“To say Facebook has had a rough time of it lately would be putting it mildly,” Aja Romano writes for Vox. “Between fake news, falling stock, and glaring data breaches, the social media giant is in the middle of a public reckoning (and a self-reassessment) that is perhaps long overdue.”
“But Facebook users, in the middle of what seems to be a moment of broader cultural backlash against social media and technology, are also clearly grappling with the ramifications of their use of the platform,” Romano writes. “Since reports of Cambridge Analytica’s massive harvest of Facebook user data surfaced last week, multiple media outlets have responded by reminding an agitated public that they do have options for deleting their Facebook accounts.”
“However, this emphasis fails to take into account both Facebook’s position in modern society and the stakes involved for anyone who chooses to leave a network that has spent more than a decade trying to make leaving it impossible,” Romano writes. “There are three main reasons most people can’t just up and leave Facebook, and they all serve to illustrate the extent to which Facebook has altered the landscape of our digital lives.”
1) Facebook is technologically embedded within a vast web of interconnected third-party apps and social media platforms
2) For many people, using Facebook regularly is a required part of their job or education
3) Facebook is, for better and worse, a tangible tie holding many people to their communities
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you feel that you cannot #DeleteFacebook, you’ve got bigger problems than Facebook selling your personal data and profiles to the highest bidder.
We haven’t had personal FaceBook accounts for many years now. And happily so. — MacDailyNews, May 11, 2017
Beyond the privacy aspect, Facebook is Creepster Central. It’s a Narcissists’ Paradise. In general, yuck. — MacDailyNews, March 27, 2015
Facebook makes their money by exploiting and selling intimate details about the private lives of millions, far beyond the scant details you voluntarily post. They are not victims. They are accomplices. https://t.co/mRkRKxsBcw
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 17, 2018
SEE ALSO:
What to expect from Facebook’s Zuckerberg if he testifies before Congress – March 21, 2018
Why Facebook’s blatant disregard for users’ privacy could be very good for Apple – March 21, 2018
Facebook’s surveillance machine – March 21, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg AWOL from Facebook’s damage control session – March 20, 2018
U.S. FTC reportedly probing Facebook’s abuse of personal data as UK summons Zuckerberg for questioning – March 20, 2018
The problem isn’t Cambridge Analytica: It’s Facebook – March 19, 2018
Apple: Privacy is a fundamental right – September 27, 2017
It’s past time for you to STOP USING FACEBOOK – March 19, 2018
Delete your Facebook: The only way to win the social game is not to play – March 19, 2018
How you access the super creepy data that Facebook has on you – March 12, 2018
Facebook asks users: Should we allow men to ask children for sexual images? – March 6, 2018
Study: Facebook is for old people – February 12, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg is fighting to save Facebook; announces major change to News Feed – January 12, 2018
Facebook developing ‘Portal’ gadget which will let it put microphones and cameras in people’s homes – January 11, 2018
Facebook is giving the US government more and more data – December 21, 2017
Former Facebook exec: Facebook is ‘destroying how society works’ – December 11, 2017
Apple’s cutting-edge ‘differential privacy’ is opt-in – June 24, 2016
Apple’s cutting-edge ‘differential privacy’ offers unique option for technology users – June 20, 2016
Apple’s use of cutting-edge tech will peek at user habits without violating privacy – June 16, 2016
Apple unveils iOS 10, the mother of all iOS releases – June 13, 2016
Apple previews major update with macOS Sierra – June 13, 2016
Apple seeks to use AI to keep Google off your iPhones, iPads, and Macs – June 15, 2016
Edward Snowden: Apple is a privacy pioneer – June 5, 2015
Tim Cook gets privacy and encryption: We shouldn’t surrender them to Google – June 4, 2015
Tim Cook attacks Google, U.S. federal government over right to privacy abuses – June 3, 2015
The price you’ll pay for Google’s ‘free’ photo storage – June 3, 2015
Apple CEO Tim Cook champions privacy, blasts ‘so-called free services’ – June 3, 2015
Passing on Google Photos for iOS: Read the fine print before you sign up for Google’s new Photos service – June 1, 2015
Why Apple’s Photos beats Google Photos, despite price and shortcomings – May 30, 2015
Is Apple is losing the photo wars? – May 29, 2015
How Google aims to delve deeper into users’ lives – May 29, 2015
Apple CEO Cook: Unlike some other companies, Apple won’t invade your right to privacy – March 2, 2015
Survey: People trust U.S. NSA more than Google – October 29, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook ups privacy to new level, takes direct swipe at Google – September 18, 2014
Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for government, police – even with search warrants – September 18, 2014
U.S. NSA watching, tracking phone users with Google Maps – January 28, 2014
U.S. NSA secretly infiltrated Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say – October 30, 2013
Google has already inserted some U.S. NSA code into Android – July 10, 2013
Court rules NSA doesn’t have to reveal its semi-secret relationship with Google – May 22, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “BD” and “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
I absolutely cannot wait until Eric T. Mole goes down…he is next.
Yet because you are protected by MDN you are too chicken shit to call out MDN for being a Google addict.
When are you going to drop your nasty little habit MDN?
When are Apple users going to demand that Apple deletes its FB and Google affiliations?
hey Mike?
go suck a bucket of dícks,
The real mind suck is Words With Friends. More addictive than Facebook, it squanders our time and diverts us from taking proper care of ourselves. I haven’t cleaned house in ages, and eat out of cans. I only post here when my WWF adversaries are all otherwise occupied. I blame you, botvinnik, for turning me into Miss Havisham.
almost as fun as chess. 🙂
And almost as action packed Eugene…
I love how the media is making this out to be a Trump issue. Trump Consultants abuse Facebook!
Could the NYTimes be any more a part of the so-called “fake news” landscape? Pathetic.
… the news media isn’t saying a darn thing about Obama and Hillary doing the same thing. Definitely no bias involved with this issue.
No one ever accused legalinsurrection.com of being “mainstream media.”
As usual, a misleading cut-n-paste cartoon that has nothing to do with reality,
If I remember correctly, someone here pasted a screen shot of the Obama app which had clearly given the user full disclosure.
First Then Whatever: are you capable of providing a screen shot of any Trump media affiliate that includes a privacy disclaimer?
Until you do, your cute cartoon will only serve to signal what a lying misleading partisan propagandist you are. Amazing how you don’t even have the brain cells to distinguish between Trump malware and a fully vetted Apple App that included disclosures of privacy and user policty with it.
To blame mainstream media is your weak smoke screen. Admit reality for once.
Seeing as Steve Bannon became a VP at Cambridge Analytics and the Mercers gave the company $15 MILLION to mind f-k the US citizenry into voting for Alt-Right causes, including The Trump… I’d say all of this is permanently entangled with The Trump. Dumping on stupid Facebook doesn’t change the constant, insistent propaganda attacks aimed at ALL of us from a variety of psychopathic sources.
IOW: Get real dude! 🌎🌍🌏
Remember how Obama’s people said: “we rocked this” when referring to use of FB data: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campaigns-digital-masterminds-cash-in.html
Yea, here is the same NY Times covering how Obama got access to the entire US Facebook accounts. Makes CA’s normal use of FB data very tiny. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campaigns-digital-masterminds-cash-in.html
There is a world of difference between using FB, email, a website or anything else online to reach people with information and deliberatly carrying out a massive disinformation campaign.
Anyone who still thinks that Donny, Jared and Manafort met with Russians to discuss adoption is delusional in the extreme. If any other president had done a twentieth of what already been shown for Drumpf and his family, they’d be long gone. This blithering man-baby is probably half senile, is definitely stupid and contradicts himself at every turn. Any one of several Republicans would be enormously better presidents.
Even Botty would be a better President!
But not Firsty…..!
I’m forced to agree with you. botvinnik has diverse interests, a modicum of critical thinking skills, a sense of humour and a modesty he only rarely exhibits, whereas Fwhatever seems devoid of those traits altogether, a hammer seeing everything as a nail.
MDN’s take is way too harshly simplistic and doesn’t apply to many. By leaving Facebook cold turkey you’re talking about breaking contact with many real friends & relatives some of whom are out of state or out of country. (Maybe MDN HAS no friends or relatives.) I also am in touch with many colleagues in the entertainment industry and LinkedIn doesn’t fill in the void.
Yes, while I abhor facebook, it’s difficult to walk away for business reasons. There is no other platform which reaches so many people. MDN has a facebook page, which bears the request to “Ask your friends to like this page.” They have 2,774 followers. I’m not sure what the business impact would be if they all deleted their facebook accounts. I have no problem with the people behind MDN not having accounts. That’s everyone’s personal choice. Facebook should definitely be held to be 100% transparent about what data they collect and how they use it. For MDN’s anonymous operators to keep chiding everyone to delete facebook is a bit sanctimonious, unless they delete their MDN page as well. Afterall, facebook knows who visits that page, who follows, and who likes it. In this way, MDN contributes a little piece of data on all those 2,774 people to facebook’s secret profiles.
I never started so I don’t have to delete it. I keep in touch with friends and family by email, iMessage, phone calls, snail mail and face to face dinners and coffees. I empathize with your choices and situation, I hope you can find a way out. If FB disappeared tomorrow it wouldn’t bother me a bit.
That’s the ticket John. I thought I was the only person in the world who is not on Facebook. But I can understand how some bidnesses might use it. They miss me though.
If I had my way….
a) If Facebook and Twitter are to be a news source, they better vette the information printed on their pages. Otherwise libel laws should be enforced. Simple! Crush them with the same means they make their money. Sell information? It better be accurate or suffer the suite. It’s the standard normal media must live up to after all.
b) If it’s unavoidable to use the internet without unwillingly or not consciously making a company money, then that company should be treated and regulated as a public utility. This applies mostly to Google.
c) Apple gets sued for anti-competitive behavior over iOS policies, or offers a built in jailbreak.
If I remember correctly Real Networks was a real tough program to eliminate and word press, forget it, you cannot get rid of it once you sign up and yes it’s in the fine print.
My gal. director advised me to use FB to promote my exhibits and art stuff.
Lol, they’re not selling your information to the highest bidder. They’re selling your information to every bidder.
I’m just thankful there is no Facebook App for the Mac. I deleted the FB app from my iPhone years ago because it would suck the battery dry and chew through my monthly data allowance in days.
And now that they have forced people to install the Messenger App rather than logging in via a browser, I’m finding my data allowance being swallowed and my battery drained more quickly than before. Bastards.