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Facebook without data madness


S00perb

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If a government in any country in the world collected the following data about its citizens, people would, quite rightly, be alarmed.
Not just Names, addresses and date of birth but who they contacted and when, their every movement, what they thought about key political stories, what food they prefered, what websites they visit, what photos they took on their phone camera, who their friends were, how much exercise they do.......well you get the picture, basically everything about them.


The fact of the matter is, governments don't have access to this type of detailed information. Maybe some want it, but they just don't have it. Either they don't have the systems that could collect it, or they just don't have the numbers of people available to enter the data. If they did have it, they would probably keep most of it to themselves, they certainly wouldn’t want to share it, or sell it. Think GCHQ has it? I can guarantee they don’t, but unfortunately can’t totally explain how I know that!


But facebook has this data and more, they sell it to the highest bidder. Facebook users even enter the data for them! Or just give them total access to their smartphones! For free!! And, on the whole, people just don’t seem to care that facebook is selling this data to whoever wants to pay for it. They also do all sorts of 'analysis' on the data.


“If you aren’t taking advantage of big data, then you don’t have big data, you have just a pile of data,” says Jay Parikh, VP of infrastructure at Facebook, “Everything is interesting to us.”


OK, so maybe some people didn’t know what facebook was doing with their data. But they do now. With companies like Cambridge Analytica having been exposed buying and analysisng this data and using it to influence people, shouldn't we really be more alarmed that a private company has all this personal knowledge about people and collects more and more each day. Don't they have the potential to be far more powerful than governments?  As they say - knowledge is power!


Do people not realize the potential for real harm this could do them?


Personally I have never used facebook – but I am about to start………
At the moment I can’t see what is happening locally, can’t join clubs, see what events have been cancelled etc. unless I am on facebook. I hate that. They have a total monopoly on what is currently happening around me. I am isolated through my wish to remain private.
I will not let facebook have my data.


With total fake data I can join, but they soon piece together who you really are from other items on your computer or smartphone. But you can get around this with a live OS called Tails, which will run from a USB stick. Boot the PC from the sd card and visit facebook – you can even rebuild the sd card OS later. SIMPLE!!
Want to befriend me on Facebook? Could be a problem – I will be one of those most common users; A HUGH MANN.
Take that Zuck


Requirements:
Tails OS - https://tails.boum.org/
Anonymous DNS resolver https://1.1.1.1/

 

Other everyday privacy tools
Privacy Badger https://www.eff.org/privacybadger


HTTPS Everywhere https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere


DuckDuck go search engine https://duckduckgo.com/


Disposable email addresses https://trashmail.com/


Lastpass https://www.lastpass.com/


Ad blocker - choose https://www.maketecheasier.com/adblock-vs-adblock-plus/


But the biggest privacy help is coming in May 2018 – the new GDPR is a total game changer. You will have the right to ask almost any company what data they have on you, who gave it to them AND you have the right to have it removed – they can’t charge you for this. Fines for noncompliance are seriously big, so they are very likely to comply.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation

 

 

 

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Before all this news broke, I said in a meeting of peers, that people will turn away from facebook, that it will eventually be revealed for the data mining operation that it is. 

 

I got challenged on it, I defended with what was my gut instinct feelings, I'm not a data scientist or had hard fact, just enough years spinning in space to get that it would be happening.

 

So that, and if you use facebook advertising you can see the depth of the info/linking they have. Also knowing they have more, way more underneath. So how I could run an ad to target people say interested in Kia, in MiltonKeynes who were male over 30.

 

Well, Yay for greed! It came through quicker than I thought.

 

Except it; facebook, won't go away, it has ingrained itself deeply, like a wart. To remove it now would be messy. As a community owner I'm opposed to it, purely on the time sink it is. I've never been worried about a platform that is about the person, look at me, versus a community/forum, here. Just the time sink it is and how it strips away free time to use other sites, do other things. Ironically brisk does that for me, I'm hardly anywhere else between working and here, sad face. I also hate the whole keep track of club news events on facebook, no I won't and I should not have to. I am the clubs customer!

 

Sure facebook has got good potential and is a useful tool. I'd prefer to pay a £x a month to be a member of a site and not a resource or a number in a data dump to be sold. Although they can probably get more than a £x for the data they have! You use to get 2 to 5 just for knowing someone wanted to buy a car. ( A past life that I hated ).

 

Now I type this with a slight amount of hypocrisy as this site is supported, nay exists, with advertiser income which also in this day and age has element of data collection and analysis.

 

Unless you're a freedom member then the ad code gets nowhere near you. And I'll probably go further this year and drop the whole google analytics stuff. Sure it's great to know how many x uniques from which countries on which browser. However as I don't actually do anything meaningful with that data anymore, I wonder why I bother using google analytics to get it... 

 

 

Edited by ColinD
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I had said to my circle of friends many years ago, that Facebook has a limited lifespan, and even before all of this broke, my wife and I had both quit Facebook (properly...with requests to remove all data they hold on me).  One day, it decided my name wasn't my real name (it was) and for me to prove it, it wanted scanned copies of my passport, a utility bill, and/or driving licence.

 

That was the last straw.  No private company has the right to that information purely because they don't believe I am who I am.  What ever happened to that little bit of anonymity that was afforded by the Internet and the right to Privacy?

