Facebook Users' Data

[Hikergirl]

I don’t think a lot of people knew, or still don’t know, the absolute depth of information being collected or that it was being sold. I was fine knowing that everything I put up on a wall was fair game or everything I liked or shared....I get concerned that FB (and other apps- FB is the one “caught” now but it’s widespread) are also sharing that information.

I think a lot of people assume FB determined you were looking to buy new bedroom furniture so they sent ads your way from furniture stores and were telling advertisers that they got targeted information to 3000 furniture buyers right at the point they were actively buying. That’s very different from taking all of your info gleaned from internet searches, messages, and following your location and selling it to a furniture company.

Using furniture is really small stakes, but imagine you have a medical condition that you would like to keep private. FB knows from you sending a PM to your best friend that you’re concerned about your condition, they see you searching for info on treatment, looking at illness support pages- from all of that they figure out that you are HIV positive. What if they then sold that information to a company that screens job applicants. You have posted NOTHING about having HIV and you thought that was between you, your doctor, and the friend you spoke to and yet now it’s out there for anyone willing to mine the data.

That’s the line FB crossed- they collected what people thought was non public information on you and sold all that raw data to another firm that could then manipulate it to learn about you, and then potentially could sell it off again and again.

Nothing you do online is private, nothing. If you are using FB's tool to send "private" messages then that info is only private in the sense that you aren't sending to the rest of your friends. It is not private to FB, they "own" it, and they can do what they want with it as long as it is legal.
I guess I thought it was just common knowledge that if you want something to remain private, you don't put it out there online.
This is the price we pay in order to be connected to everyone everywhere and anytime.

 

[DLgal]

That’s what FB is doing with it now....what will they (or the people they sell your info to) do with it in the future? This is a company that basically was able to come into your home, read all your mail, listen to your messages, read your texts, follow you as you drive around, capture your spending information, see everything you read, download (and own) all the pictures you took, and know who you communicate with/how often....it’s mind blowing. When we found that the government was storing our phone data people hit the roof, but here’s a company doing that times 1000, all without a warrant, and then selling all that information.

You have to specifically give FB most of these permissions. I do NOT give FB access to: SMS, Phone, Contacts, Location services, email, etc. You deserve what you get if you let ANYONE have all the access that they want. People need to be smart about their settings.

 

[Imzadi]

A couple weeks ago, I purchased something in a store I've never shopped in before. I paid with my credit card and gave NO personal information. Prior, I've never received any on-line advertising from this store. Well, guess what... The next day, a nice big ad from this store was on my FB wall. Now on earth did they get all this info about me??? Credit cards are suppose to be private. The vendor get no customer info and not even the whole card number.

I just don’t see targeted advertising as something that negatively effects me.

I noticed that too. I like to look up the reviews of products on Amazon. Even after sorting past the phony reviews and the idiotic reviews, there are usually a few good ones that tell specific info that are really relevant and help me decide whether I want that item or to keep looking.

But, I noticed that the exact item I was looking at showed up in the ad column on my Yahoo email and on a couple other sites, even though I have a different email account registered with Amazon. It's an ad by Amazon, who bought space on Yahoo, but now Yahoo might be tracking what items I am interested in as the ad appears on their site. That kind of tracking & collecting that info and constantly targeting me all over the web isn't what I like.

Target did the same thing. I buy stuff online with them. Then I went into a SuperTarget to buy some groceries. I did use my credit card. So, I figured they are keeping tabs on ALL my purchases. Yep, a few weeks later, I log in online at their site and on their home page they are asking if I want to re-order the food I bought in the store.

It all reminds me of the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character was walking through a shopping mall, and all ads were calling out to him by name as they could do an eye retina scan and know it's him.

Now, Facebook wants to implement facial recognition software? So they could give that data out to companies like Cambridge Analytica? It's one thing for people to voluntarily self-post their face as their avatar on Twitter or social media. It's another for companies to harvest & collect that along with a complete profile of info from financials, political party, religion, race, location, medical info, family, shopping, interests etc, that one does NOT publicly post about, but happens to surf about online. Every site I visit shouldn't be collected as info about me. Sometimes, I watch a YouTube video because someone posted it here. It then shows up on my YouTube home page, with YouTube then thinking I want to see more of that stuff, when I don't.

 

[Hikergirl]

I've shopped in a Home Depot store, used my CC but no rewards card or email, or phone number and have gotten an email asking me if I liked my purchase of that item.
Our info is out there everywhere.
I especially love when I look at products online and they show up in ads on dh's computer LOL

 

[Imzadi]

Understood. Which is why I don't enter my location.

