Good for you. Your experience isn’t universal, however. The only reason I have a (fake) Facebook account is because it was required for various apps and web account log ins. (Sometimes Twitter or some other identity is accepted, but occasionally only Facebook is.)
Good for you. In my world, not so much. Which is why I have a Facebook account that’s not actually operating as a Facebook account.
Except then you are required to log out of that account, and log in to your real Facebook account, if you ever want to actually use Facebook.
And sadly, I am not at all surprised to find that an article filled with FUD has been posted here by Cory. Cory, I love you as an author, but as a blog poster you are really struggling, lately.
And, if distance and time permits - one can meet one’s friends in…gasp…person!
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I did long ago.
However, combined with the vulnerabilities in facebook connect Egor Homakov: Two "WontFix" vulnerabilities in Facebook Connect?? this starts to be more worthy of attention.
It’d be nice if this had something approaching a believable source.
“A picture on twitter” doesn’t cut it.
I’ll believe it when there’s some evidence.
@mattandrews @controla @claylo
Really? Three brand new accounts to agree with each other? Real subtle, guys. Someone at Facebook must be scared.
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NO. FUCKING. SHIT.
^c’mon… I used an adjective and everything, comments system!
The default is that this information is shared and most users don’t dick around in the settings.
20th Century Fox are takedowny assholes.
Having worked for corporate America, I am always amused at the hype about OMG they know your favorite books.Having worked at the top of corporate America (we started Capital One), I can tell you that many shitty people in corporate America simply **love** your apathy. It really works in their favor when trying to infiltrate peaceful activists, etc. when people that "have nothing to hide" sit on their hands. I wonder how much you'd like it if I decide to check out your bank account info tonight? I mean, I just want to see if you can afford my giant squid posters. M'kay?
Congrats, you made some shitty people happy.
I prefer the alternate solution of not using facebook. If people want to know what I'm up to, they can call me. If I want to know what they are up to, I call them.
Budda boom, budda bing. Problem solved.
I’m pretty sure it actually pops up a dialog saying “Site X would like access to the following information. Will you allow it?”
Now, that won’t stop the vast majority of people from ignoring the message and just clicking OK, but I always click the “Skip” button when I see that popup (though, I will always choose a method other than “sign in with Facebook” if it’s offered).
I don’t mean I don’t have anything to hide. I’m human. I just don’t believe most places have the resources to find it.
I mean, yes, Target has apparently learned how to predict when people are having a baby based on their search histories, so obviously someone there can put two and two together, and Netflix seems to have some market research going on there, but most of the places I’ve worked, it seems like just getting their databases functional just for their employees to be able to have access to the work they need to do is an overwhelming task. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m shocked that computers work at all or shocked at how much time I spend each day trying to get basic computer things done even with the smart cookies I work with. I mean, at my office, the hours and hours we spend trying to figure out how to share files in formats everyone should be able read is absurd. So, yes, I do question whether anyone could download all the information from Facebook, compile it in to anything useful for their business, and then get someone up at the top involved enough to do something ruthless with that data. Maybe I shouldn’t put so much faith into corporate computer idiocy - the mention of Capital One sends shivers down my spine. I hate banks (even though most of them are still running the core of their business on IBM mainframes).
So, yes, I do question whether anyone could download all the information from Facebook, compile it in to anything useful for their business, and then get someone up at the top involved enough to do something ruthless with that data.
That would take a lot of money… resources… and probably some kind of huge building to house vast supercomputers… here’s an artistic 3D rendering I’ve made of what I’d think it’d look like:
Now we just need to pretend there’s the potential for some corrupt people that control it and also work in that damn thing. Maybe some people that would love to have access to communications, banks accounts, the loves and desires of people they want to control, steal from, subvert, silence protect.
I mean, the damn thing wouldn’t be worth a shit for wide dragnets becaue of the overwhelming amount of useless data, but it’d sure be helpful in targeting specific undesirables people that challenge the status quo.
The best defense is not to strive towards anything that can bring attention to yourself. Don’t complain too much about how things are whether you think it’s fair or not.
And, sure as hell don’t organzine with more than 2 people to complain publicly about the status quo or organize a labor type thing because that’ll stick out like a sore thumb and stand out from the noise.
Just stare at your shoes, blend into the noise and you’ll be OK. As a matter of fact, be as mediocre as humanly possible. But, maybe not too mediocre, because that could trigger alarms as well.
the mention of Capital One sends shivers down my spine.All I can say is that it should. It should. Even if you've never even touched a Capital One credit card. Unlike crazies like that nutjob Edward Snowden, I value my freedom so I'm just going to get back in line and blend back in within the safe noise.
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Of course, going back to the article that we’re discussing: I don’t usually use “Login with Facebook” to login to the NSA’s web pages. So they’re going to have to get my Facebook data some other way. 
So they’re going to have to get my Facebook data some other way.
Anal probe?
Well, they’d better buy me a drink first.
They will, but the drink will be Sodium Pentathol.
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