People are in a rush to delete their Facebook page!

[imanamerican63]

They doing exactly what Putin wants! Chaos and fear to interrupt the way we live. Don't get me wrong, I worried about my info being in the hands of those who used it to help Trump, but we also have to fight back! If you delete fb, you're giving into the chaos?

[Kilgore]

1. No you are regaining control of your privacy.

[eShirl]

2. facebook sucks

I guarantee there is life after facebook. Don't be afraid.

[el_bryanto]

3. No - I can't do it! I'm too afraid - the idea of life without face book . . .

It's terrifying.

Bryant

[DrDan]

9. don't use it . . . pretty simple . .

[FSogol]

4. Here you go, step 1: Admit you are powerless over Facebook that your life is unmanageable

[Sunsky]

5. Facebook addiction is a real thing nt

[pwb]

6. I don't blame them.

I tried it for about 3 months and deleted. Too many people knowing too much about my family. And now Russian bots and spies and
and political lies? What for? Twitter seems worse with our pig president ranting hourly. i prefer the old form of communication, talking. Being on this media is what Putin wants, not getting off it. We differ in that regard.

[Anon-C]

7. Loll! People's mental and emotional well being will skyrocket without FB!

What can happen with less crass materialism, less lookism, less fear of missing out, less tribalism...chaos indeed.

[TubbersUK]

8. For me, it would feel like I was conceding the field to the Trumpsters & crazy Brexiters etc.

So I'm sticking with it.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Same here.

[eShirl]

16. Kinda the opposite, actually.

Have fun.

[TubbersUK]

18. In what way 'kinda the opposite' ? n/t

[LeftishBrit]

10. I am using FB a bit more carefully, but still use it

I have always been somewhat careful about what I post on Facebook, and never regarded it as fully private: my general rule has always been that if I'd be scared of my bosses seeing it, then I shouldn't post it. But it hadn't occurred to me that participating in 'fun quizzes' and tests could result in data harvesting. Apparently they were a very key part of it! I used occasionally to do such quizzes. Now I won't any more, and will advise others not to do so.

I didn't stop making phone calls because of phone-tapping scandals. I didn't stop using the Internet because of hacking scandals. I think that FB have been very irresponsible in not checking how they've been used, but that the big problem is laws and policing have not kept up with the capacity of individuals and companies to engage in such data harvesting. Yes, there are tougher data protection laws, but they have not been applied properly to new types of organization or to media quite generally speaking: medical practices and hospitals, I am happy to say, do seem to take data protection seriously, with occasional slip-ups; newspapers don't, let alone more modern media organizations, and the laws are rather toothless.

[imanamerican63]

12. Me too!

I use it to connect with friends and I stay away from others who post things!

[WePurrsevere]

30. Yes, this! I've been using the internet quite 'regularly' since '92 and...

on social public media like AOL, Prodigy, GEnie, forums like DU, Twitter, Facebook, etc and I've never used my full real name or location where the public might see it. I also use different user names for different things and most of my family is much the same. I've always been very cautious (even leaning towards paranoid) about what I put out on the web and protective of my privacy. My internet philosophy is, Don't put your whole life or anything online that you don't want potentially seen by millions who are NOT necessarily your friend. I also use whatever programs and controls I can to maintain that as much as possible.

The news that people's info was used like this shouldn't be as surprising as some make it seem. Was what CA and some upper idiots on FB allowed wrong? Heck, yeah but the fact that people's activity is being tracked shouldn't be all that surprising nor should the fact that a company used information they garnered to manipulate people into 'buying' a 'product' (in this case Trump). I'm actually more surprised, and dismayed, that people are so surprised. It just feels a bit too much like it's being blown up into something a lot more than it is and that makes me question why and who/what is behind it.

IMO the main take away from this shouldn't just be that 'Facebook sucks' (it does in some ways so I use it reluctantly & with caution). It seems to me that the better thing to learn from this should be that people need to protect their OWN privacy better and stop relying on corporations, who need to watch the bottom line, to do so for them. It should also be a reminder that, if you're on the internet, use a credit card, store discount card and/or don't live under a rock, your privacy is at risk and corporations, politicians, gov, etc are going to try to manipulate you in some way or another, so take steps to protect yourself as much as you realistically can.

[LeftInTX]

34. I never did anything that asked for my contacts...I draw the line there

But I need to get rid of some "friends". I think people want to be your friend just to see what you are posting and to see who your friends are. I'm not worried about my privacy or being the target of ads as much as I am more concerned about gullible friends being lured by it.

[samnsara]

13. im not deleting.. isnt this like closing the barn gate after the horse escaped?

...just be careful what you post there. i dont go on it except maybe once a week to check a craft site but im amazed what ppl post on there..including that they are GONE from their house on vacation.. where the kids are...blah blah. PPl just need to be more careful. use Fb..stay in touch with family.. but if you post extra sensitive stuff on there you may see it in places you didnt expect.

[hexola]

14. I started by Unfollowing everyone!

That made it much better - now all I see are my groups - with mostly anonymous people.

Im going to slowly remove all my content - and move my groups back to www

And leave a basic profile with tracks back to my www/web presence.

[Rollo]

15. From the start a few years ago, I locked down my FB account...

Made my private info avail to friends only, little to nothing is Public.

However at the time I didn't know that apps like Cambridge Analytica used could use a friend's access to my info and get at it anyway. So I'm planning on deleting a lot of the photos, videos, etc. that I don't want to go to the bots. A little late, but at least it will leave me with a FB account.

I recall a lot of those quizzes showing up on friends' or my feeds, and I occasionally would try one. Now I know that those are data gathering ploys as well.

About a year ago I kept on getting "follow" requests from Zuckerberg. I kept on hiding them, they kept on coming. Finally I reported it as harassment and they finally stopped.

[Kentonio]

22. Ask yourself this..

Who actually cares about your photographs and videos? Facebook have something like 2 billion users all posting their family pics and sharing aspects of their lives. There's a value to some personal information for political campaigning and there's certainly a value for advertizers, but photos and video? No-one actually cares other than you and your close friends/associates.

Or to put it another way, what kind of photo could someone find on your Facebook that would be any different to a million other publicly available photos people could find by opening google, switching to images and typing 'man/woman with kids and cat' or whatever?

[Rollo]

23. There are also notations and comments associated with said photos and videos

You and I might not care, but the FB robot apps might care, using that info to form a profile. You heard the CA worker describe what they do: compile all that data to find a weakness and then exploit it.

[Kentonio]

25. Sure, but you can get that stuff from posts just as easily.

My point is that photos and videos themselves have no inherent value to anyone trawling for data. But people tend to consider them something that particularly needs protection, because we consider them as particularly personal.

[AJT]

26. Companies have used data, including photos, from Facebook to judge

whether or not to hire someone.

[Kentonio]

31. Absolutely, and I'd encourage anyone on Facebook to keep their profiles private.

In terms of big data collection programs though, someone's pictures really aren't relevant.

[DonaldsRump]

27. Burglars, for one?

I thought putting photos showing that you are currently away from home is something criminals look for.

Facial recognition software, which is increasingly more common, is one commercial way that FB and others can commercially exploit pix/vids.

I am sure there are others.

[Kentonio]

32. No-one should leave their profile public, so burglars really shouldn't be an issue.

I'm not sure how exactly facial recognition software could commercially exploit your photos. I can see its use for law enforcement for instance for linking contacts of people who hang out together, but there are probably a lot easire methods in most cases.

[DonaldsRump]

37. An old example about monetizing facial recognition from 2015

This was the first thing that popped up during a search: https://www.wired.com/2015/09/tech-firms-make-lots-money-off-faceheres/

I am sure it is much worse in 2018.

You do understand that hotels, restaurants etc. now have the ability to spot you when you enter their premises and know a lot about you since their cameras have facial recognition? I'm no expert, but I am certain that there is a financial reason for allowing pix and videos.

I think all of us need to understand that the ONLY reason Facebook etc. hosts pix and video is that they can make cash off of it.

[Kentonio]

45. Yes but not necessarily in the way you describe

They make money by lots of people using their service, and being able to target adverts to those users. Being able to share photos and video is a large part of why they have so many users in the first place.

[LeftInTX]

36. I see those on my friends' feeds, I go to them and they say:

"Before we show you how beautiful you will look like with plastic surgery, we need to access your friends and profile".

I'm like, "No, I'm outta here".

[Fullduplexxx]

17. Lol

[BannonsLiver]

19. Or youre getting your life back

Social media is bad for people. Like saturated fat. Hard to see any kind of argument that makes the case that our species is better off with it.

[Kentonio]

33. It helps a lot of people be a lot less lonely.

It also helps a lot of people keep in touch with far away relatives and friends, and maintain relationships that would otherwise fade.

It has its ills, but its not all bad.

[Codeine]

42. A flat statement like that is silly.

There are any number of ways that people benefit from social media. Can people overuse it, or use it in an unhealthy way? Certainly. But that doesn’t describe the majority of users.

Hell, DU is a kind of social media. I can’t see an argument against this place.

[BannonsLiver]

44. Its been a net negative

It’s not just about overuse, it’s about debasing our culture and providing an easy ready made platform for people to be hideously ugly to each other or worse a conduit to spread lies and misinformation for people like Putin. We’ll agree to disagree.

[llmart]

43. Agreed!

How the hell did we keep in touch or exchange information, have conversations, etc. before social media? Oh, wait, I know. We put a little effort into keeping our connections with those we cared about. Now it's all we can do to click a Like button and that's what passes for connection.

There have been many sociologists who have weighed in on the impact of social media and they are much more knowledgeable than I am.

[crazycatlady]

20. I read this last night

FB makes it VERY hard to delete your page. THere's deleting (permanent), deactivating (temporary), and abandoning (where you just stop logging on).

I did the latter in 2014 and haven't looked back.

[blake2012]

21. That makes zero sense. Most Americans werent on Facebook

In 2005. I think we could manage to be a vibrant and stable society without Facebook.

[former9thward]

24. FB has billions of users

Percentage wise no one is rushing to delete their FB page. Most people don't care.

[Cha]

28. I stopped going there with all the LIES

about Hillary on FB.. I never was a big addict.

No one brainwashed me.

[JNelson6563]

29. Haha...no.

I deleted my stuff and disabled my account. I stop by Twitter Kos Wonkette and DU aside from news like WaPo and Guardian.

I'm done enabling that bullshit.

[malaise]

35. Facebook is the way people live?

Are you serious?

[Skittles]

39. that just sounds pathetic, yes?

[malaise]

40. Yes

I think people are addicted - damn!

[Skittles]

38. LOL

OR, maybe they just no longer want to be part of something that HELPED TO PUT TRUMP INTO THE WHITE HOUSE

[Codeine]

41. A handful of cranks are freaking out.

Most - likely the overwhelmingly vast majority - of the people who use it will continue to do so.