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< | [DE]VALUING FACEBOOK?: How to Change People's Perspective and Preferences [REVISION] | >
> | (DE)VALUING FACEBOOK?: How to Change People's Perspective and Preferences [REVISION] | | | -- By DavidKorvin - 21 Dec 2012 | | | Therefore, I feel that the most powerful action I can take is to get friends of mine to try Diaspora*, and I think that the best way for me to initially convince them to do so is to remind them that joining is costless and there is only upside in trying it as an alternative to Facebook. | |
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< | Why Do I Continue to Have a Facebook Account? | >
> | There is No Question that Facebook Does a Terrible Job Protecting One’s Privacy | | | | |
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< | I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that even after taking this class, and knowing what the government does with my information, that I continue to have a Facebook account. I have not posted any new information on it in over a year, yet I go on the website nearly every day, mostly just to see what other people are up to. | >
> | Another way that I can try to convince friends that they are better off leaving Facebook is to underscore the huge privacy shortcoming of the platform with them. Many of my friends are currently in law school, and I think it is fair to say that we are all very concerned with our reputations- both professional and personal- moving forward. One of the major problems with Facebook is that it puts a user’s information into a centralized database, and once it enters this database it is no longer under the exclusive control of that user; this, in effect, serves to disempower Facebook users. On the other hand, platforms such as Diaspora* allow for secure sharing without central monitoring or storage. | | | | |
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< | Do you not understand
that your access to everything there is also monitored and
data-mined? Of the four streams (what you publish, what you access,
what others publish that relates to you, what others access that
relates to you) what you publish is by far the least important. What
you publish is mostly just a point on a graph, where the other
streams always contain lines of connection, links between people,
which are the raw material of intelligence.
Also, going on Facebook is one of the main ways that I am able to plan seeing a group of friends because most of the parties I get invited to are through the Facebook platform. Thus, though I do not really want to be on Facebook, I feel obligated to do so in order to maintain- and perhaps even expand- my current social status. I feel that I would quit Facebook if all of my friends did, but because I know they will not quit Facebook, I know I will continue to have a profile.
This is a conclusion
jumped to without technical justification. Replacement social
networking software, that provided a way for you to share only with
your actual friends, without putting all your information in
centralized databases where access to it can be monitored by the
central pseudo-friend, needs a migration architecture. You have to
be able to move to secure sharing without central monitoring or
storage without losing touch with your friends as all of you migrate
on different schedules, to different extents, picking up other
federated and centralized friends and acquaintances as you
go.
Facebook's primary lie to its investors has been the one you are now
parroting about yourself: "We're a roach motel; people can come in
but then they can't leave because they'd be leaving their friends."
Smart people who want to solve this problem aren't likely to have
overlooked that part of the story, right? Before you come to the
conclusion you reach here, and buy all the political disempowerment
involved, you might want to learn a little bit about what other
people think who are thinking ahead of you. To begin with, you might
want to join somewhat under 37,000 other people at my
[[http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQOEMv0S8AcA][Freedom in the
Cloud]] talk, and then look a little into
Diaspora. | >
> | Because we are so concerned with our reputations, I believe that data mining poses a real threat to us. (Of course, data mining has an impact on everyone, but in this essay I am attempting to explore how I can make a difference, and for better and for worst, most of the people I interact with on a daily basis are aspiring lawyers.) Facebook not only tracks what I individually publish, but also what I access, what others publish that relates to me, what others access that relates to me. I think that most people are well aware of the first track, but that they are much less aware of the latter three methods Facebook uses to track users. | | | | |
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> | In my circle of friends, I think I can help nudge friends away from Facebook by clearly delineating ALL the methods Facebook employs to track its users, and how these methods constrict one’s freedom in a way that is absolutely impermissible when there are alternative options out there. I am quite certain that not one of my friends would feel comfortable using Facebook if they knew all of the devastating short- and long-term damages that Facebook imposes upon its users; the more I think about it, the more I feel it is my obligation to inform them about this harm. | | | | |
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< | Does this mean that I value my ability to maintain friendships more than my privacy? To be honest, I am not sure if I know the answer to this question. However, I do know that because I have never felt the effect of Facebook limiting my privacy, I have never felt the need to quit cold turkey. Additionally, I have trouble seeing how the government could use the content that I choose to put on Facebook to restrict my privacy and freedom in a harmful way in the future. I am aware that the government “knowing everything about everyone everywhere” creates a problem for society as a whole, but I am unclear (perhaps naively) of how it affects me individually. | | | Conclusion | |
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< | The last thing I wonder is what would happen if the United States government publicly announced that it used Facebook as a surveillance mechanism? Even if this were the case, I think I would still use Facebook, but I would put even less material on it; for example I would take down all my pictures and be much more selective in deciding who I friend on Facebook. Because I do not egregious things, I do not feel there would be any consequence from this announcement.
However, I do know, if Facebook started charging money, I would stop using it almost immediately. |
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