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Nobody seems to remember the time back when FaceBook forced everyone on the platform to use their real name... It was exactly the point their plan to gather dat

Nobody seems to remember the time back when FaceBook forced everyone on the platform to use their real name... It was exactly the point their plan to gather data matured I believe. This is also why many sites and apps offer verification programs as well in my understanding... Verifying a user's ID has been a practices for ages now, but it did nothing to stop the growth of disinformation because that's not what verification was for IMO. An unregulated private company asking you for official government documentation and your real name is definitely tracking you in my opinion. Even friends commenting with your name and family associations/connections on your account can easily ID everyone. They are not a government agency with the authority to ask people for government ID, but somehow they convinced everyone to use their real name, and it didn't stop the decay of conduct decorum on the platform, it only served to track information more accurately. Even people who have never registered for FB are indexed by them based on tagged photos and in posts that others have made about them using their names. They also track people based on interactions across other apps entirely not associated with FB... That's IMO why certain sites slowed and faulted mysteriously when their domain went offline. I am willing to bet that they have a really interesting splunk (or similar tech) dashboard they can look at and search any time they want full of analytics based on almost every human on earth. Account privacy settings have always been a very ambiguous "shell game" with FB and other social apps, and often do not work properly, what makes anyone think a "delete account" request would ever be honored by such a company that manipulates it's user base? I also suspect that each of the major social platforms do the same type of info gathering to varying extents as well. This is some serious "James Bond island cave villain" stuff, and whatever congressional action comes next (if anything does) may tell us where the future is going for our privacy and personal info rights... :|

xadhominemx 5y ago
> An unregulated private company asking you for official government documentation and your real name is definitely tracking you in my opinion. This is nothing unusual? It’s extremely common for a private company to request identify verification
- winternett 5y ago
  Sure, for a dentist or doctor's visit, it's totally reasonable. But if you were asked for your ID every time you bought a burger at McDonalds, it would be considered suspect and a potential privacy invasion by most. The same is the case with social media. They don't need your government ID, and they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.
  - frumper 5y ago
    Now they can just track the card you used to all your purchases, or maybe even facial recognition. ID's aren't needed for them to know who you are in many cases.
  - rvnx 5y ago
    It's called a loyalty card what you describe
    - cratermoon 5y ago
      The carrot to get you to sign up for the loyalty card is the promise of discount prices. The shelf price says $X, but "Members pay just $Y". Of course $Y is closer to the true price. Sometimes they'll send out a mailer with extra coupons, usually somewhat customized based on your past purchases. But now they get to track all your activity. This is not nefarious to the extent it's used to plan inventory and purchasing, but to the extent that your store profile is sold to other companies, it becomes nefarious. A casual reading of the terms and conditions might lead a person to object, that it says they don't sell your data. A close reading notes that it says they don't sell to "third parties". But they leave out the fact that any other company the store does business with is not a third party. They technically don't sell your data to them, they provide your data to other companies during the normal course of transacting business with them. Thus, your data flows through the system, unchecked.
    - winternett 5y ago
      Yes, they make a lot more money off of using and selling the data you create than what you save... And they also lay you off as a cashier and make you check out and bag your own groceries... the future is lookin bleak... lol

xadhominemx 5y ago

> An unregulated private company asking you for official government documentation and your real name is definitely tracking you in my opinion. This is nothing unusual? It’s extremely common for a private company to request identify verification

winternett 5y ago
Sure, for a dentist or doctor's visit, it's totally reasonable. But if you were asked for your ID every time you bought a burger at McDonalds, it would be considered suspect and a potential privacy invasion by most. The same is the case with social media. They don't need your government ID, and they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.
- frumper 5y ago
  Now they can just track the card you used to all your purchases, or maybe even facial recognition. ID's aren't needed for them to know who you are in many cases.
- rvnx 5y ago
  It's called a loyalty card what you describe
  - cratermoon 5y ago
    The carrot to get you to sign up for the loyalty card is the promise of discount prices. The shelf price says $X, but "Members pay just $Y". Of course $Y is closer to the true price. Sometimes they'll send out a mailer with extra coupons, usually somewhat customized based on your past purchases. But now they get to track all your activity. This is not nefarious to the extent it's used to plan inventory and purchasing, but to the extent that your store profile is sold to other companies, it becomes nefarious. A casual reading of the terms and conditions might lead a person to object, that it says they don't sell your data. A close reading notes that it says they don't sell to "third parties". But they leave out the fact that any other company the store does business with is not a third party. They technically don't sell your data to them, they provide your data to other companies during the normal course of transacting business with them. Thus, your data flows through the system, unchecked.
  - winternett 5y ago
    Yes, they make a lot more money off of using and selling the data you create than what you save... And they also lay you off as a cashier and make you check out and bag your own groceries... the future is lookin bleak... lol