According to today’s Groan, Facebook is continuing to play fast and loose with peoples’ information – without their explicit consent:
Thousands of Facebook users are protesting against the social networking site’s decision to publicise details of their online shopping habits without their permission. The group Facebook: Stop Invading my Privacy is growing by 1,000 members every few minutes, according to users. Its petition reads: “Facebook must respect my privacy. They should not tell my friends what I buy on other sites – or let companies use my name to endorse their products – without my explicit permission.”
It seems barely a day passes without a news story featuring this nasty little website’s misuse of personal information.
Of course, the best option is not to have anything to do with them in the first place. And, if you really, really, want to play their game, share only that information that you are willing to have shouted from the rooftops.
Facebook is nasty; very, very, nasty. It is set up to gather personal information so that others can use it for their advantage, and thousands of young people are queueing up to hand over private and personal details before realising all too late what they have done. By then, unfortunately, the damage has been done. Also, there is no opt-out. Once Facebook has you in its grasp, it doesn’t let go.
If you want my advice (for what it’s worth) steer well clear. If you want to indulge in a web presence and share information of your choice, setting up a blog using WordPress or similar will let you do it with full control over what is shared. If you want to, you can delete the whole thing. Although, do bear in mind the little matter of the Wayback Machine and Google’s cache…
So, if you are worried about people finding it… don’t share it in the first place.
Facebook is the bastard child of Poindexter and DARPA. Trouble is, it’s good advice not to go near them but they organize it so it seems your own friends have invited you to join them. They are duplicitous in the extreme.