3 ms·

Why this article is crap. >> 10. Facebook's Terms Of Service are completely one-sided No they aren't. In return for accepting them, you get to use the site. S

Why this article is crap. >> 10. Facebook's Terms Of Service are completely one-sided No they aren't. In return for accepting them, you get to use the site. See? Two-sided. >> 9. Facebook's CEO has a documented history of unethical behavior Then he proceeds to list one unproven allegation, and one lawsuit settlement. We sometimes settle lawsuits where the negative outcome, although unjust, is likely enough that the settlement is probably cheaper. These points so laughably fail the "documented" standard that I should just stop reading now, but I can't. >> 8. Facebook has flat out declared war on privacy They are responding to their users' preferences. If anything, users have declared war on privacy. The site is designed to shared information about yourself. If signing up for that site is not an invitation to privacy invasion, what is? And is it surprising that someone who believes most people want to share information about themselves, as the CEO of Facebook surely must, does not care about privacy as much as the author, who is obviously all about it? >> 7. Facebook is pulling a classic bait-and-switch Members, by and large, don't care. It's not Facebook's responsibility to constantly nag people about the privacy implications of setting their privacy settings to "off". It would make the site more difficult and annoying to use, and would likely have immeasurably small impact. >> 6. Facebook is a bully Wait, are we complaining about how Facebook fails to protect user privacy, or how Facebook is overzealous in protecting user privacy? It's flat out false that Facebook sued this guy. They did force him to cease and desist by threatening to sue him. Maybe they should update their robots.txt, but that's hardly a reason to stop using them. >> 5. Even your private data is shared with applications [that you install] Oh, just like my regular computer. Should I stop using that too? Most Facebook applications rely on some set of private data to make interesting features work. Installing these applications would be a usability nightmare for people who have their privacy shields turned up, which ironically would probably decrease the number of people using those settings. This is because most of Facebook's users, even the ones with privacy settings turned up, only care about privacy when it doesn't get in their way, and when having to choose between privacy and easy functionality, they will take the latter. >> 4. Facebook is not technically competent enough to be trusted They are dealing with an enormous attack surface and highly motivated attackers. I think what you mean to say is, "Facebook's engineers cannot perfectly cover all possible vulnerabilities that their business requirements expose them to." They are normally quick with responses and fixes, so that's a problem, but not one that any other company doing this would avoid. But the whole "technically competent" thing is BS. They are obviously technically competent based on the various open source projects they have released and which are seeing wide adoption. >> 3. Facebook makes it incredibly difficult to truly delete your account If my friends are any indication, many people who delete their accounts eventually want them back. Keeping those people from making a mistake they will later regret is probably a feature. As far as making no promises about deleting your data, I can say that especially in a NoSQL environment it's very difficult to track down every little piece of data that belongs to a user. Sometimes this data is in formats that are not mutable on an individual-record basis. At my workplace we sometimes aggregate data in SSTables (see the Bigtable paper for details) that, did they contain user data, would not be immediately modifiable for each user that wanted to delete their account. >> 2. Facebook doesn't (really) support the Open Web This is not an issue for most normal people. But if it is an issue for you and you want to make a moral statement by closing your Facebook account, by all means, do. Facebook's incentives for maintaining their walled garden to some extent probably outweigh the loss of every user account for every person that even cares an iota about this issue. >> 1. The Facebook application itself sucks Seems like a lot of people like it and derive some use out of it. Sorry you don't. This article is idiotic. Most of the points are flat out false, and the rest are taste issues where the author is out of touch with the zeitgeist.

