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ArishMell · 70-79, M
Yes - it is best avoided.
Most social-media and specialist discussion sites use advertising for their revenue, otherwise they would have to charge their users a subscription.
Facebook though was started as a social network, but became primarily a business that collects and sell personal details to advertising-agencies and major retailers; and goodness knows who else.
I learnt that from a public lecture on Internet and computer security given by a professor in the subject, who frankly said he refuses to use Facebook for that reason.
It is also far too acquisitive - post anything and you lose control over it as it is now FB's property; and bereaved families have terrible problems trying to obtain access to late user's accounts to recover material or to have them closed down. I think this applies to other sites, too.
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It is also too easy for idiots to drop themselves into hot water by incautious posts of misbehaviour or libel, subsequently read by university authorities and present or potential employers. Or criminals. That though, is entirely the users' fault.
I know someone who spent several years on a major model-engineering project, costing him a lot of money in materials as well as some thousands of hours of work over that time. He proudly posted photos of it completed, on Facebook, and this elicited unexpected enquiries of its financial value even though he had not indicated intending to sell it. (He doesn't.)
Luckily he realised these anonymous respondents' motives, and deleted and blocked them unanswered; but I wonder if others have been caught by thieves, having publicised their own amateur craft-work or other valuable property.
I gather the more dedicated criminals, especially those stealing to order, use diligent social-media examination to narrow down the search to telephone-directory range. They collate open posts and unwitting clues, a task rendered much easier when a user establishes a single nick-name and password for all registrations. Mine, and my passwords, are all different.
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There was a rash of cases of the similarly-stupid putting party invitations to (real) friends on Facebook then wondering why their parents' home was wrecked by gangs of gate-crashers! You don't hear of that so much now so perhaps its present users have learnt from previous misfortunes.
Most social-media and specialist discussion sites use advertising for their revenue, otherwise they would have to charge their users a subscription.
Facebook though was started as a social network, but became primarily a business that collects and sell personal details to advertising-agencies and major retailers; and goodness knows who else.
I learnt that from a public lecture on Internet and computer security given by a professor in the subject, who frankly said he refuses to use Facebook for that reason.
It is also far too acquisitive - post anything and you lose control over it as it is now FB's property; and bereaved families have terrible problems trying to obtain access to late user's accounts to recover material or to have them closed down. I think this applies to other sites, too.
'
It is also too easy for idiots to drop themselves into hot water by incautious posts of misbehaviour or libel, subsequently read by university authorities and present or potential employers. Or criminals. That though, is entirely the users' fault.
I know someone who spent several years on a major model-engineering project, costing him a lot of money in materials as well as some thousands of hours of work over that time. He proudly posted photos of it completed, on Facebook, and this elicited unexpected enquiries of its financial value even though he had not indicated intending to sell it. (He doesn't.)
Luckily he realised these anonymous respondents' motives, and deleted and blocked them unanswered; but I wonder if others have been caught by thieves, having publicised their own amateur craft-work or other valuable property.
I gather the more dedicated criminals, especially those stealing to order, use diligent social-media examination to narrow down the search to telephone-directory range. They collate open posts and unwitting clues, a task rendered much easier when a user establishes a single nick-name and password for all registrations. Mine, and my passwords, are all different.
'
There was a rash of cases of the similarly-stupid putting party invitations to (real) friends on Facebook then wondering why their parents' home was wrecked by gangs of gate-crashers! You don't hear of that so much now so perhaps its present users have learnt from previous misfortunes.
FlowersNButterflies · 61-69, F
@ArishMell It can be useful for those reasons, too. I take no polls or "tests" but I posted police records on my niece along with actual screenshots of her hatefulness by text mail. It can follow her all her life long, as it should.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@FlowersNButterflies
And just what is that supposed to achieve other than showing yourself up and risking never being reconciled?
That material is not yours now but Facebook's, and I do wonder the legality of you posting Police records. Did you have official permission to do so?
If behaviour like yours and your neice's is common on Facebook, frankly I am glad to have nothing to do with a site that encourages bullying and in-foghting.
And just what is that supposed to achieve other than showing yourself up and risking never being reconciled?
That material is not yours now but Facebook's, and I do wonder the legality of you posting Police records. Did you have official permission to do so?
If behaviour like yours and your neice's is common on Facebook, frankly I am glad to have nothing to do with a site that encourages bullying and in-foghting.