Facebook is just helping our wonderful American President and his Russian friends/sponsors/spymasters.

What's wrong with that?

Today's New York Times had 3 interesting articles on the subject plus an excellent oped piece by Kara Swisher.

Facebook' outrageous excuse is that it did not need explicit consent from users because its business partners(more than 150 corporations), which it refers to as “integration partners,” were “functionally extensions of Facebook itself.”

Facebook users deserve whatever they are getting because...

Facebook is little more than petty self-promotion and/or a gimmicky advertising outlet...which essentially amounts to the same thing. The same can be said of Instagram with its tiresome number of trivial snapshots people tend to include on their personal pages.

Both formats are similar to a high school yearbook or photo album concept with shared memories and images that are often only relevant to a handful of individuals...except that these thoughts and pics are now being blasted all over cyberspace.

Facebook/Instagram also provides an opportunity for someone to leave a lasting rememberance and/or petty legacy of themselves via the internet.

Pathetic and somewhat sad.

>> Facebook is little more than petty self-promotion and/or a gimmicky advertising outlet... The same can be said of Instagram ...

Nah. Facebook is clearly a media company, yes, run by advertising. IG not so.

Except Facebook is the main data source for the Russian troll industry which is provided the personal data of millions of American residents through Russian IT giant Yandex, an "integration partner" of Facebook. I would never use Instagram, but I doubt they engage in the same conduct as Facebook when it comes to the Russian troll industry.

How much do these corporations pay for all these pictures from FB, and what use are family pictures to them?

If you hate Facebook so much, you should organize a picket line surrounding their headquarters in Menlo Park.

>> How much do these corporations pay for all these pictures from FB, and what use are family pictures to them?

How long have you been in the Valley? (Unless I missed the sarcasm font) geez, have you missed a lot!

I do like Facebook. I have reconnected with so many good friends from the past, both online and also through trips to meet in person. I have reconnected with cousins I haven't seen since childhood and comparing details of memories have been very worthwhile. I have joined Facebook groups for support and other connected interests.

However, I do see a danger, but so many of the dangers are because of the things people put on Facebook. Every time you post your future plans, locations, answer silly questions in quizzes(answers often used for security questions), share suspect posts, click on clickbait, etc. etc. etc. you are setting yourself up for problems.

Wise Facebook use is something we should be talking about, not quitting.

@Resident - "wise Facebook use" is easy to say, but what exactly does that mean? Facebook spys on you even if you never post anything and never click on those quizzes. The New York Times article that was mentioned earlier says that Facebook tracks your location based on your Internet address and shares that information no matter what permissions you have set. Evil doers can learn all kinds of things about you from your location. Do you really want strangers to know where you work or if you are at a hospital or even your home address?

from mauricio's original post...
> 1. Facebook is sharing your private information, your contacts, your private messages with 150 corporations all over the planet.
> 6. Your privacy-settings are meaningless. Facebook shares your info whether you allow it or not.

(1) Knowing this, proceed at one's own discretion/risk. Common sense.

(2) How can people expect/demand any privacy when they are broadcasting their personal lives and contact info all over the internet? An absurd expectation.

(3) Facebook is an ostensible application...a 'social network' that provides valued user info to other interested parties. Might as well add one's name to a mailing list.

(4) A very useful tool for stalkers, bill collectors and targeting market demographics.

(5) Only the lonely and/or insecure rely on Facebook for reaching out to the world at large.

(6) Zuckerberg made his billions. Now he's laughing his way to the bank.

(7) PT Barnum said it best...

Yahoo and Yandex, a Russian IT giant which has no connections to Vladimir Putin (that was sarcasm) reportedly retained access to Facebook user data even after such access was supposed to have been halted. And Facebook gave Apple the power to see Facebook users’ contacts and calendar entries even in cases where users had disabled all data sharing. "Wise Facebook use" is meaningless when personal information users believe is protected actually isn't.

@Zuck (?? really?)

Sorry to disillusion you but your phone is doing it already. Your phone knows what apps you use in what location. Your passport has a chip, and that can record you at airports. Anytime you buy anything online, Amazon or any other type of online store keeps records of what you buy and can then send you targeted advertising. Using your phone and the cell phone tower knows everything about your usage. Credit card information tracks your spending habits. CCTV in most department stores, stations, airports, and many other places, can trace you with face technology. Your car, your gps, and even Town Square's usage of cookies, can find so much information about you.

We don't have any secrets anymore, and we don't have any privacy.

So Amazon, Bloomingdales or your credit card bank provide your personal information to the Russian troll industry and Chinese phone schemers, who recive it from one of Facebook's "integration partners" ?.. Don't you just love the equivalency?

What's all the hate for this local company anyway?

As >>resident pointed out above, "we really have no privacy anymore."

So, don't use Facebook if you are so concerned. Also you might want to consider getting rid of your computer and credit cards and make sure you wear a face mask so no pictures are taken of your face.

No, I plan to keep using Facebook. For the last five years I have been able to keep in touch with my son living overseas, latest grandchildren pictures, many dear friends and family members all over the world through facebook.

I'm sticking with it.

>...make sure you wear a face mask so no pictures are taken of your face.

I always thought people wore those things to avoid getting airborne viruses...nearly everybody shopping at 99 Ranch seems to have one on.

"What's all the hate for this local company anyway? Because that local company is basically enabling foreign hostile, and sometimes criminal elements in their quest to damage our democracy and interfere in our democratic process.

Allowing Russian and Chinese IT giants, the Russian company is known to work for the Putin regime BTW, and is partially owned by Putin himself, access to personal information of Facebook users is not the same as using credit cards or a cell phone or buying stuff on Amazon, they don't provide personal data to foreign companies who serve undemocratic regimes . Many Americans were targeted and influenced by hostile foreign operations using personal data provided them by Facebook. Facebook is practically selling out our country because of their greed.

I’m middle-aged. I find facebook appalling for some reasons I’ll list.I don’t use it. I know some who are constantly on it. Yuck.

-There’s the often idiotic content I typically see when others show me. Yes, at times I am shown photos and told about messages and a bit of other content. Some of this is of interest and useful. A lot isn’t, really.
I am sad to be excluded from communication with some (I used to know, used to communicate with) owing to my lack of a facebook account. Yes, I communicate with people via other means (if they still will do this). I take reasonable steps to understand TOS of any app, etc. I may consider using and I value my own identity and reasonable privacy and safety/security and protection of my own content/IP. This is a smart thing to do, in my opinion.
- The increase in narcissism - driven by facebook, wow, what once would be socially unacceptable is now the norm (incredible bragging, over-sharing, preening/editing, too many photos, preposterous pseudo glam selfies, exaggeration, you know...also incredibly.mundane content that’s time wasting).
Do you know how much time you’ve wasted looking at NON friends on facebook, whether out of curiosity, jealousy, worry...
- obviously, the personal risks of so many things: giving away content, Intellectual property, your location, personal data, whether it’s to facebook/their business partners/archives, or someone dangerous or undesirable easily accessing/looking on as a “friend” tags you or your kids in photos, permits access to “you!”
The ability to influence/fool and manipulate weak people is another scary aspect.

I don't know how it all works or who is responsible, but Facebook is where I go for up to date information about Palo Alto's Police Department, Fire Department, Libraries, Open Space, Baylands, Foothills Park, Arastradero Preserve, and other city entities. Each has their own Facebook page as well the entire city as a whole Web Link . Plenty of photos and assorted public commentary. Many local businesses and organizations also have Facebook pages, some maintained more sporadically than others. Residents groups, school groups, alumni groups. Even the Palo Alto Weekly has a Facebook presence, containing most of the same stories you see here.

For breaking news however, I head for Twitter, populated by the same organizations above.