Just because you don't enter a location on to a website doesn't mean that they don't HAVE your location. Your computer's IP address works like GPS. It GIVES out your location to websites even if you don't voluntarily provide it. Unless you are doing something to mask your location, like using a Virtual Private Network, and those aren't foolproof, they have your location, down to your zip code.

 

[jevs]

I couldn’t care less about this. It is a minor issue if you want/need to live in a tech world. Alternative would be to go off the grid.

 

[Imzadi]

I especially love when I look at products online and they show up in ads on dh's computer LOL

Oh, you can mess around with him then, when HE sees all the ads. Do some searches for expensive diamond anniversary eternity rings.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

I've always had to face a barrage of questions when I admit to NOT having a Facebook account. Maybe after all this nonsense unfolds, less people will ask why.

It seems to me to be pretty obvious that if people have to live side-by-side with Skynet, that we actually trust it...

 

[Iya]

Just because you don't enter a location on to a website doesn't mean that they don't HAVE your location. Your computer's IP address works like GPS. It GIVES out your location to websites even if you don't voluntarily provide it. Unless you are doing something to mask your location, like using a Virtual Private Network, and those aren't foolproof, they have your location, down to your zip code.

I know they have my ISP. That's a no brainer. My ISP doesn't show where I am. It shows as the city where my provider is located. I've checked.

Nothing people do online is private. To believe otherwise is naive.

ETA: I just checked my ISP location again for fun and it shows my public ISP as a city an hour and a half away.

 

[DopeyDame]

You have to specifically give FB most of these permissions. I do NOT give FB access to: SMS, Phone, Contacts, Location services, email, etc. You deserve what you get if you let ANYONE have all the access that they want. People need to be smart about their settings.

And you're positive none of your friends gave their contact info to FB (which would, presumably, include your own contact info), etc?

 

[tvguy]

The flip side is most of us WANT information, and the only way for a database to be built is to GATHER information. You can't have one without the other.

Do you use CarFax? Did the previous owner know that every oil change they were doing at the dealer or the quick lube place was being recorded on a public data base.

Do you use the NTHSA car recall database? Did you know that the recall done on your car is put out to the public?

Did you check whether your Property Tax payment had been received and credited? No log in needed at, least here, just an address and you not only know the property tax amount, but if it has been paid

Did you use Zillow etc? How do they know what your house is worth, what you paid for it, and what your neighbors paid?

Do you use Ancestry.com? How did they know your Grandparents got married after your parent was born?

 

[Imzadi]

Using furniture is really small stakes, but imagine you have a medical condition that you would like to keep private. FB knows from you sending a PM to your best friend that you’re concerned about your condition, they see you searching for info on treatment, looking at illness support pages- from all of that they figure out that you are HIV positive. What if they then sold that information to a company that screens job applicants. You have posted NOTHING about having HIV and you thought that was between you, your doctor, and the friend you spoke to and yet now it’s out there for anyone willing to mine the data.

That’s the line FB crossed- they collected what people thought was non public information on you and sold all that raw data to another firm that could then manipulate it to learn about you, and then potentially could sell it off again and again.

Exactly. I was talking online to someone and I mentioned a website I found out about here, called HysterSisters, for women who've had hysterectomies. I haven't had one, but I recommended it to her. Right after that, I suddenly see all these ads for women who've hysterectomies. What if I was searching for medical or private info about me that I didn't want shared or sold? And these websites sell my info to other companies, OR hackers get in and they have our info ALONG with credit card info and the necessary details to open phony accounts with info we never publicly shared, but they now have.

 

[Iya]

The flip side is most of us WANT information, and the only way for a database to be built is to GATHER information. You can't have one without the other.

Do you use CarFax? Did the previous owner know that every oil change they were doing at the dealer or the quick lube place was being recorded on a public data base.

Do you use the NTHSA car recall database? Did you know that the recall done on your car is put out to the public?

Did you check whether your Property Tax payment had been received and credited? No log in needed at, least here, just an address and you not only know the property tax amount, but if it has been paid

Did you use Zillow etc? How do they know what your house is worth, what you paid for it, and what your neighbors paid?

Do you use Ancestry.com? How did they know your Grandparents got married after your parent was born?

Anytime you do anything with your car, it is recorded via the VIN. I am surprised some people don't know that.

 

[Imzadi]

I know they have my ISP. That's a no brainer. My ISP doesn't show where I am. It shows as the city where my provider is located. I've checked.

Where did you check? How many places did you check? Do a Google search for "IP address location," and you'd be surprised that a couple of them actually have you down to the ZIP CODE. Even if it only lists your service provider's ISP address for you. They use more extensive tools. And depending on your browser, it automatically gives it out, even if you've checked the box that you don't want to give out your location. I had to go into Firefox and manually disable something in Firefox's registry or something like that.

