Poll: Poll: Have you deleted your Facebook account since the scandal?

[Rifte]

A lot of people seem to think that the only "personal data" facebook have is the stuff they have uploaded.
I doubt facebook really cares about the pictures of your pets or you sharing a picture of a funny meme.

Have you looked around the Overclockers shop site recently? Facebook knows that. It knows which products you've looked at and for how long. It knows which links you've clicked on to get there.
Same goes for most other sites you'll visit. (but, as far as I can see, it doesn't know which forum threads you've clicked on )
That is the personal data which is valuable to facebook. Knowing your browsing history, searches, products you look at, etc.

Serious question......should I be concerned about this? My gut feeling is no.

What can they do with this information apart from spam me with advertising that I am under no obligation to take into consideration? Again serious question

As far as I am aware I am not doing anything illegal (no kiddie porn or bomb making guides here), so digitally take whatever the hell they want from my online escapades. Trust me....I ain't that interesting.

I see it as a digital tesco clubcard.

Am I a tech Neanderthal who does not understand what the implications are of what FB is doing or am I right in believing that FB isnt some big conspiracy theory that wants to control my life?

 

[touch]

Serious question......should I be concerned about this? My gut feeling is no.

It's up to you whether or not you're concerned by it - I can't answer for you.

What can they do with this information apart from spam me with advertising that I am under no obligation to take into consideration?

Profiling you based on your browsing habits means things can be very specifically targeted at you. That could be advertising products, as you say, which you could easily ignore/not buy.
It could also be targeted political campaigns to influence your opinions. Specifically targeting news articles at you they they know you'll have an interest in. Doesnt have to be 'fake news' or made up articles, but real articles specifically chosen to show you one specific view on a topic.
Would you even know if you had been targeted like this?
Are you sure that your opinions have been formed through your own balanced research and not manipulated through targeted use of information (and/or misinformation)?

 

[Rifte]

It's up to you whether or not you're concerned by it - I can't answer for you.


Profiling you based on your browsing habits means things can be very specifically targeted at you. That could be advertising products, as you say, which you could easily ignore/not buy.
It could also be targeted political campaigns to influence your opinions. Specifically targeting news articles at you they they know you'll have an interest in. Doesnt have to be 'fake news' or made up articles, but real articles specifically chosen to show you one specific view on a topic.
Would you even know if you had been targeted like this?
Are you sure that your opinions have been formed through your own balanced research and not manipulated through targeted use of information (and/or misinformation)?

If this is the extent of it (and I suppose we do not know for sure), I have zero concern over what information is harvested or not.

In respect of if I have been targeted by propaganda material or not, you are right I suppose I would never know. However I do know my own mind, and I know that information circumvented on facebook has a high probability of being BS, and if it does turn out to be true it doesn't matter what my political persuasion is because its kind of hard to discount the truth.

My honest view on all of this is that it is smoke without a fire, I do not see the upset with targeted advertising or news, and if people are getting upset because FB has stored data with pictures of their kids etc on holiday or old status updates then I have zero compassion. If you dont want it out there, dont upload it.....simples....

 

[touch]

I know that information circumvented on facebook has a high probability of being BS, and if it does turn out to be true it doesn't matter what my political persuasion is because its kind of hard to discount the truth.

It wouldn't need to be made up articles. Just specific articles targeted at you. There's often 2 sides to a story, and there's often some truth on both sides. It could be easy to research the facts that are given and try to verify them. It might be much more difficult to find out if other parts of the truth had been omitted in an attempt to skew your opinion.

For example, say you had been considering voting to leave EU in the Brexit campaign.
They would know your age, gender, profession, hobbies, etc and then could target pro-EU articles at you which specifically appeal to your demographic and therefor have the biggest impact on you.
You'd never know if this was the case and (I think) it would be very difficult to know if you had formed your opinions based on these targeted articles or a balanced view of many articles.

I do know my own mind

IMO, that's the most dangerous part. If you have been influenced by some sort of targeted campaign but you firmly believe that you have freely formed your own opinions, that's a huge amount of control someone has over you.

 

[easyrider]

In respect of if I have been targeted by propaganda material or not, you are right I suppose I would never know. However I do know my own mind.

You know how advertising works right?

It works at a subliminal level.

https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/subliminal-advertising

I mean at the end of the day would any Lucid American actually vote for Trump without manipulation

Some would say yes...But I highly doubt it. Trump bought his ticket into the white house...Perfect example of the bourgeoisie manipulating the proletariat.

Capitalism winning the war on peoples freedom literally! (the wall of Mexico )

 

[Rifte]

IMO, that's the most dangerous part. If you have been influenced by some sort of targeted campaign but you firmly believe that you have freely formed your own opinions, that's a huge amount of control someone has over you.

You know how advertising works right?

It works at a subliminal level.

https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/subliminal-advertising

If this is the case its impossible to determine impact or not I suppose, because there is no way to measure cause and effect.

A trump supporter isnt going to say that he or she voted that way because of some FB advert etc.

"I was going to vote for Hilary, then I saw an advert on FB about those pesky Mexicans and decided that Trump was the right guy" (extreme to make the point)

Why did I buy a Mercedes? Was it because of some Mercedes Benz advert that was shoved down my throat, or was it because I made a reasoned argument with the pros and cons against other 'premium' vehicles? I would say the latter.

Why did I vote Conservative? Was it because of some anti Corbyn propaganda or was it because I believed at the time it was the right fit for the UK? Again I would say the latter.

Again though, impossible to measure, if this is all to be believed.

