Guy requests a record of personal data on himself from FB. He gets it:1,222 pages worth

[The Straight Story]

Austrian student takes on Facebook

VIENNA - Austrian law student Max Schrems may be just one of about 800 million Facebook users, but that hasn't stopped him tackling the US giant behind the social networking website over its privacy policy.

The 24-year-old wasn't sure what to expect when he requested Facebook provide him with a record of the personal data it holds on him, but he certainly wasn't ready for the 1,222 pages of information he received.

This included photos, messages and postings on his Facebook page dating back years, some of which he thought he had deleted, the times he had clicked "like" on an item, "pokes" of fellow users, and reams of other information.

"When you delete something from Facebook, all you are doing is hiding it from yourself," Schrems told AFP in his home city of Vienna..

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Science+and+Tech/Story/A1Story20111113-310407.html

[msongs]

1. the purpose of FB is to market you using your data - that is its only purpose nt

[Fumesucker]

2. ...

[RufusTFirefly]

5. Perfect! +1! n/t

[montanto]

6. Well done, well done indeed!

[hlthe2b]

3. DAMN! Am I ever glad I have chosen never to join FB

That isn't just disgusting, it is frightening.

[Poll_Blind]

7. Same here. But if you REALLY want what's frightening about FB, load up Firefox and...

...download the NoScript add-on (it's free) and then start browsing websites. What NoScript does it basically force you to give permission for scripts to run on a page. So let's say I visit DU for the first time after installing it and maybe the search function doesn't work. So I right-click on the screen, go to NoScript and there are a list of domains which run scripts on DU. Which is just two: democraticunderground.com (duh) and google-analytics.com (pretty typical).

I can then choose whether to allow scripts from one or both of those places to run on the page when I'm on DU.

Not weird.

What is weird is if you use noscript and check pages you randomly visit online, the incredible amount of penetration that facebook has on so many websites. So you could be on modeltrainspainting.com and unless you were running NoScript, you would have no idea that Facebook is looking at what you do there in some fashion. Or hotwomaninmytown.com or a zillion others.

Facebook is...a more enormous funnel for their private information than 99%+ of its users would ever imagine, even if asked to guess how much FB tracked them.

PB

[The Straight Story]

8. Ghostery is nice, blocks and lists such things on top right of screen (nt)

[Poll_Blind]

9. Holy crap that's useful! THANK YOU! I think I can run both together, no problem.

:thumbsup:

PB

[The Straight Story]

11. Here is a link if anyone else wants it:

http://www.ghostery.com/

[Ptah]

10. Thanks for this clear explanation of NoScript.

:thumbsup:

[snot]

4. For those of us who capitulated and joined, post this to your FB friends.

[progressoid]

12. Wonder how many pages of data DU has on me?

Obviously DU's motives are far from that of FB but I bet almost all of us have posted personal info here that we wish we hadn't. It's kind of hard to un-post something once its on the internets.

[progressoid]

13. From the end of the article: "In spite of everything, Schrems remains an avid Facebook user."

:eyes:

[backtoblue]

14. Facebook is creepy

I deleted mine months ago...or did I???



I wonder, if you are provided with your personal info that was stored, do they have back-up copies?

[eppur_se_muova]

15. At first I thought it said FBI -- that *did* have me worried!

But, hey, it's only our good friends at Facebook.

[MineralMan]

16. I use Facebook only to keep in touch with family and friends.

The only thing I ever "like" is some post from one them. I think I have four or five photos on Facebook, all of myself at various ages. They're welcome to keep all that information if they like.

Google's another matter. They have reams of data on me. I don't care about that, either. All it means is that I see ads based on recent searches on other websites. I don't read those ads or click them. :shrug: