about it. Kind of unbelievable but I've heard it multiple times.
    - kkarakk 10y ago
      i mean facebook gives you the means to provide alternate contact points(phone numbers) to your friends. people don't choose to use it coz of whatever reason deserve to be cut off-why wouldn't you want your friends phone numbers in your phone?
      - paradite 10y ago
        Nowadays the means of keeping contact information when making new friends is whatsapp or facebook. So yes, this would not be a problem for now, but it would be in a few years when mobile numbers become really obsolete (hopefully not).