On Wed, 26 Oct 2011, djs wrote: >> We can see the value in the free-to-us service provided by Facebook, >> but the cost is hidden. It's hidden well enough that I, an inveterate >> Facebooker, don't know what it is. Will I be sorry someday? What is >> going to happen to me? I see the advertisements and I guess that's >> part of the price I'm paying, but that doesn't bother me. Should it? >> It's like that with Google, too. >> >> I'm not poo-pooing the privacy issue. I really don't see what can go >> wrong for me, so I'm asking. > > The Facebook service collects thousands of pages of information about > each of her users. This blog post explains 22 privacy concerns from the > perspective of Irish law: www.identityblog.com/?p=1201 > > The main concerns, as I see the situation, is that Facebook tracks every > website you go to that has Facebook like/dislike buttons on it, even if > you don't click the buttons, using web cookies iirc. Also, all site > changes (privacy settings) opt-in users, so their account's privacy > settings change even if they haven't logged in due to being out of town > or similar. And that they never delete information even after you ask > them to, they only hide it from you. Like said in the video, "No KGB or > CIA ever had 1200 pages about an average citizen." (They do now.) It is unappealing to be tracked and to have information stored about me, but how will that information be used? They'll know something about web sites I visit, and maybe they'll tell the CIA. They'll know about my political attitudes and who my friends are. But then what? It seems to me that they'll try to use that information to present ads to me that I find attractive -- targetted advertising. Will that make me worse off or better off? How does the "number of pages" of information moderate the level of the supposed threat? Has anyone been harmed by Facebook yet? > As far as I can tell, Facebook doesn't provide a service that can't be > recreated relatively easily by someone with web programming skills. How many terabytes per day of digital information does Facebook organize, store and make instantly available in several billion page views per day to several hundred million users around the world with almost no downtime? I make it sound like a big deal, but I could have written Facebook in an afternoon with one hand tied behind my back. (Just kidding.) http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=468211193919 Mike