Feeling myself falling behind
Some things I just don’t think I’ll get used to. I really liked the looks of the recipe to which I linked earlier today—the Vietnamese stir-fry of beef and sweet potatoes—except that I just couldn’t get my head around serving potatoes on rice. I wanted to comment, but in order to leave a comment, I had to click “Accept” to this request:
Somehow the notion that I must provide my profile picture (presumably so they can determine race), gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information from Facebook simply in order to comment strikes me as excessive. Obviously this is the trend, so obviously I will be offering fewer and fewer comments. (I also tend to avoid Facebook because I have no idea what information the site collects nor what it does with that information.)
Brave new world.
I hear ya. A wealth of information is being extracted for free, and very few eyelashes are being batted. Did you know the Facebook ‘Like’ buttons that have popped up everywhere on the Web transmit information about your browsing habits–even if you don’t click them?
In the words of Bruce Schneier, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re Facebook’s customer, you’re not–you’re the product.”
ShareMeNot is a good tool for fighting the problem I mentioned above. HTTPS Everywhere is excellent too, and of course Tor.
scottbartlett
11 October 2011 at 11:45 pm
you can turn off the application platform completely on Facebook, and then your profile will never sprout links for free macbooks or naughty videos.
Privacy Settings, Apps and Websites, and turn off platform apps.
If you play games like Farmville, it will break that, so be warned.
Zach
12 October 2011 at 5:31 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Zach, I simply did not know about those settings at all—probably because I’ve been avoiding Facebook because … well, because I didn’t know I could get more privacy protection. Now I feel I can start using Facebook, which is nice because of family members being so dispersed.
LeisureGuy
12 October 2011 at 6:33 pm