My assumption is this....to propose that my actions and decisions are decided by some super corporation sounds like the script of 'They Live' and too tin foil hat like for my liking.

 

[touch]

If this is the case its impossible to determine impact or not I suppose, because there is no way to measure cause and effect.

On an individual level, no. You wouldn't be able to determine which individuals were swayed by your targeted marketing.
On a large scale, looking at statistics, it's very easy to do and people do it all the time.
I've just done something similar myself. I replaced a static image on the front page of a website with a video. The original image was randomly displayed to around 50% of customers and the video displayed to the other 50% for a month to test the success rate.
I know the historical average conversion rate and after running my test for a month, I can see that this historical rate remained the same for the customers who saw the static image and increased in those who were displayed the video.
I can't identify which individual customers were convinced to buy a product by seeing the video (and they probably dont know it themselves), but statistically, I know it did have an effect on some people.

My assumption is this....to propose that my actions and decisions are decided by some super corporation sounds like the script of 'They Live' and too tin foil hat like for my liking.

I don't think your actions are 'decided' by the various marketing you see, but I do think it has an effect.

 

[A2Z]

Where is the option for 'deleted already'. Deleted mine years ago, so useless.

 

[The_Abyss]

I don't think your actions are 'decided' by the various marketing you see, but I do think it has an effect.

I believe that the goal of the targeted recent political campaigns on Facebook and other social media sites was not to try and sway a vote from one position to another, it was to attempt to reinforce the views you already held and try and stimulate you to become an advocate of those views and amplify them yourself to others.

 

[TeraVirus]

Social media has its benefits which I take advantage of - free access to information and updates from companies I care about. I can easily see what friends are getting up to, now that most of them live all across the world and not have to foot an expensive phone bill every month or fly out every so often to talk/see them.

I'm willing to bet most of our data has been mishandled long before Facebook was a thing, there's not much that can be done about it.

 

[easyrider]

Why did I vote Conservative?

I have no idea...

 

[GGizmo]

If you're getting something for free and don't think there is a catch to it then... I'm a nigerian prince give me money now! lol

 

[easyrider]

If you're getting something for free and don't think there is a catch to it then... I'm a nigerian prince give me money now! lol

I don't think people are unaware of how the FB model works. But they do have a right to know what is happening to their data...

Especially when it comes to third parties not connected with FB.

 

[Rifte]

I don't think people are unaware of how the FB model works. But they do have a right to know what is happening to their data...

Especially when it comes to third parties not connected with FB.

I agree with this, I think a lot of people are ignorant of the digital footprint that they leave on the internet.

I was always under the impression that whatever I do leaves a trace, and I was from very early on after I got access to the net.

However if we should be concerned about it, is completely subjective.

Personally I am not concerned at all. I do not do anything illegal, and I am a huge skeptic of the impact of 'big brother'.

I do use a VPN, this is isn't to hide my identity, its just so I can access content when I am outside of the UK or US which is like 95% of the time. The fact that it hides my IP address is just the technical means that allows me to do it.

If there was a file on me that stored the data that is held on my online presence, would I be interested? Sure as a matter of interest, would I be concerned? 100% not.

I believe that the goal of the targeted recent political campaigns on Facebook and other social media sites was not to try and sway a vote from one position to another, it was to attempt to reinforce the views you already held and try and stimulate you to become an advocate of those views and amplify them yourself to others.

This is a very interesting take on it, and I never saw it from this perspective before.

 

[martin363]

Well as far as we know they don't, that's the point. Given you don't have anything to the contrary then what is the issue?

This is about a lot more than just how and what the data is used for, it is also about what data they are collecting in the first place, a lot lot more than most of us were led to believe. there is a big issue with transparency, visibility, control and use. some people are obviously fine with that, others are not.

I am not, so I exercise the only choice and control I actually believe I have, which is to delete and add no further data to this platform.

 

[GGizmo]

I don't think people are unaware of how the FB model works. But they do have a right to know what is happening to their data...

Especially when it comes to third parties not connected with FB.

Generally I agree with you. But I think people have been lulled in to a false sense of security when it comes to the Internet. It's never been a safe place and people should be wary of everything. The interesting thing is if you are filming in public someone might feel threatened that they think you're filming them. But online they are being tracked all over the place.

By the way, as anyone seen this app that is supposed to tell us if we've been compromised? I've not seen it yet.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Where is the vote for "Never Had One"?!

I've never had the need nor desire to splash every detail of my day to day existence to the world I can't think of anything more boring. I'm also well aware of FB selling your data to absolutely anyone who might be remotely interested can't imagine why anyone would willingly sign over their privacy.

 

[Talasour]

My news feed is pretty much filled with people bragging about their lives or just general **** posting so I don't normally check it and only have an account for the messenger so I can talk to friends.

 

[dowie]

This is about a lot more than just how and what the data is used for, it is also about what data they are collecting in the first place, a lot lot more than most of us were led to believe. there is a big issue with transparency, visibility, control and use. some people are obviously fine with that, others are not.

I am not, so I exercise the only choice and control I actually believe I have, which is to delete and add no further data to this platform.

Do you use google or have a gmail account?

 

[RetiredGreyFox]

Where is the vote for "Never Had One"?!

I've never had the need nor desire to splash every detail of my day to day existence to the world I can't think of anything more boring.

Wierd, I've never done that in all the years I've been on it.
Do you know how it works?
I'm a member of many 'forums' on there discussing different things and also have my own pages based around music.
It isn't mandatory to tell people what you eat.