Facebook is not your friend

In my previous post, I said that the social site Facebook likes for you to think that they are your friend, but they’re really not. I was just going to leave it at that, and not expand on it, unless someone asked me about it. Well, I’ve changed my mind.

I came across this item on Slashdot. It basically says that Facebook is tracking your online habits whether you’re signed in to Facebook or not. They may or may not disclose your information along with personally identifiable data to their advertisers, but that’s not necessarily relevant.

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I know that lots of other websites track you, but only when you’re signed in and the cookie is active. Other websites also go through the trouble of telling you in their Terms of Service (TOS) that they’re tracking you. They tell you that the aggregate may be made available to advertisers, and that no personally identifiable data will be shared.

What bothers me about Facebook, is that they specifically promised not to do exactly what they’re doing. The first time they got caught, they got in trouble for it and Zuckerberg ended up apologizing and saying that they won’t do it anymore. I guess he was promising not to tell us that they were doing it, instead of stopping altogether.

While we’re on the topic, have you ever used any of the applications on Facebook? The Superwall, or the Pirate vs. Zombie, or whatever other applications they have? Did you notice that those applications have access to your user data? Did you notice that they don’t tell you what kind of data, nor where they will collect that data from? Nor do they tell you what they plan to do with it?

For this reason, I declare that Facebook, is not your friend. They just like for you to think that they are.

Facebook is not in the business of connecting you with other like minded people. They are no longer in the business of connecting you with other people that you have an affinity with. They are in the business of selling your data to advertisers, not that that’s a bad thing. That’s how capitalism works, I understand that, and there’s nothing wrong with capitalism.

I have a very minimal profile on Facebook, I don’t like to use it precisely because of all the tracking and what have you that goes on. If you can deal with that, and can live with it, good for you. I on the other hand, prefer to not put up with it.