Consolidated Running Online Privacy/Social Media Issues thread

Started by bayonetbrant, March 25, 2018, 02:55:45 PM

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bayonetbrant

Seems better to just lump it all in one place rather than end up with a bunch of different threads

Even tho the current events are very politics-heavy right now, let's try to keep it clean in here
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Huw the Poo

I think I've missed whatever conversation has been happening, but yeah, social media apps are terrible with regard to privacy.  They all require too many permissions, they all trade data with third parties, and even with good intentions they all get hacked eventually.

I can live without them.

Staggerwing

I'm thinking of deleting my FB account entirely, though I'd still like to be able to see the pages of companies or organizations who's products and/or services I'm interested in. Has anyone got any tips for creating a 'no frills/no personal info' account for use only in browsing the more public pages? Obviously, tuning down all friend requests would be a start.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Huw the Poo

If you absolutely must use something like Facebook, I guess I would recommend using a single instance of the Tor browser to access Facebook and only Facebook.  Use a fake name and a throwaway email account to register.  Never use that browser to access anything else, never use that email for anything else, and never visit Facebook with anything else.  It wouldn't hurt to use a VPN for this purpose too.

And certainly don't install the app or anything related (Messenger, Whatsapp) on your phone.

JudgeDredd

I gave up on Facebook in 2014. Not due to data farming issues - I'm well aware they farm information and I was always pretty damn sure they sold data on - data is huge business nowadays.

The reason I gave up was - well, personal. I was using it to keep in contact with people I had known in the forces (for the most part), some old school friends and family. I was pretty shocked at some of the things I saw those friends from the forces linking themselves to. I never saw them like this and I wasn't impressed and frankly I saw a side to some of them that I didn't want to be associated with.

Also, wtf when you unfriend someone or didn't accept a friend request and they got their knickers in a twist??

I couldn't put up with the "friend politics" in it all and decided to punt it.

One of the most liberating things I did.

By the way, the reason I wasn't particularly fussed about the data issues was because there are hundreds of ways, day to day, that companies get data on you. FB was just one of them and admittedly a bit wider with it's "dragnet" policy.
Alba gu' brath

trailrunner

Quote from: JudgeDredd on March 25, 2018, 03:26:46 PM
I gave up on Facebook in 2014. Not due to data farming issues - I'm well aware they farm information and I was always pretty damn sure they sold data on - data is huge business nowadays.

The reason I gave up was - well, personal. I was using it to keep in contact with people I had known in the forces (for the most part), some old school friends and family. I was pretty shocked at some of the things I saw those friends from the forces linking themselves to. I never saw them like this and I wasn't impressed and frankly I saw a side to some of them that I didn't want to be associated with.

Also, wtf when you unfriend someone or didn't accept a friend request and they got their knickers in a twist??

I couldn't put up with the "friend politics" in it all and decided to punt it.

One of the most liberating things I did.

By the way, the reason I wasn't particularly fussed about the data issues was because there are hundreds of ways, day to day, that companies get data on you. FB was just one of them and admittedly a bit wider with it's "dragnet" policy.

I agree with all your points, but I still have my FB account. My running club uses it, and there are a lot of cycling events on FB. I could still get access to these things without it, but it makes it a lot easier. I rarely post now. For example, I'm on vacation, but I won't post vacation pics. For one, it's a bit obnoxious, and two, it tells the world that my house is now unoccupied.

Like you said, I am pretty tired of the politics that my friends post. One of my best friends makes at least one anti-Trump post a day. OK, I get it - you don't like him - but don't you have a little sunshine in your life that you can talk about?

As far as my privacy goes - China has already hacked my security clearance twice.  If they track my web browsing, they'll find my life is pretty bland: I spend a lot of money on bicycles, I wear size M underwear, and I hang out with some strange people called grogs.

OJsDad

I have had a FB account for a couple of years now. I mostly got it for high school sports photos some takes and posts there. I told friends and family thats the only reason I hace an account. I also have connection with the local IGA store and movie theater and a wargame sales group. Ive never posted anything on FB.

Its the same with twitter. Use it to follow some things, but have never posted.
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

Greybriar

I have withstood numerous urgings by family and friends to join them on various social media.
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

OJsDad

I can understand why people would embrace something like FB.  When dad was in the military, and we were living in various places around the country, it would have been handy to keep family informed about what we were doing and with what they were doing.  So it's not totally evil. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

jamus34

Quote from: JudgeDredd on March 25, 2018, 03:26:46 PM
I gave up on Facebook in 2014. Not due to data farming issues - I'm well aware they farm information and I was always pretty damn sure they sold data on - data is huge business nowadays.

The reason I gave up was - well, personal. I was using it to keep in contact with people I had known in the forces (for the most part), some old school friends and family. I was pretty shocked at some of the things I saw those friends from the forces linking themselves to. I never saw them like this and I wasn't impressed and frankly I saw a side to some of them that I didn't want to be associated with.

Also, wtf when you unfriend someone or didn't accept a friend request and they got their knickers in a twist??

I couldn't put up with the "friend politics" in it all and decided to punt it.

One of the most liberating things I did.

By the way, the reason I wasn't particularly fussed about the data issues was because there are hundreds of ways, day to day, that companies get data on you. FB was just one of them and admittedly a bit wider with it's "dragnet" policy.

I agree with pretty much all your points JD. I kicked FB and most social media to the curb in the early 2010's also. I use linked in but mainly for the professional aspects of it. But I know that site is just as bad with the mining.

You want to know something really funny. I work with a bunch of millennial and most of them do not know or understand the term "social engineering"
Insert witty comment here.

bayonetbrant

#12
Quote from: jamus34 on March 27, 2018, 08:16:36 AM
You want to know something really funny. I work with a bunch of millennial and most of them do not know or understand the term "social engineering"

Think about everything you didn't know at that age..

:)
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

DoctorQuest

I am not sure it is completely accurate but you can go to FB settings and download a zip file of all the information associated with your account. I tried it last night and it seemed to work. It was actually a good way to get a backup of all the photos and videos I've posted. One major source of information seems to be polls you've done and items you "like". I never do polls and I don't "like" much beyond what my friends and family post. I don't generally "like" political based content, for instance. I "like" NASA and "Calvin and Hobbes"!!

"Everything you read on the internet is true." - Benjamin Franklin

"Zero-G and I feel fine....." - John Glenn

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage, inventor of the alternative fact.

jamus34

Quote from: bayonetbrant on March 27, 2018, 08:27:58 AM
Quote from: jamus34 on March 27, 2018, 08:16:36 AM
You want to know something really funny. I work with a bunch of millennial and most of them do not know or understand the term "social engineering"

Think about everything you didn't know at that age..

:)

Fair enough however I didn't have social media telling me what "the truth" was damn the facts, either.

I was very happy in my life of hanging out near the wing shack / pizza place in a college city and going for midnight rides on my motorcycle.

Nowadays everyone needs to be an "activist" because there is come "cause" to follow.
Insert witty comment here.