Facebook - your personal information is not safe

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Tom

Tom

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I've warned people from the time I first registered for a Facebook account; It was clear that they were accumulating private/personal information, with no assurances of keeping your information private. It didn't take too long for the first of several occurrences where FB made private information available to third parties. What didn't help was the fact that FB changed their privacy policies & settings.

The latest FB fiasco involving Cambridge Analytica shows that they still do not respect members' privacy; Some 50M members' information was collected by a third party (CA).

I've only used FB to reach out to family members and friends on another continent, but have always warned them of the insecurity. Younger family members (20's through 50's) thought that FB was a better way of communicating. This may change their minds.
 
I totally agree and have permanently deleted both my personal and professional Facebook pages. I will ruminate on whether  I might open one for family alone. Depends on what happens in the next few months.
Bob
 
Utclmjmpr said:
I always thought FB was for 13 year old's with nothing better to do.>>>Dan
Click to expand...

You can expand that to many other age groups, as teens have moved on to other social media platforms and they'd say "Facebook is for old people" if you ask. ;D

I never had a Facebook page, and my life is no less enriched.
 
  Since I have been on facebook I have been found by a daughter with 2 grandkids, a nephew and a 2nd cousin. and several old girlfriends for 30+ years ago.
    If you have skeletons in you closet and want to keep them there the facebook may not be the best place to be....All of my skeletons have worked out great!!
    However my other daughter decided that my posts were not aligning with her politics so she has unfriended me and moved to Oregon......her lose, the will is being changed.
 
Oldgator73 said:
We use FB quite a bit. What I don't understand is how FB can get your personal information. Are you saying they can access your SSAN, bank accounts etc.?
Click to expand...

Things like your bank account info aren't particularly vulnerable via FB, but If you sign in to any other area using your FB credentials, all of those sites collect data that FB uses to monetize ads. You may have seen details of the current kerfuffle where FB users were "invited" to participate in a survey not realizing that due to the complete lack of security FB had in place with regard to those kinds of apps, users data as well as their friends data could be captured. I think most regular folks would be amazed to know just how much FB knows about their lives and their activities.

It's likely that if FB doesn't provide a way to cut off that level of access to 3rd party apps that legislators will step in with new regulations.

There's no doubt that FB in some respects has done a lot of good. Some real heart-warming stories out there to bear witness to that.  But make no mistake about it, FB exist for one reason: TO MAKE $$$.
 
I still do not understand what information/data FB can gleen other than what you post on your or other folks pages. I have often told folks if you don't want the world to know don't put it out there. I would imagine there is someone out there that can take what we say here.
 
Folks put stuff in their FB profile that they don't need to share with the world. Anything that can help identity theft shouldn't be readily available to others.
 
Tom said:
Folks put stuff in their FB profile that they don't need to share with the world. Anything that can help identity theft shouldn't be readily available to others.
Click to expand...

Again, I don't get it. I've read a lot of FB profiles. Folks include their birthdays, family members, HS, college, likes and dislikes, books they have read, movie and TV shows they like, other pages and groups they follow. I just don't see anything there that could damage a FB user (other than a future or present employer or spouse or significant other seeing it). There is nothing to steal if you willingly put it out there. Never seen SSAN's or bank account numbers with passwords posted on FB.
 
I never have been on Facebook.

However I can easily see where it could be a source of information for several less than honorable uses.

Financial abuse is just one of many possibilities.

The building of profiles gathered from such data as political statements, affiliations with various groups, statements about any controversial subject like race, nationality, sexual identity, or opinions on subjects like law enforcement, could facilitate building data sets that identify potential targets for future manipulation or influencing

This is in my opinion what is being looked at in the current  investigation on targeting groups for potentially influencing or effecting the outcome of elections or shaping public opinion.

I am not posting this to make it political or controversial, but just to show the bigger picture.

The other issue is not just the mining of your data but the links between your Facebook profile to your friends and families data and their friends and families data. 
 
