giving facebook the finger

not a lover of most social networking systems, facebook has always been the one to make me itch the most. i don’t like the feeling i get while using it…maybe it’s because i’ve always been something of a huac fetishist: i don’t want anybody creating databases linking me up to every friend, coworker, fellow alumni, etc., complete with dates and organization names and all. not to mention a system where i can’t delete my account…EVER. sure, i can “disable” it but it’s still there, mocking me. so, for me, that’s bad enough.

and then you get this:

from gigaom: “…this is a privacy disaster waiting to happen. The javascript on the Fandango site pops up a little screen which asks if you want to publish the information on Facebook. If you say no, your friends won’t see the information, but apparently Facebook still receives it. This means that if you are a Facebook member, Facebook will know what you are doing on each of their partner sites. And there is no way for you to opt out of that…” (clicky.)

from cory doctorow (on informationweek.com): “…If there was any doubt about Facebook’s lack of qualification to displace the Internet with a benevolent dictatorship/walled garden, it was removed when Facebook unveiled its new advertising campaign. Now, Facebook will allow its advertisers to use the profile pictures of Facebook users to advertise their products, without permission or compensation. Even if you’re the kind of person who likes the sound of a benevolent dictatorship this clearly isn’t one…” (clicky.)

from brainsturbator: “…it’s not an exaggeration to say that there are very real ties between Facebook and CIA—and there’s a whole covert landscape of semi-legal databases, companies selling private information, and the new horizon of computer-driven “Data Mining”. ” (clicky.)

so i know that “privacy” and “freedom” and “democracy” are concepts that have all but choked on their last breaths of life, but i’m dumping facebook. so there.