Facebook and privacy

This video says about itself:

27 Sep 2011

An Australian computer expert has raised Facebook privacy concerns, after discovering the website is able to track your web activities.

Editorial of weekly The Observer in Britain:

You think Facebook is free? Well, it’ll only cost you your private life

Digital behemoths have perfected surveillance as a business model

Sunday 29 December 2013

An extensive European study last week found that Facebook was “dead and buried to teenagers” as the young sought refuge in messaging apps such as Snapchat and Whatsapp, away from the prying eyes of their parents. What could be worse than to be digitally stalked by parents, aunts and uncles? Teenagers want their privacy back.

But the real danger to Facebook – and other digital behemoths that make money from our data and content – is what will happen when the grown-ups decide they want their privacy back too. As John Naughton makes plain on other pages today, these companies have perfected surveillance as a business model. They spy on us for commercial gain. For now, the grown-ups don’t seem worried. They should listen to their kids.

Lured by “free” services on the internet, we click through to a digital emporium where we sacrifice our privacy. Every click, message and electronic trail is mined for profit. Every digital stroke makes money for them. The more time that you spend, the more money they make. There is little they don’t know, almost nowhere they can’t follow and nothing they can’t tell about your digital life.

As Naughton says: “The implication is that privacy is a transactional good – something you own and that can be traded.” This data – our electronic imprint – is feasted on by commercial companies and by governments, as the Snowden revelations made clear. Bulk collection of data on this scale in the public and private sphere threatens democratic values and infringes human rights.

The net has effectively been captured. Government spying agencies on the one hand and Facebook and Google on the other are warehousing our data, mining our lives and minting theirs. Teenagers have decided that this infofest offers them too little protection from their parents.

How long before grown-ups decide that data-rich, digital anarchy also offers too little protection to them?

See also on Facebook and privacy: here.

Facebook is accused of reading private messages and selling data: here. See also here.

Facebook purposefully adjusted over 700,000 people?s news feeds to see if it could manipulate their emotions — it could.

Facebook conducts emotion experiments linked to military research on political opposition: here.

The British government requested that Facebook release information on over 2,500 users in a six month period, the social media titan admitted yesterday.

It’s not just governments. Companies such as Google and Facebook spy on us too. We have clicked through to their ‘free’ digital services at the cost of sacrificing our privacy. So how do we get out? Here.

Facebook accused of spying on Belgian citizens like the NSA. Data regulator’s opening volley in privacy lawsuit claims Facebook is contucting NSA-like snooping on citizens declaring that Belgium shouldn’t be intimidated: here.

WANT TO BE CREEPED OUT? Read each of the 98 “personal data points” Facebook uses to find those ads that know exactly what you’re shopping for. [WaPo]

HOW TO FIGURE OUT WHAT FACEBOOK THINKS YOUR POLITICAL BELIEFS ARE It’s all so they can better target you for ads. [NYT]

The National Security Agency scandal exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden has cost American technology companies billions of dollars in lost revenue as governments and companies in its important export markets of Asia refuse to entrust the handling of sensitive data to US companies: here.

Hey Windows users: ya know how you get error/crash messages every so often? NSA has a unit to use those to track you: here.

NSA reportedly intercepting laptops purchased online to install spy malware: here.

The insert method and other variants of QUANTUM are closely linked to a shadow network operated by the NSA alongside the Internet, with its own, well-hidden infrastructure comprised of “covert” routers and servers. It appears the NSA also incorporates routers and servers from non-NSA networks into its covert network by infecting these networks with “implants” that then allow the government hackers to control the computers remotely. (Click here to read a related article on the NSA’s “implants”.): here.

NSA ‘hacking unit’ infiltrates computers around the world – report here.

Related articles

• Facebook “dead and buried” for Europe’s teenagers, says new report (digitaltrends.com)
• Facebook popularity has tanked among teens, latest study shows (slashgear.com)
• Facebook ‘dead and buried for older teens’: Study (dnaindia.com)
• Parents Have Entered Facebook and the Millennials are Fleeing (digitaljungle.com.cn)
• Study finds Facebook to be ‘dead and buried’ (theage.com.au)
• Facebook ‘basically dead and buried’ among teens, as their parents increasingly embrace it: study (news.nationalpost.com)
• Infographic: Everything you need to know about privacy on Facebook (insidefacebook.com)