 

[JaxDad]

I'm a Travis McGee fan, and I sometimes think of the advice he was given when he felt overwhelmed by the coming information age (in 1981):

"What you should do from now on, Travis, is to make sure you get into as many computers as possible. Lots of tiny bank accounts, lots of credit cards, lots of memberships. Have your attorney set up some partnerships and little corporations and get you some additional tax numbers. Move bits of money around often. Buy and sell odd lots of this and that. Feed all the information you can into all their computers.”

“And spend my life keeping track of what the hell I’m doing?”

“Who said anything about keeping track? If you can get so complicated you confuse yourself, imagine how confused the poor computers are going to be.”

 

[DLgal]

And you're positive none of your friends gave their contact info to FB (which would, presumably, include your own contact info), etc?

What contact info? Phone number? Or FB contact info? My phone number isn't exactly top secret info, so if someone got it, I'll let my robocall blocker handle it. But generally, my friends on FB aren't morons. I am very particular about my friends list. Won't even friend my own mom because she is naive about social media, falls for everything, and gets hacked all the time. So, I don't trust her ability to be smart about her settings, so she got rejected. I have under 100 FB friends. I unfriend anyone who posts stupid "get to know you quizzes" because those are all attempts for hackers to gain password hints.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I don’t think I was targeted because as I assume, the data was to target people with ‘fake news’ and political
ads right? That’s why they wanted the data in this specific case?

I don’t usually look at ads to the point that they will influence me. I either read the article (maybe) or roll my eyes and scroll past it.

Is it such a concern (again, specifically to the fb thing) because they’re worried about more impressionable people being targeted and falling for the stories or being influenced to vote a certain way?

This is my basic understanding of it..if I’m wrong I’d like to know.

I collected a few articles for you as I was reading around Google News this morning.

There are plenty more! But I think some of theses address your questions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/technology/facebook-privacy-hearings.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...rgs-senate-testimony-data-breaches/502126002/

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/11/what-mark-zuckerberg-didnt-tell-congress-217844

https://www.businesstoday.in/opinio...ndal-testimoney-us-senators/story/274579.html

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Anytime you do anything with your car, it is recorded via the VIN. I am surprised some people don't know that.

I think people do have a general idea of how it goes online, but there are things that even Mark Zuckerberg admits he didn't know about!

He also seemed naive to the fact that data he thought would help people "connect", and which his company was making billions off of, could be used for political gain.

Some of his tactics have been described by his peers as bullying, as well; his is a Monopoly.

That is why we have the situation we have this week, with his having to answer for some things, to the people.

And yes, even our own lawmakers seem woefully underprepared.

Europe seems to be ahead of us here, with demands for improved regulation for users in their countries, and some calls for GDPR to become the global standard for data protection: :https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/09/facebook-urged-to-make-gdpr-its-baseline-standard-globally/

 

[DopeyDame]

What contact info? Phone number? Or FB contact info? My phone number isn't exactly top secret info, so if someone got it, I'll let my robocall blocker handle it. But generally, my friends on FB aren't morons. I am very particular about my friends list. Won't even friend my own mom because she is naive about social media, falls for everything, and gets hacked all the time. So, I don't trust her ability to be smart about her settings, so she got rejected. I have under 100 FB friends. I unfriend anyone who posts stupid "get to know you quizzes" because those are all attempts for hackers to gain password hints.

Whatever contact info your friend has in their phone for you when they use the "find my friends" feature or answer yes when facebook (or twitter or whoever) says "Facebook needs permission to access your contacts" while on their mobile device. Presumably phone number, email address, and home address. It's not about ignoring the robocalls - it's about another piece of information they can use to uniquely identify you when building the profile.
I posted this above, but it's a good read, and you sound like someone tech-savvy enough to understand it: https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-t...ebook-tracking-me-even-though-im-not-facebook

 

[DLgal]

Whatever contact info your friend has in their phone for you when they use the "find my friends" feature or answer yes when facebook (or twitter or whoever) says "Facebook needs permission to access your contacts" while on their mobile device. Presumably phone number, email address, and home address. It's not about ignoring the robocalls - it's about another piece of information they can use to uniquely identify you when building the profile.
I posted this above, but it's a good read, and you sound like someone tech-savvy enough to understand it: https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-t...ebook-tracking-me-even-though-im-not-facebook

Yeah, I get it. I just don't really care ALL that much. My life is very boring and quite unremarkable. I have nothing to hide. I don't vote (not going into that here). Companies can try to influence me, but I'm a skeptic at best, and a voracious reader and researcher with a functioning brain capable of critical thinking skills. It's pretty hard to convince me of anything. I make my own decisions based on experience and factual, verifiable, multiple news sources.