In Michigan, for example, a state Clinton was sure of winning, the Russians trolls using Facebook targeted their propaganda to discourage black voters from going to the polls, one of the constituencies that was core to Clinton’s presumption of victory in the state. Instead, she neglected campaigning in Michigan and lost. Turns out there was a 12% drop in black turnout.

Just in October, it was revealed that the genocide being carried out by the military in Myanmar was promoted on Facebook using the same kind of fake sites the Russians did in 2016. This time Facebook was being used for ethnic cleansing.

Facebook’s is in the habit of unauthorized sharing of private data, including the names of friends and even the content of some messages, a far bigger breach than the company has ever disclosed.

Based on reams of internal company documents and at least 50 interviews with former Facebook employees, the NYT exposed a less well-known but enormously profitable business, the social network’s array of partnerships with other huge tech companies, including Microsoft, Spotify, Yahoo, Amazon and many others, including Russian companies with close ties to the Kremlin. Facebook did not want to sell its data to other companies because it didn’t want to lose control over all that information. But it gave its partners access to reams of information about virtually every aspect of a user’s life. This empowered Facebook’s partners to use its data to tailor their most targeted and effective consumer strategies. Users, meanwhile, were left in the dark, many wrongly believing their privacy settings would protect them from exactly this kind of invasion.

Republicans have been doing such an effective job attacking our government and form of government for so long, creating an entrenched lie-based narrative for their base* (largely to keep top tax rates low) I'm not sure how much the Russians really had to do to undermine our system. We fought a revolutionary war and most of the 20th century wars on the belief that autonomy of ordinary people is essential to happiness and our way of governance was the best you could have in an imperfect world, and Republicans have (for the benefit of plutocrats and other moneyed interests) attacked our form of government, made a mockery of that and laid us open to attacks from outside and irreparable destruction of that democracy.

*No system is ever perfect. But a quest for permanent Repubican majority )which is just a euphemism for destruction of our democratic system) and to drown our government in a bathtub has seriously crippled our ability to come together — We the People — and keep improving our civic lives over the last 50 years. Plutocrats keep their power by getting ordinary people to knee-jerk hate and destroy the seat of their own power. It is, unfortunately, a one-way street at some point, which plutocrats realize (permanent majority) if ordinary people don’t.

The best example is health care. Despite the fact that every advanced nation on the planet has universal healthcare for significantly less cost than we do, many with better outcomes, better longevity, better access to specialists, and even better choice, and without the infernal paperwork burdens that cost 1/3 out of every healthcare dollar here (largely so for-profit insurers can control the system to keep the overall healthcare economy high since they profit as a percentage of it), we are unable to do this for our citizens because of rightwing ideologues. The leftwing ideologues don't help much with their inability to see that single-payer is a nonstarter here and not even necessary or the best in a nation accustomed to choices (and ironically, given Republican’s attempts to destroy it, the benefits of individual power), and that the most similar economies to us like Germany and Japan don't use single payer to achieve their systems.

There are many other examples. We the People has been falsely conflated with communism and replaced by Me Me Me (said the plutocrat), and that’s been largely because of Republicans. It’s not surprising that so many people believe the false gossip that our nation never went to the moon — if our democratic form of government is so inept that it needs to be drowned in a bathtub, how could it do anything like have a NASA or an NIH or an Arpanet?

All this talk, by the way, of SV liberalism is just more of rightwingers trying to manipulate the dialog to the right (it worked with the media). Zuckerberg is no liberal.

I am open to any competitor that gives me absolute easy transparent control of my privacy and information -- please suggest.

>...I plan to keep using Facebook. For the last five years I have been able to keep in touch with my son living overseas, latest grandchildren pictures, many dear friends and family members all over the world through facebook.

No email/attachments, personal Skype usage, cellphone or other avenues?

You prefer instead to broadcast your family matters & interests 'all over the world' via Facebook...for others to read/see as well?

> What's all the hate for this local company anyway?

Zuckerberg lied before Congress & should be held accountable as others are.