Facebook- I am Getting Pissed off at that Site

My wife does face book because she is a great person with many friends and she loves to relate with them... I am scared of relationships though like everyone else who knows her, I love her too... But; I do a2k because I prize my privacy above almost anything, and if you seek to know, you must also accept truth, and everyone has their own version of truth taylored to fit with their experience, and most hate to have it challenged, and to do so it is often best to hide in mystery if not anonymity... The ignorant are amyous...

I set up a Facebook account but I've never typed a thing into it. I've used it to find a couple of old friends but that's it.

Strangely enough, Phoenix, you're one of the reasons I was suspicious of Facebook. When I signed up (a couple of years ago) there was an avatar just like yours with the name "Phoenix" associated with it -- it was in the "someone you may know" section. I thought it might be you and I was startled to think that they knew I knew you. In my initial Facebook curiosity I almost clicked on you -- or this person I might have confused with you -- but it felt like a real invasion of privacy towards you.

Did you by chance read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp? It isn't just Facebook that makes use of your habits.

It's all very Big Brother.

Interesting article, Boomer. Funny thing. When I was pregnant with my son, (in 1960 OMG) I started getting mail from all sorts of companies whose products were related to newborns.

So this stuff has been going on for some time, but it seems to be escalating. I was on one site that would give me ads for stuff that I had been researching on the net. I opted out, and found that the targeted ads were much more interesting to me than the generic stuff that they sent me after I had opted out. I went back to the targeted ads.

What pissed me off was that Facebook was publishing articles that I had read. Even though it was no big deal, I don't like the idea that someone is tracking my reading habits.

I have considered, (as a spoof) to go on some website of some strange subjects, just to see what happens. Baby stuff would be might be interesting. If I were more adventurous, I might go on certain other sites, but I wouldn't want the C.I.A. after me.

I share a computer with Mr. B and Mo so I get a really crazy variety of ads. I don't ever click on any of them.

It would be an interesting experiment to try to convince your computer that you were someone else!

is this the Phoenix read x on yahoo thingie?

you have to opt in to allow this to happen. I'm not sure if you opt in at the yahoo end as well, but on the FB side, you have to allow them to publish the first time. You can opt out as well (on the FB side). Not sure about the protocol from the yahoo side.

Actually, it's all very big business. I've told you this before. You are not the customer at Facebook, you are the product. The customers at Facebook are the advertisers you see. Facebook doesn't actually give a rat's ass if you are comfortable with their policies. What they care about is being able to sell advertising space on a presumption that there are a half billion "subscribers." (Also spelled s-u-c-k-e-r-s.) If you give up even more information or access to that information, all the better--but once you sign up, they've gotten what they wanted.

I'm signed up there just to play games. Zynga is the company which provides the games. Lately, in Farmville, i keep getting these pop-up messages which say "Your feed did not properly post, please click on 'send report' so we can fix this problem." So, i click "not now," because i know they're bullshitting. So a second pop-up immediately appears which reads "OK, you feed posted this time, but our records show that you've had a problem with this in past, so please click on 'send report' so we can fix this problem." Well, it ain't no problem for me. What they want is for me to give them (Zynga) my e-mail address. Since all my feeds post through FB, they don't need it, they just want it. Why would they want it if FB provides all the contact i need for the game?

Not big brother, Boom, big business.

So quit using Facebook!

I'm glad that I never signed up for that site...

Cycloptichorn

My Facebook account doesn't have my real name. It doesn't have my real address. It was opened with an e-mail account which is in a false name. I'm not terribly worried about them. I am completely cynical about them.

Yes, I do understand that. That is why I don't use Facebook.

I really meant more that the article about Target seemed very Big Brotherish but I agree it's all just big business.

It's a good thing that Facebook is not a big box store--i'd be tempted to fire bomb the place.

What pisses me off the most is a new feature called Ticker -- any godamned thing you write, comment or post gets displayed on the right side of the FB page of everyone on your friend list as an update. Almost like being stripped naked.