I like Facebook as way to keep in touch with people.  I have joined several groups from which I can glean information on places to see in the US, birds and plants etc. which interest me.  I set up my own private group to post my holiday photos and restrict views to close friends.  There are other ways to restrict what certain friends can see, you can make them acquaintances etc. Although don't have them as friends if you need to do this. I never add people I don't know.

I am constantly surprised at the things people post or questions they reply to, for example

Your first car
Your favourite movie
Your mother's maiden name
Your first pet

Do these sound familiar?  Financial security questions. Despite me notifying folks of this, they go right on answering them. Sigh.

Some share posts without checking the information or validity which sometimes makes me mad and this is when I want to be a keyboard warrior but usually refrain from doing so. This is when I tend to think about closing my account. I tend to just not use it for a while when tbis happens.

It does eat up your time though so when back in US I have decided I will only log on in the evening once we have  settled down for the night.

I never answer the quizzes or play games and I seem to have been lucky and had little if any spam.
 
And, now someone please explain to me how FB is any different than Google for gathering data? I did an experiment on my phone pertaining to Google's suggestions on Chrome. I cleared my history, then for a few days, started searching liberal politics stuff. Then cleared my history, and started searching conservative politics stuff, once again, cleared my history, and started searching stuff about music and musicians. Every time I changed, I got a completely different set of suggested sites to look at, and different ads would be presented. Sounds like the same thing FB did. Use ones data to make suggestions to influence someone. And no, I don't use FB.
 
kdbgoat said:
And, now someone please explain to me how FB is any different than Google for gathering data? I did an experiment on my phone pertaining to Google's suggestions on Chrome. I cleared my history, then for a few days, started searching liberal politics stuff. Then cleared my history, and started searching conservative politics stuff, once again, cleared my history, and started searching stuff about music and musicians. Every time I changed, I got a completely different set of suggested sites to look at, and different ads would be presented. Sounds like the same thing FB did. Use ones data to make suggestions to influence someone. And no, I don't use FB.
Click to expand...

BAZINGA! Happens with any search engine we use. Look something up on Yahoo and you start getting hit with ads about that thing. Look something up on Bing and same thing happens. Whatever you put on the Internet is out there for anybody to see and do with what they please.
 
The bottom line is if you are concerned about your security you simply should not use the Internet. Facebook asks you to fill out a lot of information about yourself to help you find other people to connect to such as the high school you graduated from so they can hook you up to that group. Anyone who is paranoid does not belong on Facebook. I go there strictly for the funny photos and the cool bird and cat photos. I don't have much info about myself and I don't try and connect with friends. It is just a source of humor and great photography for me.
 
I constantly try to beat this into my Millennial relatives, with no luck at all. Their entire lives are posted on social medial, a goldmine for data thieves.

Anyone paying attention could easily find out where they live, go shopping, do their banking and figure out the answers to their security questions. My niece though it was wonderful when Facebook wished her and her husband a happy anniversary. They just don't get it.

I have a Facebook account, but entered fake information when setting it up.
 
I've become increasingly disappointed with FB, but more because of the crap so many others post, and the ease with which it floods my page with commercial stuff. As for the "personal data" concern, I'm much like Oldgator73. I don't have anything in my FB profile other than demographic info. Nor do I put anything on FB that others should not know.  I have no expectation of any privacy with anything I say or do on FB and find it laughable that others seem to.

But the recent uproar exposed two serious failures by FB itself: (1) A friend who volunteered his own profile info also caused mine to become available, even though I declined to volunteer it, and (2) the info collected was further re-distributed to other parties who were not authorized.  Both of those are egregious faults that should never have happened in the first place and were not properly corrected when FB discovered them. 
 
[quote author=HappyWanderer].. entered fake information when setting it up.[/quote]

Same here and for my other half, and we left a bunch of stuff blank (FB keeps reminding us to 'complete' our profiles). One day one of the kids posted (publicly) "Mom, the birthdate in your profile is incorrect".
 
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