@BlueGreenGrey Very good points.

I think for most of us it's a matter of sink or swim or at least flounder along, because the big companies running it all are pushing us ever further along their own road.

All we can do is embrace what is genuinely useful to us, ignore the rest and make life as awkward as we can for those commercial behemoths and hegemonists for whom we are the goods and servants, not vice-versa.

@HumanEarth It's never been secret.

They do not shout about it but these sites have always existed to find and sell private individual information to anyone who wants it, primarily advertising-agencies.

A look at the "cookie" selections menu on many commercial web-sites reveals very long lists of deliberately meaningless names, mostly either ad. agencies or data re-sellers. The clients are often described by fluffy words like "partner", but that does not change anything. I counted around 100 on one site, and you cannot switch them all off in one fell swoop.

I do not know if Facebook and Google do that, or if they keep their commercial customers secret. I refuse to use Facebook / Meta and Twitter / X, and use Google only for its "Earth" atlas service.


Nor has it ever been a secret that Facebook particularly, encourages its users to lose their sense of personal privacy and security. That first came to light years ago, not long after FB burst onto the scene like a boil; and it did not need commerce to do so.

It created a spate of naive teenagers posting party invitations to their genuine friends, only to have the parties gate-crashed by complete strangers who drunkenly ruined not only the events but also the homes. Also of many anecdotes of people falling foul of employers, or losing potential employment, by libelling them in Facebook posts. These did ease as people realised that Facebook by default is fully open, not private; and if your post rebounds on you it is your own fault.


In one of the daftest examples, some university-student went whining to the Press that she and her pals had been reprimanded by the university authorities for their end-of-exams celebrations going too far. The idiots had not only acted in antisocially inebriated ways in the town, but posted images of each other's "fun".

"They have no right looking at my Facebook account", she whinged. Oh yes they have, my dear: you allowed Facebook to publish your actions for anyone to see!

Ironically, this girl was studying Law.


Just don't use such sites... simple as that. Limit your on-line use and exposure as much as possible.

.....

So there have never been any secrets. Facebook, Google etc. have existed all along to parasite commercially on their users. They have no shame about it, do not care who buys the information, and they assume as their own property anything they publish. They also are notorious for not returning material or allowing account access after a user's death, to bereaved families.

Even Microsoft thinks the material you create is its property. Windows Eleven makes local filing harder and wants all your files on its so-called "cloud".

I am aware some fear "government" scrutiny of their Internet use. If asked if that worries me, I would answer "no" and add that I do not consider myself either important or threatening enough for any official body to worry about me!

@HumanEarth Oh, they certainly are all shysters!

@Tumbleweed I'm looking forward to the A.I take over, maybe they'll treat us like house cats.

@Tumbleweed I guess you never heard of the Carrington event and we are long overdue. There are more than telegraph lines which will go down this time when and if this occurs.