Seeking advice: how do I tell friends and family about the negative aspects of Facebook without coming across as all “I don’t even own a TV” or “meat is murder”? Is that even possible?
It's not only Facebook though.
If you look for a restaurant at Google it will show you a link to that restaurant's website, opening hours, etc. but also: how popular the place is at any time, and how much time people spend there. All thanks to tracking phones.
In case of Google you can disable that in the phone's settings (and trust that opt-out works), but you can't really do that with your phone operator. Or with the apps that do the same but don't brag about it.
To answer your question directly: I showed a search result page to my friends, and showed them how to disable location tracking. Some were terrified, but - sadly - most of them didn't and don't mind being tracked.
> Some were terrified, but - sadly - most of them didn't and don't mind being tracked.
For those friends, I ask them if they can just carry this nickle of mine for me, it will track them and Ill know where they are if I need them. They all refuse to be tracked by me.
Then I ask them if they want a raspberry pi or a router from me, with ads blocked and personal access to my virtual private network with access to all my movies music etc, but dont worry of course _I_ will see every domain-name your computers lookup, Ill even warn you, friend, if I notice bad-name lookups, and I pinky promise not to remotely access the router.
They all act like I am a creep and refuse. But, google, an entity they dont even know or have a relationship with - thats fine to let them into their house and know what time they watch porn and how long.
When the surveillence is put into context like this, it usually works, friends smirk and think one more time.
>an entity they dont even know or have a relationship with
That's the important point. Google and Facebook don't give a shit about me. I'm one of many data points, in a vat with hundreds of millions of other people.
How many people will search Google for porn, sometimes really embarrassing stuff? And no one cares. Google certainly doesn't care. But you'd find less people asking their friends for porn or sharing their porn preferences with their friends, because my friend can and likely will judge me for it. But Google doesn't give a shit. Google's not going to tell my other friends how weird I am.
Google and Facebook, will stab you in the back without blinking, to them you area nothing but a number, and sell out your data faster than your friend will.
Even further, Google and Facebook, will drown you in ads and manipulate your mind, sneak in "features" and change your privacy-settings, while your friend will help you avoid it.
You do make a valid point, how low we have sunk, that people will actually trust a company over their own friends. That people would trust a company with "personalization" everywhere, yet believe they can hide in the masses. If they can give you a personal feed, they know you exactly you not an anonymous mass.
> Google and Facebook don't give a shit about me.
They dont give a shit, they are not your friend, and you cant hide behind a number or massive data, their whole game is figuring out the massive data points. Sayin you will hide behind the masses is saying you will be nobody, you will not have anything to say. Thats hard.
I'm not sure the negative aspects are considered that bad, even by people who know about them. I really think techie sites just have an overrepresentation of online privacy advocates that steer conversations in that direction.
I think you'll have trouble not coming across that way because it almost inherently suggests your values (importance of the privacy of your data) are better than theirs (enjoying Facebook and that it is free).
This is the truth. The average person does not care about data mining. It's a non-issue for them. And no, it's not a matter of intelligence, or that they need to be educated on the matter. Leave them be. Ignorance is bliss - in a positive sense.
If you're going to teach others anything about the perils of the internet, focus on the truly serious things: how to avoid phishing scams targeting bank accounts, fake virus warnings, etc. Everything else sounds like tinfoil hat material because, for most people, that's pretty much what it is.
I've had a lot of people ask me if Facebook is listening in on the microphone on their phones - because they've been discussing something offline and then started seeing ads for it. Of course, maybe they've searched for it and then forgotten about it - but it's becoming a common topic of conversation.
Likewise, retargetted adverts are getting noticed more and more - people often tell me that they find it extremely creepy and annoying.
So there is a growing awareness out there ... it's just not reached a point where people want to take action yet.
instead of deleting my account, i wrote an email which i bcc’d to my “real” friends: i’m deleting our facebook friendship, i love you and expect we can stay in touch just fine without.
then i deleted all my fb connections, and left a public account with no friends and a publi message about how to find me.
if i want to spam a post to my people, i use the bcc email
