Facebook

[Comanche County]

I once made a facebook page for one reason alone, to get the phone number of an old friend. Then I deleted the page.

 

Since then, I started another one using one of my several Jeep web monikers to get updates from our local Jeep club. That is the only reason I'm on it. My friends are few and far between but they are all very real...I don't need or want 1000's of internet facebook "friends".

 

Now I get constant friend recommendations from former ex's and acquaintances that I don't communicate with at all. Nor do I want to....

 

Its kinda creepy. I'm becoming more paranoid about my online privacy. Now, I don't trust anything associated with google and facebook anymore.

 

 

Does anyone else get a "someone is looking over my shoulder right now" feeling.

[skidoo_j]

All the time. I even caution what I post on here. It seems every time someone does something bad the first thing the news broadcasts are publishing is what was on their facebook profiles and the internet. Whats worse yet is people are getting fired for stuff they post on facebook, even if it happened years ago.

[jvd]

I don't have an account and don't plan on it but I still get emails saying so and so wants to friend you. How is it possible I get facebook friend requests through email? Don't even know how people get my email address. Whatever guess I won't sweat it

[gogmorgo]

There's an invite form on Facebook. You plug in a name and email address, and it fires off an email.

Annoyingly enough, my experience is that the first person to invite you is the only person ever mentioned, and then subsequent invites only give the name of the first person who invites you. That means that the first person to invite me, a lab partner from my first year at UOIT who happens to be a relatively hardcore muslim and who hates me because I accidentally said something he understood to be anti-muslim to his face, is the only name I ever see. So either he's trying to contact me, or facebook is trying to make me curious enough to sign up.

[Keyav8r]

I got on it solely at the urging of my two adult daughters. I check it religiously, roughly once every three months or so. Should just delete it. Maybe it's a form of paranoia, but Google is really starting to creep me out, too. Remember, you're not paranoid if they really are out to get you!

[87Warrior]

I don't quite understand the privacy 'fear' so many have in regards to Facebook or the like. My theory is simple: don't put anything online you wouldn't want the entire world to see.

 

I also don't understand why so many people make a big deal out of deleting their 'page'. If you really want to delete it, just do it....no announcement necessary.

 

My views and opinions of Facebook are probably different than most as I signed up when it was first introduced at major universities. At that time it was more of a internet gathering place to share your interests with other folks. Just like CC is.

[Comanche County]

I'm kinda indifferent, I don't like or dislike facebook. I use it because its what the local Jeep club uses, and its quite handy. But its weird that even though I set the privacy settings as tight as I can, it still sends me friend recommendations half of whom happen to be or associated with my ex's. People I haven't contacted in a long time. I figure, somehow its reading my email addresses in my yahoo account and is pulling them in. Either that or its all on their end and is reading that they sent me emails, so I end up getting the recommendations anyway.

 

I haven't cleared firefox's history and cache in a while, maybe that's where its getting the info.

 

Besides for CC and a few other Jeep sites, I try to retain my digital anonymity. Maybe its just my slightly reclusive tendencies that makes it a little creepy for me.

[relyt120]

At least google monitors you for free, with apple you pay them loads of cash and then they track your every move! its sort of like employing your stalker.... :ack:

[terrawombat]

Depending on what you have in your Facebook profile, it'll use that information to find others you may know. Most of the time my recommended friends are people that went to the same high school as me, are around the same age, and we have some mutual friends - probably because I listed my high school in my profile at one point...

 

Facebook is also partnered with Datalogix - a site that basically keeps track of your entire life. This is likely why you see ads on Facebook that are for things you were recently browsing on Google or Amazon. If you want to opt out of that, look here: http://lifehacker.com/5843969/facebook-is-tracking-your-every-move-on-the-web-here's-how-to-stop-it

[Pete M]

I've grown to like facebook, mostly due to the aforementioned handyness. It's a great way to communicate with friends and family scattered across the country. Instead of sending out 50 emails, we can all simply post it. When someone local is having a bonfire, the whole group of us can communicate together to arrange who's bringing what, change the time, etc. rather than a bazillion text messages being thrown back and forth. Instead of opening an email from my family in georgia, then uploading 6 photos of my nephew, then opening them up in a viewing program, I can simply click and scroll. easy-cheezy. :D

Facebook is what you make of it. if you don't like people finding your name and hitting you up, simply block their access. If you don't like a certain individual's constant political rantings, you can block them from the news feed. If you don't like emails, block them too. if you don't like the games, don't play them (also you can block them). If you don't want a future employer knowing what you look like drunk in a pink tu-tu, don't post that particular photo. :rotf:

If anyone is rejecting it because they don't understand it, or they simply reject new things because they are popular, then I'm not sure I can help with that. :dunno: