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We were asked specifically about the Facebook hack. So it's disingenuous to suggest that we're being blasé about hacking in general.
I remember the days when internet banking first came out, lots of people were worried 'hackers' would hack into their bank accounts and add or subtract zeros like its nothing at all, Im sure there has been some of this, (hackers adding zeros to their balance), but for the most part, it hasnt been a big problem.
If they want to steal my bug pictures and recipes, they're welcome to them. As far as Facebook knows, I live in a different city than I actually do, I don't have a phone number, and, according to the birth date I gave them, I'm 102 years old. You don't have to tell Facebook anything important.
As I said on another forum, I can remember getting all the data they hacked into, delivered to my house, in hard copy, about once a year. We called it a "phone book".....
Not really, Facebook tracks a lot more data points than a phone book. Where you shop, what you read, who you know. What they don't track themselves, they buy & everything Facebook knows is for sale. The real crime here is that most people don't understand what is known about them, how often it is sold, and how badly they can get hosed if that data were turned against them.
If they want to steal my bug pictures and recipes, they're welcome to them. As far as Facebook knows, I live in a different city than I actually do, I don't have a phone number, and, according to the birth date I gave them, I'm 102 years old. You don't have to tell Facebook anything important.
You aren't nearly as anonymous as you think you are to Facebook- they know the I.p. Address that you routinely sign in from, and Google tracks them too, when they're out there harmlessly driving down every street in the world. So just cause they play along with the false info given at registration, doesn't mean that they couldn't find out a real identity. And it's not recipes you should be concerned about. The things you read, where you spend your money & the people you associate with are all tracked. City data has lots of demographic data that they don't try to hide - knowing just a zip code gives them a ball-park estimate for education level, income & often political tendencies. Stuff that could really be misused is collected by Facebook & there's a real chance for actual harm to come to a lot of people from it in our lifetimes.
I originally thought this would be about the recent elimination
of the "View As" feature on Facebook, which was in response to
a recent data breach (link below), but it's something else entirely:
You aren't nearly as anonymous as you think you are to Facebook- they know the I.p. Address that you routinely sign in from, and Google tracks them too, when they're out there harmlessly driving down every street in the world. So just cause they play along with the false info given at registration, doesn't mean that they couldn't find out a real identity. And it's not recipes you should be concerned about. The things you read, where you spend your money & the people you associate with are all tracked. City data has lots of demographic data that they don't try to hide - knowing just a zip code gives them a ball-park estimate for education level, income & often political tendencies. Stuff that could really be misused is collected by Facebook & there's a real chance for actual harm to come to a lot of people from it in our lifetimes.
Maybe I'm being naive, but how can my reading or shopping habits be some nefarious information that could be used against me? Being targeted for ads is annoying but other than that I don't see how they can use information gathered in a personal way, not much different than data mining at a grocery store is it?
I remember the days when internet banking first came out, lots of people were worried 'hackers' would hack into their bank accounts and add or subtract zeros like its nothing at all, Im sure there has been some of this, (hackers adding zeros to their balance), but for the most part, it hasnt been a big problem.
Hasn’t it?
Have you bought a house recently?
Apparently, several someones have hacked into the email systems of closing agents & sent closing instructions from those email accounts directing funds be wired to the hackers bank account instead of the closing agents accounts. Thereby stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time.. and widespread enough that I was given a hard copy of the correct account numbers to use on my last purchase.
If you think about it, the information you are interrogated for when signing up for a Facebook account is pretty much exactly all the information needed to defeat the security questions everywhere else you go.
Name, birthday, mom’s maiden name, where did you go to school, what’s your pet’s name, who was your best friend in high school, what’s your favorite color, etc - those are all security questions.
Maybe I'm being naive, but how can my reading or shopping habits be some nefarious information that could be used against me? Being targeted for ads is annoying but other than that I don't see how they can use information gathered in a personal way, not much different than data mining at a grocery store is it?
A number of people got divorced and a few killed themselves when they were revealed to be on Ashley Madison. Without delving too deeply into politics, how much would the party that doesn’t control Congress like to see judge kavanaugh’s browsing and buying history on amazon? Does he go to youporn.com? Did he go there in college? What websites did he visit last month?
You may not know or have access to that information, but google and Facebook and a host of other “innocent” websites actually have that information in their files. Even if Facebook never intends for that data to be released with a name attached to it, it’s there, forever & vulnerable to attackers, like the Russians now or the Chinese, or whomever..
Doesn’t matter what your political leanings are, since the data has been collected on everyone, all of our pet candidates are subject to getting smeared and taken out, based on salacious data, old emails, etc.
Good guys can get smeared & then it’s easier for bad guys to get into office. Authoritarians, who could very easily seize that information and use it against their enemies. Our government has been seeking access to this data for decades, under both red and blue control.. they’re buying bits and pieces of data that they aren’t legally allowed to collect themselves right now. Google “fusion center” & see if they’re collecting your recipes - they’re not. But the data they are collecting could absolutely be used against the squeakiest of the squeaky -clean to ruin them.
Seriously,
If you really had access to years of Mr Roger’s viewing and reading and online purchase history & friends lists - do you think it would be that hard to make him into a pedophile, or a deviant?
Nope. My Facebook profile privacy settings are in place mostly because there are people in my past who I don't want seeing what's going on in my life. But I don't have anything on my profile page that could be used to steal my identity. Hackers are welcome to my concert pictures and recipe posts.
What's to say Facebook doesn't screw something up (either unintentionally or intentionally) and the privacy settings suddenly stop working the way they're supposed to? I agree it's good not to put anything personal on there, but there's no way I would put trust or confidence in them to maintain their so-called privacy settings.
People need to treat Facebook as if the privacy settings could just vanish at any moment and assume anything posted there could go public to anyone without the users' knowledge or consent based on their track record and vision for the company and the world. You have to respect your own privacy and not count on Facebook (or any other app or corporation who doesn't know or care about you) to do it.
I deactivated my account almost 2 months ago. I have zero regrets or worries.
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