Social Question

Cruiser's avatar

Will you join the Facebook Boycott?

Asked by Cruiser (40449points) June 1st, 2010

The problem we’re facing here is that any site can connect to Facebook by embedding a small chunk of code on their site. The code can and does access your private data on Facebook, but it also let’s Facebook see what you’re doing on the random 3rd party site. No warnings, approvals, or notifications necessary; and regardless of what you set your privacy policies to.

There appears to be a grassroots effort to boycott Facebook and many are flat out removing all their content before the June 6th date changes take effect and all you Facebook content is permanently on that site. I’m not a big FB users but I will consider making changes to my content before June 6th, anyone else here doing anything?

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9 Answers

casheroo's avatar

What private information on Facebook? Anything I have on there can be seen by all my friends. I’m confused as to what’s happening.

Cruiser's avatar

@casheroo Apparently all your content will become a permanent record in Facebook computers whether you like it or not and this 3rd party tracking ability is what most people have an issue with. Most other sites allow you to opt out of this when you join the site….FB apparently is eliminating this “option” on June 6th. After that everything you say, do, where you go, what you buy and how long you stay will be tracked back through FB and they can then sell that data to whomever is willing to pay for it. Big Bother at it’s most nefarious and you won’t have a choice in it.

liminal's avatar

Do you have link to where I can read about the changes?

Cruiser's avatar

@liminal I guess the real uproar is how difficult it is and the changes that have been made that make it nearly impossible to opt out. The boycott is to protest the language of the Privacy Policy and how impossible it is for even a skilled computer user to opt out.

Here is an article that explains a bit of the frustrations

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/12/facebook-privacy-policy-s_n_574389.html

Here is a timeline of the changes..
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline

Likeradar's avatar

Nope. If I don’t want it to be accessible, I don’t put it on the interwebz unless it’s a secure site.

ChocolateReigns's avatar

Oh great…....I don’t think I need everybody to know everything I post on facebook….but wouldn’t the public make such an uproar about it so they couldn’t do it?

augustlan's avatar

Eh, there’s nothing on there I’m worried about.

rawrgrr's avatar

I don’t know much about what Facebook does with my information but I certainly don’t think the privacy options are complex. If I’m a 15 year old that can figure it all out then im pretty sure anyone can. People are always complaining about their information being public when they leave their Facebook profile wide open for everyone to see and openly post embarrassing info/pictures about themselves. As Facebook has been getting bigger, more and more people are getting worried about their privacy. Facebook provides more privacy options than any other social networking site I’ve ever seen. They give you privacy options for pretty much everything! Just take the time to go through them and please keep your info secure! I will still with Facebook.

Divalicious's avatar

I agree with @rawrgrr. The privacy options are very self-explanatory. And common sense should limit how much information you put there in the first place. (Hence the problem, because sense is not common!)

Just because there’s a place to list your phone number and address doesn’t mean you have to do it.

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