argv_empty 16y ago
They are responding to their users' preferences. So they claim, but users already had the option of making everything public. Removing options is not motivated by the wishes of the users. The site is designed to shared information about yourself. The site was designed to share that information with a particular group of people selected by the user.
HumanCapital 16y ago
10. "See? Two-sided." - Ooooh, you mean just like a random guy deciding to beat you up - he trashes your a$$, and you get to see the inside of a trash bin..... also two sided and of equal value of the second party. 9. True.... just as true as the counter-argument. Choosing whether to have a settlement or not is in all cases choosing between having your name cleaned or loosing a substantial amount of money (and that is in case you're actually innocent of the accusations).... when Facebook's CEO decided to go for the settlement he clearly stated he'd rather have the money than the clean name - enough said. 8. "The site is designed to shared information about yourself." ...... with the people in my life(as the slogan says) NOT with the people who'd like to spy on it. 7. "Members, by and large, don't care.".... Yeah, right, and you're basing this on what serious grounds!?!?!? My statistics professor would probably say - if you're not completely sure ...... avoid to assume. 6."Maybe they should update their robots.txt, but that's hardly a reason to stop using them.".... yeah, hey, while we're on it, why not use this old cable wire to tie all the expensive TVs and stereos we have around the house - just because it's old-dated and will potentially fail doesn't mean we shouldn't be using it too. 5."This is because most of Facebook's users, even the ones with privacy settings turned up, only care about privacy when it doesn't get in their way, and when having to choose between privacy and easy functionality, they will take the latter." - Is it just me or you're assuming far too much..... plus if FB's considers most of it's users to be morons, I don't want such a friend, thank you. 4. "They are obviously technically competent based on the various open source projects they have released which are seeing wide adoption." ..... uhm, like which ones!?! Seems to me FB is adopting ALL other open source applications available.(thus becoming increasingly more unusable and annoying but that's a whole other story) 3. "If my friends are any indication, many people who delete their accounts eventually want them back. Keeping those people from making a mistake they will later regret is probably a feature." - Now that's so thoughtful - I do exactly the same when my girl friends want their crappy lame a$$ boyfriends back right after a break-up just because they haven't seen any better..... Now seriously, if only FB admins would do the same as I would with a friend and NOT MESS IN... 2. "Facebook's incentives for maintaining their walled garden to some extent probably outweigh the loss of every user account for every person that even cares an iota about this issue." - maybe if they CARED ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN IT properly to their users, it would bother more of them. 1. "Seems like a lot of people like it and derive some use out of it. Sorry you don't." - HA HA, by "deriving use" you must mean the people all the regular FB users are trying to PROTECT FROM - ad agencies, etc. who derive PROFIT out of the FB platform and the way it's rules are constantly being twisted for legalising spying and obtaining personal information without permission. You actually sound like you're one of these people.... hmmmmm, strange. All in all – I don’t completely agree with the idea of permanently deleting your FB profile – it can be fun and relaxing and useful, especially for people like me who have friends they can’t visit as often as they’d like. BUT the recent privacy changes and the secrecy (or not so wide publication and promotion) alerted me that something seriously wrong is going on and I know a lot of people harmed by it in one way or another ( their pictures used inappropriately, their job information exploited, etc.). So I’m saying what I’ve always had in mind when using the internet to upload anything – what goes in never comes completely out…. IF YOU DON’T WANT SOMETHING TO BE PUBLICLY KNOWN – DON’T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET.

argv_empty 16y ago

They are responding to their users' preferences. So they claim, but users already had the option of making everything public. Removing options is not motivated by the wishes of the users. The site is designed to shared information about yourself. The site was designed to share that information with a particular group of people selected by the user.

HumanCapital 16y ago

10. "See? Two-sided." - Ooooh, you mean just like a random guy deciding to beat you up - he trashes your a$$, and you get to see the inside of a trash bin..... also two sided and of equal value of the second party. 9. True.... just as true as the counter-argument. Choosing whether to have a settlement or not is in all cases choosing between having your name cleaned or loosing a substantial amount of money (and that is in case you're actually innocent of the accusations).... when Facebook's CEO decided to go for the settlement he clearly stated he'd rather have the money than the clean name - enough said. 8. "The site is designed to shared information about yourself." ...... with the people in my life(as the slogan says) NOT with the people who'd like to spy on it. 7. "Members, by and large, don't care.".... Yeah, right, and you're basing this on what serious grounds!?!?!? My statistics professor would probably say - if you're not completely sure ...... avoid to assume. 6."Maybe they should update their robots.txt, but that's hardly a reason to stop using them.".... yeah, hey, while we're on it, why not use this old cable wire to tie all the expensive TVs and stereos we have around the house - just because it's old-dated and will potentially fail doesn't mean we shouldn't be using it too. 5."This is because most of Facebook's users, even the ones with privacy settings turned up, only care about privacy when it doesn't get in their way, and when having to choose between privacy and easy functionality, they will take the latter." - Is it just me or you're assuming far too much..... plus if FB's considers most of it's users to be morons, I don't want such a friend, thank you. 4. "They are obviously technically competent based on the various open source projects they have released which are seeing wide adoption." ..... uhm, like which ones!?! Seems to me FB is adopting ALL other open source applications available.(thus becoming increasingly more unusable and annoying but that's a whole other story) 3. "If my friends are any indication, many people who delete their accounts eventually want them back. Keeping those people from making a mistake they will later regret is probably a feature." - Now that's so thoughtful - I do exactly the same when my girl friends want their crappy lame a$$ boyfriends back right after a break-up just because they haven't seen any better..... Now seriously, if only FB admins would do the same as I would with a friend and NOT MESS IN... 2. "Facebook's incentives for maintaining their walled garden to some extent probably outweigh the loss of every user account for every person that even cares an iota about this issue." - maybe if they CARED ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN IT properly to their users, it would bother more of them. 1. "Seems like a lot of people like it and derive some use out of it. Sorry you don't." - HA HA, by "deriving use" you must mean the people all the regular FB users are trying to PROTECT FROM - ad agencies, etc. who derive PROFIT out of the FB platform and the way it's rules are constantly being twisted for legalising spying and obtaining personal information without permission. You actually sound like you're one of these people.... hmmmmm, strange. All in all – I don’t completely agree with the idea of permanently deleting your FB profile – it can be fun and relaxing and useful, especially for people like me who have friends they can’t visit as often as they’d like. BUT the recent privacy changes and the secrecy (or not so wide publication and promotion) alerted me that something seriously wrong is going on and I know a lot of people harmed by it in one way or another ( their pictures used inappropriately, their job information exploited, etc.). So I’m saying what I’ve always had in mind when using the internet to upload anything – what goes in never comes completely out…. IF YOU DON’T WANT SOMETHING TO BE PUBLICLY KNOWN – DON’T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET.