“Facebook has been caught allowing the personal data of fifty million users — 50,000,000 — get siphoned off by political data company Cambrige Analytica and hiding it until it new the story would come out in the press,” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore.
“It is, in a word, horrific. The only thing more horrifying is that this isn’t unusual when it comes to big internet companies. It’s becoming desensitizingly normal,” Ritchie writes. “It’s the reason why I try, as much as is possible, to never post or share anything personal on any social network or search company. Any company that’s business model is predicated on harvesting and hoarding my data. Because you can’t trust them.”
“You can’t trust the company — who knows who will own or run them, at the executive or government level, at any given time? — and you absolutely can’t trust every single employee that can gain access to your personal data that they’ve harvested and hoarded. We’ve seen those types of abuses with everything from the NSA to Uber,” Ritchie writes. “The only thing we can do to protect ourselves — the only thing we can do to hurt them — is to stop giving them our data… The only thing we can do is delete Facebook. And Messenger, and Whatsapp, and Instagram, and every app like them. We can send a message — that we won’t go quietly into the dying of our rights.”
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
Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as "surveillance companies." Their rebranding as "social media" is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/MalteEngeler/status/975020932262694913
https://twitter.com/aral/status/975109441694654465
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve been saying for years.
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, people will look back on things like Facebook and wonder, “What the hell were those people thinking?”
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
SEE ALSO:
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
In bid to curtail ‘revenge porn,’ Facebook wants you to send your own nude images via Messenger – November 8, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook: Russian Facebook ads didn’t elect President Trump – November 2, 2017
Young people are leaving Facebook – August 22, 2017
If you haven’t already, it’s time to remove Facebook from your life – May 11, 2017
How to delete your online existence, while saving your data – March 1, 2017
Free ‘Data Selfie’ tool reveals how creepy Facebook tracks and studies your activity – February 17, 2017
Facebook begins tracking non-users around the internet – May 27, 2016
Former Facebook workers: We routinely suppressed conservative news – May 9, 2016
FCC won’t force Google and Facebook to stop tracking you – November 6, 2015
European Commission: Don’t use Facebook if you don’t want to be spied on – March 27, 2015
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Tim Berners-Lee: You should own your personal data, not Google, Facebook, Amazon, and advertisers – October 8, 2014
Facebook conducts massive psychology experiment on 700,000 unaware users, and you may have been a guinea pig – June 28, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014
U.S. NSA used Facebook to hack into computers – March 12, 2014
How to permanently delete your Facebook account – December 16, 2013
Study finds link between number of Facebook friends and ‘socially disruptive’ narcissism – April 10, 2012