Miscellaneous Forum

Important changes at FB.
More 'transparency' (ugh!) re postings.
News here:
< http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/227264/15/Facebook-Timeline-goes-live-February-1 >

According to my opinion it's no progress. I'm considering getting out of Facebook.

In FB many of those 800milion have more than 1 profile, other just signed and left
imho being on facebook is not a matter of pride.

BEWARE like said in the link above....And don't forget, you can always ask your privacy questions in the Facebook Help Center.

I'm one of those people who left FB already. And this new timeline-feature is just another confirmation that it was the right decision.

The other day I read an article in a german IT-magazine about that like buttons you find all over the net. I never klicked on them. But now I learned that already klicking on a page (where the like button is implemented) gives away information to FB. They described how that worked (some implemented HTML-code and cookies). It was quite complicated and I'm not able to repeat this here. They said, that if you have a FB account as well FB will be able to monitor your internet behaviour.

I don't need big brother Zuckerberg and his 'clients' watching me.

and what you post here on vt is kept secure and private, right? dont be naive, its all the same.

and btw whats with these endless fb bashing postings? if you want to have it then have it, if not, then not. move on.

Right, Fugu. People here bash Facebook as if VT isn't just as trite. Just look at the misc forum. There are pros and cons to both websites. Facebook has much more privacy than VT. If you want to be on Facebook, you control who sees your information.
I laugh when I see the constant bashing of FB here and the fear of big brother taking over your lives. If there is a big brother, it's the internet itself and everyone here willingly exposes themselves wether they care to admit it or not.

Keti it's up to you to give away all your info to FB and the people who buy this info from FB. But I prefer to keep my info as private as possible.

I assume, that what I said about the article concerning the like buttons is something a lot of people don't know. I just wanted to share that info.

If you want to ignore this it's up to you as well. Just skip postings that tell you something about those risks. I have no problem with that.

But don't try to tell me what I should post here or not. You got me???

<I assume, that what I said about the article concerning the like buttons is something a lot of people don't know. I just wanted to share that info. >


But, Bernd, this is true for anything you click on on just about any web site. Web sites make a lot of money selling your info whether you realize it or not. This has been going on for years. I'm not sure why people think this only applies to Facebook.

I don't understand why people get to worked up about FB either!
Obviously, if FB wasn't a popular venue, VT itself wouldn't have joined up and asked on it's welcome page for members to "like VT" on FB!
VT members such as Daniel DiNicola, Paris, Hansi and even G. himself being members.
There are VT FB groups, even a Philippines VT FB group with discussions.

@ cg who wrote: In FB many of those 800milion have more than 1 profile, other just signed and left
imho being on facebook is not a matter of pride.

I think you'd be surprised that this also happens on VT. If you go to new members and check on latest activities going back the 7 pages it allows you to go, you'll see that other than joining or posting initial inquiry, they too are a one hit member.

I don't mind if people hate FB, that is their choice, but the uppity attitude that so many people here have about it, as if they are above it all, is perplexing. After all, they themselves are members of a social website right here. (which doesn't give you nearly the control over your own privacy that FB does)

I've been on Facebook for years and I've not once gotten a spam mail from the daughter of a diplomat in Uganda who specifically chose me to help launder 10 million dollars. That in itself is worth it to me.

hehe Scott, you took the words out of my mout...ehrm...fingers?
I too thought the same thing.

But don't try to tell me what I should post here or not. You got me???
----

?? wow..thinking youre that important to me. ;=)) (no men except my son is :=).
i actually havent even read your posting, just had a glance, same old same old, so just answered the original poster. :=)

If you want to be on Facebook, you control who sees your information.
----------------------

exactly, and you also control what info youll share..i have almost nothing on my fb page. no work place, no education place..nothing really important. ive seen people, long term members, post all sorts of stuff on their homepage on here and thats stuff that anybody can see, incl big brother (who is anyway watching us, listening to us, reading our text messages, letters, emails, etc..theres no escape).

the moment we have a bank account, a phone, a tv, etc, big brother knows all about us. so fb yes or no wont change much about that.

Right, I see people add all sorts of personal info on their FB page so what would one expect?! Heck, you don't even have to use your real name on FB.
Fugu is right. Big Brother was here long before FB, Fb is just another vehicle. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.

It seems that to some people FB is almost a religious issue.
And as the forum guidelines don't allow to post religous discussions maybe we should stop this thread now.

you can discuss religion and politics on Fb without being deleted :)

and you can opt out of threads.

I never posted anything on Facebook that I am not happy for everyone to see. Not that all that many people are interested. Anything private goes in an email. I have noticed that if I visit a website such as Bookings.com advertisements from that site usually start appearing on Facebook soon after. I was amazed by Facebook's mysterious powers until I deleted cookies on Google Chrome and the advertisements immediately disappeared. Who is spying on me. Google Chrome or Facebook?!

I quite like Timeline.

>>> you can discuss religion and politics on Fb without being deleted <<<

Of course, because the people who really benefit from FB are in particular interested in your opinions about religion and politics ... gives them info about you. And if you happen to live in certain countries giving away that kind of info can be quite dangerous.

I haven't quite figured out the timeline yet, but I do like the home pages.

the one neat feature that FB has is that if one has started a thread or, if one is in a group, one can delete a poster's offensive comments or, even the member from one's list thus rendering them null and void unable to see your postings!
I like this feature! It allows a civil conversation to continue.

VT gives them certain information about you too.
And some postings on VT can be dangerous in other countries as well.

it's worth noting that social websites, FB and Twitter in particular, played a large role in the Arab Spring protests in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, etc.

Just now received YET ANOTHER spam email - it never happens to me on FB:


janejanebaby35@yahoo.co.uk
Hello.
My name is jane i saw your profile today at vtmail.virtualtourist.com and i love
it also became intrested in you,i will also like to know you more,and i want
you to send an email directely to my email address so i can reply your mail and
also give you my picture for you to know whom i am.Here is my email
address(janejanebaby35@yahoo.co.uk) i believe we can move from here.my love
distance or colour does not matter but love matters alot in life.i waiting to
recive your
lovely reply soon, Yours
Love.
Miss jane.

To clarify my concern about FB operation, after being made more aware of the privacy facilities - albeit rather complex to put into place - is with regard to the occurences of cyber bullying which is authoritatively acknowledged as a factor in many cases of tragic youth suicides.
We had another case here recently.
It is just too awful.
I think that is what the Timeline introduction is about.
A certain amount of anonimity is lost.
Any contributing factor MUST be strongly dealt with.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Perhaps FB's own intro may make the point unspokenly clearer:
< http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline >

ha! Homer, I got the same e mail!

Me too. I really thought that Jane and I could work something out, but she loves you too. The Hussy.

And me. Bloody hell! It's a gang bang!

I didn't get an e-mail from Jane ... I feel neglected ;-((

Maybe Jane has a nice looking younger brother for me...and you too Sue?