To surprised that people are shocked about FB sharing their personal information

[Doryismyname]

Just that really. I thought it was widely known that what you put out there is no longer yours.

Years ago (I'm talking dial up era before smart phones and social media) Friend of mines husband who works in tech showed me how with JUST my first name, surname and dob he was able via Internet to find

All my previous addresses (which includes several mod quarters)
Bank statements
Medical history
Academic info.

Took him about 2 hours.

At the time I was shocked. Now I think it's pointless worrying as the genie is out the bottle and putting it back in is like squeezing toothpaste back in the tube.

"social networks are a function of modern computer technology, they are an integral part of our lives, we ought to be able to use them to our benefit without being milked for data which the owners then turn into vast profits." And would you be prepared to pay for the privilege or do you think companies like Facebook and Twitter should be charities? Someone has to pay for them.

"monopoly on a public resource" but they're NOT a public resource, they're private companies providing something for basically entertainment purposes.

If you think retro media didn't do very similar you really are native.

Yes, Zuckerberg covers the camera.

Tech billionaires don't allow their kids on their products.

I was surprised yesterday when downloading Adobe Reader onto an Amazon Fire that it wanted permission to access my camera.

Why would Adobe reader need permission to access my camera?

Now Amazon is a fascinating company when it comes to data. Especially with the Echo now.

Why is the Fire and Echo so cheap? Rhetorical question

"Hence why my name changes every month or so"

What about your login info? Your ip address?

"Facebook is evil" yet you're on mn which is also sm, are you on Twitter? Sc? Whatsapp? Viber? Use a search engine, email? iMessage?

YANBU. People are idiots.

What I post online is fair game
I have no ideas what ads MN use as I use blockers

but why does FB scrape the phone numbers of all contacts on a users phone?

None of that involves me having people's personal details. It's just Facebook can put my advert on a particular page.

Once again, that's not the issue. The fact is that Facebook has all those people's personal details - and yours. Neither they nor you have any control over what Facebook does with them.

Hence why my name changes every month or so

That might stop me knowing everything about you, it doesn’t stop MN from knowing.

Many people seem to think that because they have set all the privacy settings their private information is safe.

I think this is perhaps why people were so shocked about the recent CA and FB saga. They trusted that their information was safe because they had set their account to private. It’s a bit like the emperors new clothes - we are told we have an privacy cloak to keep our data safe and we believe it but actually the wise people are tricking us and they can see everything.

Once again, that's not the issue. The fact is that Facebook has all those people's personal details - and yours. Neither they nor you have any control over what Facebook does with them

Companies have always had lots of personal details of people. Loads of details.

Look at what Tesco has had for ages. Your shopping habits reveal a lot. Look at the clubcard - and how easy it is to link the shop to a person.

There are rules over people's data. Rules over how it can be shared.

GDPR will have an interesting effect.

I think this is perhaps why people were so shocked about the recent CA and FB saga

Wasn't that to do with a quiz and when you filled it in, CA got the data that people agreed to share with them?

How many times have people filled in a quiz and posted their answer to Facebook?

Books people have read, countries they've been etc. Reveal a lot

I don't really care that much to be honest, I have turned my microphone access off though as them listening to my convos and adjusting the adds to that was just abit odd to me

I do think political advertising online needs to be looked at as there is a lot of potential for manipulation there - by getting specific messages to certain groups and potential for misleading people. There's also the fact that ads can cost very different amounts to reach people.

@kalapattar
you've still not addressed my point about FB scraping the phone numbers off a person's phone

when and where did any of us knowingly sign up for that bit ?
how is that part of us getting websites for free ?

Do you use Facebook messenger app talking?

Not on my phone. No.

Refusethelies I totally agree. I have nothing to hide and can't get worked up about the idea of my data being shared. If I get advertising for stuff as a result, I'm not going to buy something as a result unless it's something I actually need. People are so weird about their personal data, why do you think people are so interested in you? My phone number and email are in the public domain anyway, due to my business so what difference does it make?

Talkingpeace www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/08/09/how-did-facebook-get-my-number-and-why-is-it-giving-my-name-out/
Article on how they get numbers, have to register to read but the main part is this

“If you haven't given it to Facebook directly, the service can retrieve it from a variety of places, including the number stored in the phone or tablet that you're using, your mobile operator, or if you provided it at some point in the past.

Even if it doesn't have it from these sources, Facebook friends who have given the app access to their own contacts book may also have given it your number. Given that most of us have hundreds of friends on Facebook, the chances of this happening are pretty reasonable.”

People are so weird about their personal data, why do you think people are so interested in you?

Because you do not realise the footprint you leave on the net and soon it doesn't take much to gather a pretty accurate picture of you, simple ad blocker isn't going to do much

Facebook letting CA data mine is only one scenario, you do not who or what company in the future may be suddenly be interested in you.

The Nothing to fear, nothing to hide response is not something anyone should be championing.

@JustAnother Interested to know as you mentioned that you work for Google, how you manage your online privacy and if you use things like FB?

My first thought when I read this was no wonder they got the polls so wrong.

Well I am a raging hypocrite considering I work for them and currently have a Home, Home Max and a couple of mini's, glass etc, Google are obviously great!

I have never touched any of facebook (the company's) products (nothing wrong with facebook etc) turn of all location tracking, keep my phone clean of crappy apps limit permissions, never keep signed in to anything and a few other bits.

But the main thing is I know I am a product now online, its not the wild west on the net that it once was in the heady days, the cat is well and truly out the bag and as PP said it will not go back in the bottle, to many people and industries rely on it, someone has to pay for infrastructure and data storage and you only have to see even on this thread the amount of people who apparently are not swayed by adds that monetisation has to come from somewhere.

It's just a simple be aware, a previous poster rightly mentioned about adobe wanting access to their camera, yes it sounds clandestine and should be disabled unless you want to use the OCR and scanning functionality, now most people who are worried about that type of access have no problem with snapchat or any new app that suddenly becomes trendy or up and coming, they happily check in with facebook sign in or register across multiple sites with facebook or think that owning an apple product makes them somehow immune (hint apple have their own data analysis as well, and its not some fluffy middle class type either)

As for most tech billionaires not letting their kids touch social media or products etc is bullshit, they all run around with smart watches have home assistants smart tv's the lot, they are just taught to be more aware online get the most use out of tech as you can but be very aware that anyone could gain access to your data at any point in the future if the wind changes so be aware, and as I teach my DS that you should never treat privacy from the angle of I have nothing to hide so nothing to fear, because first they came for the ....

I have no idea why Facebook want the phone numbers of your contacts.

It's amazing how much of your data is out there and what it shows.

There is a fitness app where you can upload your data to the cloud. The company then released the routes people were running - as it could be seen from the GPS routes. Turns out the military use these apps when they do runs and a lot of secret bases were revealed.

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases

My first thought when I read this was no wonder they got the polls so wrong.

In what way?

If you talking about CA and facebook, they didn't data mine to try and swing votes it was targeted at an already receptive audience, then you have to get all the previous reports of the leave demographic re age and social media, then also add in the comparable "shy tory" effect, note im not saying brexit was a split down party political lines (only the stupid did that, mainly labour voters).

I am not excusing CA or Facebook, but most social media have been wrong for the past couple of GE's and brexit, this place exploded with "I've never even met a tory" in 2010 and again in 2015