 

Now I'm no backyard doomsday prepper, but I do believe in the basic right to privacy, ie The data that is collected is used responsibly and with the agreement of me the data owner, and you only collect data you have a valid reason to collect.

 

I work in IT as my day job, so I accept that the government probably has far more data on me than I know/care to admit, due to the role I have both at work, and as a volunteer.  But I do not believe that any company and their dog has the right to sell my data for THEIR benefit.  If I want to sell my data, that is (technically) my right :)

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Thank goodness for people like Colin who put effort into a site like this. The paid option is the fairest business model and if facecrook could ever be trusted then that option would have suited me - but who the hell would ever trust them now?

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How do you know what the gov does and doesn't keep a record of?

I assure you it's a lot more than you think they do.

Luckily they log so much all that happens is that your opentext and voice searches (aye your phone calls are all monitored) are machine scanned for keywords and phrases. If you hit enough triggers they'll pay more attention to you.

Some things make of more interest, using Tor for one.

Luckily the gov doesn't have enough money to deal with everything it collects and most of it they really don't care about. PC plod doesn't get to know unless you are a really bad character. And also our government is too incompetent to run a conspiracy properly.

 

As well as your own government hoovering up everything it can on you it will be sharing information with the other 5 eyes countries. When it's not sharing the Russians and Chinese will be hoovering whatever data of yours passes through their networks and dipping in to pull out anything of interest. The Russians and Chinese have (I have been told) worked there way through most government and business systems in the UK. Luckily they are usually just snooping and not out to cause damage.

 

And don't fixate on Facebook they are just the most well known data abusers. Google is at it big style, so is Microsoft, Amazon and a million other companies all out to commoditise and sell you.

 

Car companies will be desperate to put more telemetry in your car, so they can track you and use it but sell it too.

Just about every app on every phone is out to snaffle data.

You might well have an Amazon spy Alexa in your house already, I promise it'll be sniffing more than it is supposed to, 'accidentally'. As will any Google IOT thing.

Your Smart Meter is reporting back to base and provides an easy way to cut you off.

 

The genie is out the bottle with this one.

 

eu7l0.jpg

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On 17/04/2018 at 10:36, jars said:

Always said Facebook was the root of all evil. Glad I never, ever signed up. 

That doesn't mean you are not on it. Friends, friends of friends may have posted images of you, or information about you on there. 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Fin69 said:

That doesn't mean you are not on it. Friends, friends of friends may have posted images of you, or information about you on there. 

 

 

 

 

 

There really isn’t. Only got 1 friend really (who also isn’t on it) and my missus knows I detest faceache. 

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I was tagged in a fb post by someone I have never met and don't know. Still don't.

 

Somehow they had access to a group phot I was in and somewhere along the line my name was added. At the time I did not have a fb account, nor even heard of it (this was around 2007-2008).

 

The main problem is, it doesn't matter how security cautious/conscious you are, it's everyone else that is the liability; not setting suitable security settings, accepting every friend request, feeding off the 'Like' mentality, opening attachments without verifying the vendor, passing these attachments on, opening up their phones contact list. 

 

I haven't used fb in about a month and I don't miss it. However, I know there will still be images and information about me still being passed around on there. That is the whole point of fb business model. 

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5 hours ago, jars said:

As I’m not on FB I cannot be tagged in anything on there. I am pretty safe from Faceache. 

Your name can be tagged, just not your account (obvs).

 

I often tag inanimate objects in my photos for a laugh. They're not on Facebook either but, boy, do my mates know "weird claw hand" and "totally not alcohol" are in the group sesh from last Friday.

 

Combine that name with the profiles that are tagged, the location and time that are embedded in the metadata and someone could quite easily link that to your as a person. Depends how 1984 you really want to get about it; I've never had PPI or a car accident but the ******s keep telling me I have.

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16 hours ago, jars said:

 

There really isn’t. Only got 1 friend really (who also isn’t on it) and my missus knows I detest faceache. 

As others have said, once identified on any social platform, they can identify you whether you use it if not. 

 

The level of detail about you they have is quite frightening. 

 

Facebook, once you've been identified, have facial recognition who can track you in any pic that's been uploaded to it - whether you you were intentionality in the picture or not. 

 

If location was enabled in the device taking the picture, or by the uploader, then they can start to track your movements. 

 

Then there's places you've worked at. It's frightening how many people I once worked with at a company not linked to Facebook in any way shape or form, and I have zero connection with anyone I worked with after leaving over 25 years ago (pre Facebook), yet appear in my feed as people I know. How? 

 

So if a corporation has that level of AI, just imagine what skills a government has at its disposal. 

 

And let's not forget the majority of these hide my identity/IP tools people are using are created by secret services and hackers to data mine your device. 

 

Amazes me how many people moan about Facebook, the use zone obscuring software that they have no idea who created it. 

Edited by gadgetman
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1 hour ago, Aspman said:

Actually LinkedIn is the one I probably hate the most. It just generates sales calls.

Have you ever had a "contact request" from LinkedIn that purports to be from someone you actually know but on further investigation wasn't raised by them? I have.

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  • 1 month later...

Warning- another data breach on FB. Revealed to day on BBC TEXT NEWS.

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