Paul_Shepherd

So the feacesbook storm continues after users are shocked and outraged about their private data being harvested by Cambridge Analytica. I understand the outrage, but should anyone really be shocked by this..?

Personally, I am shocked that facebook users are shocked about this....if people are so keen to post their life online for all to see, then why the surprise, this was only a matter of time.

Then there is all this "delete facebook" fervour, hmm really?......are annoyed FB users really going to delete their accounts? I really don't think so..... die hard users of facebook have their life history documented on there....I cant see many wanting to give that up, not to mention their much needed daily fix of dopamine from all the likes they will get after some trivial "look at me" post they made.

As you can guess I am not a facebook or any type of social media fan, and none of this comes as a surprise to me whatsoever, but each to there own.

Just thought I would air my thoughts as its plastered all over the news!

BritInParis

No one is outraged about Cambridge Analytica – they are angry about Trump and Brexit | The Independent

BristolUK

I'm shocked that you are shocked about facebook users' shock.

Paul_Shepherd

Sums it all up in a nut shell.

Paul_Shepherd

You have a valid point.

Shocked I tell you! shocked to the core!!

dbd33

I'm familiar with the havoc that individual angry posters can cause by harassing other posters but what I don't see is how organisations and political campaigns get from "I heart my Schnauzer" to steering one's vote.

Is the essence of the method that quizzes reveal that specific people are simple minded and conservative parties then publish adverts that are seen by those people? Do the Progressive Conservatives pose as psychics and use the subscriber list as a base for mailshots?

scilly

I occasionally go on FB (less than once a month), mainly to keep in contact with a couple of relatives and some friends that I made on a now-defunct site.

One of those friends, an English immigrant to the US, posted the most horrible anti-Clinton / pro-Trump messages during the US election, and occasionally still does. All were copied from other sites. Several friends asked for these posts not be put up, and some cut the person off.

We all wondered where the posts were copied from ............ I now cannot remember the sites.

Needless to say, I now wonder whether that person, who has a LOT of personal information on FB, had been "corrupted" by Cambridge Analytica

scrubbedexpat091

I use facebook as most of the forums for my hobbies have moved onto FB as groups, so only way to keep up with things and connect with others in the same hobbies.

I don't use my real name, well my first name is real, I made up the last name I use.

I don't post any photos of myself, or other humans, although there are photos just not of me or people I know.

I keep everything friends only or me only with very limited public access.

I don't put where I live, work, who I am married to, my marital status, schools or anything like that on there.

I use ad blocker which does help a bit, but their sponsored posts don't get blocked, but I skip past anything that is sponsored, not worth my time.

I don't do any of the quizzes or games and such.

I do my best to stay under the radar on FB.

Partially discharged

With all of those restrictions you have imposed on yourself when you use FB, it does beg the question of whether or not FB is worth it or not. I never got an account as to me it is too much of the 'look at me' side of life I'm not interested in. I have Linkedin and even with that I've frozen people who post drivel.

MarkG

I only use Facebook to see what my relatives are doing on the other side of the Atlantic. So I check it maybe once a week and post maybe once a month.

My policy is never to post anything I don't want the world to see, and to use a separate browser just for Facebook so they're less able to spy on me. I'm not at all amazed that people who've posted their entire lives there are now just SHOCKED that Facebook has apparently given it all away to companies for $$$$.

That said, I technically have three Facebook cameras in my spare room. But they're infrared and only turned on when I'm using them.

scrubbedexpat091

I only went to FB because aquarium forums largely died and the hobby is FB centric now with groups on there, a pain in the rear, but seems most prefer FB groups now over forums.

Partially discharged

I hear you. To comment on a online news storey in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper you have to sign in with your FB account.

When our oldest daughter was about 13 years old FB got popular and comments on FB between classmates get very caustic and nasty and then parents got involved and of course denied that their precious cupcake was involved in any of the nastiness. Our daughter blocked the main culprit in it who was the nastiest to our daughter and then that teenage girl called our house wondering why our daughter had blocked her and then I ran into her mother at the supermarket and she got quite heated with me at the supermarket asking me why our daughter had blocked here daughter. I lost it with the mother and told her FB was the biggest waste of time on the internet and that it was people like her who were so pro FB that made me decide to never get an account and that she should read her previous daughters postings from start to finish.

Too much drama for too little positive outcome.

ann m

I am neither outraged not shocked.

But I am somewhat surprised at how gullible some people are with their posts, or 'liking' some random crap post that invites you to 'Share' in order to win an RV or a car, or lipstick or whatever. It's such obvious mining and trolling. Or "Find out what kind of pancake you are'. Completing, sharing and tagging those stupid surveys just implicates your whole list of friends into such crap. And don't sign in to anything else with your FB login - d'oh!

I don't follow anything political really but I do follow a page called "God" - it's a piss-take for atheists - look it up if you want a comments section of vicious and hilarious Trump-haters. It makes me giggle and no doubt now identifies me as some kind of leftie-loving, trump-hating, dog-loving, but not god-loving weirdo that should be bombarded with left-wing adverts and puts a sparkling highlighter on all my weird friends.

Some friends share their conservative-loving posts and I ignore.

No, I will not abandon FB just yet.

bats

Why so mean and insulting about Facebook and users? It serves a useful purpose for me and many others.
I do have my security and privacy settings locked down and I'm aware that many don't and don't understand how to change them. That's life.

Danny B

I had a Facebook account from 2007 - 2011, mainly to stay in touch with my UK friends and family. I was on it at least twice a day, probably more with the phone app.

I deactivated in 2011 and have never looked back. I don't miss it at all. I found it made me slightly homesick actually.

I joined up on Reddit and subscribe to things I want to read about.