5 ms·

I for one don't let Facebook use me. This makes little difference to me.

criddell 8y ago
Facebook probably has a lot of data on you regardless. Are you in any friends' address book? Do you use a loyalty card at the grocery store? Ever walk in a mall? Own a car? Pay property tax? Have a mailing address?
- silversconfused 8y ago
  Futility is a terrible reason to stop fighting.
  - georgyo 8y ago
    100% but just not using Facebook is not a very effective strategy. And thinking that not using Facebook protects you from Facebook could be dangerous.
    - silversconfused 8y ago
      Legally, it does. If they use my information in a way that is not allowed, I am not required to use arbitration. I can sue. Users cannot.
      - StanislavPetrov 8y ago
        Good luck with that.
  - criddell 8y ago
    I didn't say the person should stop fighting or that fighting is futile. I was saying they are being naive if they think Facebook has no data on them.
- qwertox 8y ago
  Also, all those mobile ad companies which sell their data to investors will be guaranteed to have Facebook as a client, possibly also by proxy so that they don't appear on their client list.
silversconfused 8y ago
Good for you. I also do not agree to their terms of service. It's good to see others standing up for what is right.
kacamak 8y ago
You should look up "shadow profiles". Facebook knows almost everything about you from people you interact with by collecting that data into your shadow profile. Also, regardless of what you do, Facebook (along with other big tech companies, but Facebook in particular) is a menace for society and should be treated as such.
- Benjammer 8y ago
  The key to this is that you need to think of your "online identity" as something that is not directly controlled by you, ever. It's like a collection of related "behaviors" and heterogeneous data points on the internet that can be associated together with some amount of confidence that they are all from the same person, through a myriad of tracking processes. You actually creating an account (username data point), and logging in and using the service (actions) are actually minimally relevant to the process of ad targeting. All they do is slightly bump up that "confidence" score I mentioned earlier, and even then only for that specific set of behaviors/data for that page/service. Your user accounts are only transient links between sets of behaviors and targeted ads. The actual account is easily replaced by just making it a generic "entity" not related to accounts and then link any accounts that do end up being created to these "higher level" entities that you already have. For a simple example: "A web client hit our tracking pixel on X service from the same ip address as a hit on our tracking pixel on Y service, so let's assume these two behaviors are the same person for ad targeting purposes, and we'll just use that address as the unique indicator, regardless of any existing (or not) user accounts on either service. If we get a user signup action that originates from the same address, then we can link in the specific service account/username to our existing tracking entity for this person."
qwertox 8y ago
Does it? No matter how much I try block it, they always manage to get information about me; location, preferences... Thanks, "Facebook for Developers".
jakelazaroff 8y ago
"First they came for the Facebook users, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Facebook user."

Facebook probably has a lot of data on you regardless. Are you in any friends' address book? Do you use a loyalty card at the grocery store? Ever walk in a mall? Own a car? Pay property tax? Have a mailing address?

silversconfused 8y ago
Futility is a terrible reason to stop fighting.
- georgyo 8y ago
  100% but just not using Facebook is not a very effective strategy. And thinking that not using Facebook protects you from Facebook could be dangerous.
  - silversconfused 8y ago
    Legally, it does. If they use my information in a way that is not allowed, I am not required to use arbitration. I can sue. Users cannot.
    - StanislavPetrov 8y ago
      Good luck with that.
- criddell 8y ago
  I didn't say the person should stop fighting or that fighting is futile. I was saying they are being naive if they think Facebook has no data on them.
qwertox 8y ago
Also, all those mobile ad companies which sell their data to investors will be guaranteed to have Facebook as a client, possibly also by proxy so that they don't appear on their client list.

silversconfused 8y ago

Good for you. I also do not agree to their terms of service. It's good to see others standing up for what is right.

kacamak 8y ago

You should look up "shadow profiles". Facebook knows almost everything about you from people you interact with by collecting that data into your shadow profile. Also, regardless of what you do, Facebook (along with other big tech companies, but Facebook in particular) is a menace for society and should be treated as such.

Benjammer 8y ago
The key to this is that you need to think of your "online identity" as something that is not directly controlled by you, ever. It's like a collection of related "behaviors" and heterogeneous data points on the internet that can be associated together with some amount of confidence that they are all from the same person, through a myriad of tracking processes. You actually creating an account (username data point), and logging in and using the service (actions) are actually minimally relevant to the process of ad targeting. All they do is slightly bump up that "confidence" score I mentioned earlier, and even then only for that specific set of behaviors/data for that page/service. Your user accounts are only transient links between sets of behaviors and targeted ads. The actual account is easily replaced by just making it a generic "entity" not related to accounts and then link any accounts that do end up being created to these "higher level" entities that you already have. For a simple example: "A web client hit our tracking pixel on X service from the same ip address as a hit on our tracking pixel on Y service, so let's assume these two behaviors are the same person for ad targeting purposes, and we'll just use that address as the unique indicator, regardless of any existing (or not) user accounts on either service. If we get a user signup action that originates from the same address, then we can link in the specific service account/username to our existing tracking entity for this person."

qwertox 8y ago

Does it? No matter how much I try block it, they always manage to get information about me; location, preferences... Thanks, "Facebook for Developers".

jakelazaroff 8y ago

"First they came for the Facebook users, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Facebook user."