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Off-Facebook Activity Is a Welcome but Incomplete Move

133 points by DiabloD3 7y ago

Jaruzel 7y ago
I don't use Facebook, but I do use Messenger as I have a couple of close family members who refuse to use anything else. I've just logged into Facebook (which has no history as I've purged it[1]), and still there are 5 apps sharing my activity with Facebook. These 5 apps are all on my phone, so I guess Messenger is also sharing back to FB. :( --- [1] Shameless plug: https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity
- gpvos 7y ago
  You can use Facebook's stripped-down web interface to send messages. It's what I use on my phone. https://mbasic.facebook.com/ https://mbasic.facebook.com/
  - ourcat 7y ago
    Ahah! Thanks for this. Many a time I've had to temporarily install their mobile Messages app just to reply to someone while away.
jonathanleon121 7y ago
yes
Astropop 7y ago
In the U.S., for example, three-quarters of adults don’t even know that Facebook’s “ad preferences” page exists That's just ignorance. It irritates me when a person complains about social media and its data farming, but the person doesn't bother to change some of the settings a website/app has in order to diminish the collecting data activity.
- asveikau 7y ago
  The fact that you found hacker news, created an account here and comment puts you in the category where you poke around with settings and fault others for not doing so. But there are vast numbers of people using Facebook that just aren't going to look at settings. They aren't bad people for not doing this. Default behaviors mean a lot.
  - Astropop 7y ago
    I'm not faulting anyone. I said it only irritates me those who complain without taking any action.
    - asveikau 7y ago
      But the possible actions we can take are not equally visible to everyone, and this is true for many things in life outside of software as well. Putting an opt-out somewhere deep in settings while doing things people would likely not want technically solves the problem, but effectively does not.
      - 6gvONxR4sf7o 7y ago
        I might agree with the other commenter. If you can't figure it out yourself (understandable for most people), it ought to be as easy as googling "where are facebook's privacy settings?" I don't have an account, so I can't tell whether the facebook help pages that come up are useful. In general, I am frustrated when the complaint is about how hard a thing is to do, when sticking that complaint into a web search gives you an easy answer. That doesn't seem to be the case here though?
        p49k 7y ago
        I don’t know if you’ve used Facebook for a long time, but no matter how many times you’ve gone and managed Facebook settings, if you come back a year later you’ll find that you’ve been opted into all kinds of new garbage, you’ll find that certain options are completely gone (for example, no longer being able to opt out of public search or making your profile photo private) - even if you were a layman who did your research, you will still likely fail.

133 points by DiabloD3 7y ago

I don't use Facebook, but I do use Messenger as I have a couple of close family members who refuse to use anything else. I've just logged into Facebook (which has no history as I've purged it[1]), and still there are 5 apps sharing my activity with Facebook. These 5 apps are all on my phone, so I guess Messenger is also sharing back to FB. :( --- [1] Shameless plug: https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity

gpvos 7y ago
You can use Facebook's stripped-down web interface to send messages. It's what I use on my phone. https://mbasic.facebook.com/ https://mbasic.facebook.com/
- ourcat 7y ago
  Ahah! Thanks for this. Many a time I've had to temporarily install their mobile Messages app just to reply to someone while away.

jonathanleon121 7y ago

yes

Astropop 7y ago

In the U.S., for example, three-quarters of adults don’t even know that Facebook’s “ad preferences” page exists That's just ignorance. It irritates me when a person complains about social media and its data farming, but the person doesn't bother to change some of the settings a website/app has in order to diminish the collecting data activity.

asveikau 7y ago
The fact that you found hacker news, created an account here and comment puts you in the category where you poke around with settings and fault others for not doing so. But there are vast numbers of people using Facebook that just aren't going to look at settings. They aren't bad people for not doing this. Default behaviors mean a lot.
- Astropop 7y ago
  I'm not faulting anyone. I said it only irritates me those who complain without taking any action.
  - asveikau 7y ago
    But the possible actions we can take are not equally visible to everyone, and this is true for many things in life outside of software as well. Putting an opt-out somewhere deep in settings while doing things people would likely not want technically solves the problem, but effectively does not.
    - 6gvONxR4sf7o 7y ago
      I might agree with the other commenter. If you can't figure it out yourself (understandable for most people), it ought to be as easy as googling "where are facebook's privacy settings?" I don't have an account, so I can't tell whether the facebook help pages that come up are useful. In general, I am frustrated when the complaint is about how hard a thing is to do, when sticking that complaint into a web search gives you an easy answer. That doesn't seem to be the case here though?
      - p49k 7y ago
        I don’t know if you’ve used Facebook for a long time, but no matter how many times you’ve gone and managed Facebook settings, if you come back a year later you’ll find that you’ve been opted into all kinds of new garbage, you’ll find that certain options are completely gone (for example, no longer being able to opt out of public search or making your profile photo private) - even if you were a layman who did your research, you will still likely fail.