zlacker

> Use of the platform is entirely voluntary

No it's not. Do you know Facebook creates shadow profiles of you by tracking your online activities?

Even if you discount that, what about when all your friends use Facebook? Then you are going to be forced into a situation where you either use Facebook or stay disconnected from you friends.

>>nialv7+(OP)
Do you know Facebook creates shadow profiles of you by tracking your online activities?

How would they do this if you never visit the site or download the app? If you're referring to the use of a pixel, compared to the full-fledge use of cookies used by other ad networks (the Gizmodo article from yesterday itself noticeably had ads all they way down the page based on sites I'd recently visited), surely that alone doesn't make FB evil relative to other advertisers?

what about when all your friends use Facebook? Then you are going to be forced into a situation where you either use Facebook or stay disconnected from you friends.

Why are you forced to use Facebook or be disconnected from your friends? You still have texts, email, Twitter and phones. I know a few people (admittedly not a lot) that refuse to use Facebook. They complain occasionally because they believe they are missing out on seeing photos or something, but nothing to the point where they are in the dark. I think the use of Facebook is a convenience and each person has to weigh their values against what they know Facebook does. But let's not elevate what Facebook does beyond the level of displaying ads for money and crossing ethical boundaries in some instances about what data they use to target those ads. Based on some comments you'd think they were proactively trying to destroy the world.

>>dkrich+v1
I am one of those few people. They're inconvencing the few people that refuse to use their service and generally making the world shittier. If something worse than facebook comes in mind, it's probably the Vogons or bedbugs. But what can one expect from a company that uses the f word as their logo?

>>dkrich+v1
> How would they do this if you never visit the site or download the app?

Your friends install the app on their device. They provide access to their contacts. FB slurps in all of that data. For every person in the user's contacts, FB compares that info to their records. They update connections where found, and start new records when not found. So they now know your name/email/phone number/physical address info depending on how detailed your friend's contact was about you. I haven't read anything if the user has added your picture in their contacts if that's something FB can read as well, so they could know what your face looks like. They are now tracking you, and you've at this point never joined FB. One day, you decide to join FB, and you're presented an option to connect with people FB thinks/knows you know. Oh, and now that you're a user, you don't get to see that info that they had been making on you before you signed up either.

To me, this is the most evil part of the scheme.

>>dylan6+C4
That’s not tracking web activity though. Also, why is google given a pass here? They use info gathered from my emails all over the place and that surely has more sensitive data than my Facebook account. What about amazon who has been reported to sell your purchasing data without your explicit consent to advertisers?

>>dkrich+v1
> How would they do this if you never visit the site or download the app?

Facebook SDK is used in more than 40% of mobile apps. Devs do it for analytics and ads. The feature is called Facebook Audience Network.

>>dkrich+h5
Granted, they aren't tracking your browser history, yet, in the manner I described. However, have you ever been to FB from a link? If so, you now have an FB cookie. Ever been to a website that has the FB like button, same thing. It's kind of like an STD. You don't know you have it, but it will follow everywhere. You can find out you have it, and try to take the appropriate actions, it'll just keep popping back up later in life. Now, they can track you anonymously. Whether they know it is you and link it to the shadow account they have or not, they still have data from a real person they can monetize. All without you having an account.

I'm definitely not giving Google a pass. I just didn't mention them ;-) Google Analytics, Fonts, whatever are just as bad, to me. I as an unsuspecting web user have my browser tracked from web developers using some free tools. I have no idea that it is occurring as a viewer. If a website puts in FB's like buttons, it is visible to me, and being in the know, I understand the repercussions of that site's decision. GA, Fonts, etc, are completely hidden from view. This is why I've used NoScript/Ghostery/etc throughout the years. It started with ads, but now I'm more concerned about these types of scripts.