RIP Facebook! (for me at least) - eng
I decided to close my Facebook account and did so today. I'll start by saying that it can't be closed (!!!) and also explain why.
I love the concept of a "social network". Facebook is integrated with a lot of stuff these days and besides easy access to phone numbers of "friends", a place to share pictures and what not, it also allows you to login with you FB account on many websites around the internet. In addition to that, with facebook being used by so many people, you get a good chance to get back in touch with people you have not seen in ages. On the other hand why would you get back in touch with them? If you "ended" the "friendship" years ago and lost their contact details, did not see them and who knows what else, why do you NEED to get back in touch? I will not go deeper into this, I'll let a sociologist or psychologist answer it.
I think Facebook is VERY shady when it comes to respecting your rights as a customer/user and also to respecting your human rights. In addition to that, you have the privacy problems. First off, how come all the stuff you upload or type on Facebook is the property of Facebook? I take a picture of myself, upload it there and they own it?!? If a rent a storehouse, does the owner of the storehouse have a property right over the stuff I am storing there? If I rent a store on main street, does the building owner own the merchandise I have on display? This is simply wrong.
The best example is what happened today when I "disabled" my account. You can't delete your account. You can't delete content from your account (!!!), whatever you ever did on your account, is property of Facebook. Nice, eh? So I disabled my account and guess what? It gave me a message that my account is disabled and I can always turn it back on by a simple login my account (?!?) and in addition to that, I received an e-mail from them, urging me to reactivate my account. Pure crazy.
Oh, and privacy and functionality? Forget a'bout it! Last summer I went to Greece with my girlfriend. It was kind of a little secret that we are hooked up since we were working together and all that. When we came back, I wanted to upload some pictures from the vacation on Facebook. I managed to upload them, but did not press the "publish" button because she asked me to let her upload some of the same pictures to her account, and obviously, it would not have been Ok for both of us to have the same pictures.
Well, guess what? Facebook understands that an uploaded picture is a public picture no matter if you "publish" or not. Not that it was a bad thing that people figured out our relationship as a result, but the idiocy of the people who designed the interface functions sill amazes me.
Anyway, to end this rant, all I have to say is that FB, just like Apple is a closed environment. Everything goes in, nothing goes out. I will wait for a better alternative from whoever. I consider this "internet state ownership" nothing short of what the USSR was in the real world in the last century. The lack of ownership over your own stuff, be it digital, is NOT OK. Many people died fighting totalitarian political systems. We are giving away our online freedoms with joy to "totalitarian companies". I for one, will no longer be associated with such an entity (who am I kidding, I can't delete it, remember?) from now on.
What you do, is up to you.
As a result, see you soon in the real world, hear you soon over the phone, or read you soon in e-mails, text messages or around this blog. When a decent alternative to Facebook comes around, see you there ;)
I love the concept of a "social network". Facebook is integrated with a lot of stuff these days and besides easy access to phone numbers of "friends", a place to share pictures and what not, it also allows you to login with you FB account on many websites around the internet. In addition to that, with facebook being used by so many people, you get a good chance to get back in touch with people you have not seen in ages. On the other hand why would you get back in touch with them? If you "ended" the "friendship" years ago and lost their contact details, did not see them and who knows what else, why do you NEED to get back in touch? I will not go deeper into this, I'll let a sociologist or psychologist answer it.
I think Facebook is VERY shady when it comes to respecting your rights as a customer/user and also to respecting your human rights. In addition to that, you have the privacy problems. First off, how come all the stuff you upload or type on Facebook is the property of Facebook? I take a picture of myself, upload it there and they own it?!? If a rent a storehouse, does the owner of the storehouse have a property right over the stuff I am storing there? If I rent a store on main street, does the building owner own the merchandise I have on display? This is simply wrong.
The best example is what happened today when I "disabled" my account. You can't delete your account. You can't delete content from your account (!!!), whatever you ever did on your account, is property of Facebook. Nice, eh? So I disabled my account and guess what? It gave me a message that my account is disabled and I can always turn it back on by a simple login my account (?!?) and in addition to that, I received an e-mail from them, urging me to reactivate my account. Pure crazy.
Oh, and privacy and functionality? Forget a'bout it! Last summer I went to Greece with my girlfriend. It was kind of a little secret that we are hooked up since we were working together and all that. When we came back, I wanted to upload some pictures from the vacation on Facebook. I managed to upload them, but did not press the "publish" button because she asked me to let her upload some of the same pictures to her account, and obviously, it would not have been Ok for both of us to have the same pictures.
Well, guess what? Facebook understands that an uploaded picture is a public picture no matter if you "publish" or not. Not that it was a bad thing that people figured out our relationship as a result, but the idiocy of the people who designed the interface functions sill amazes me.
Anyway, to end this rant, all I have to say is that FB, just like Apple is a closed environment. Everything goes in, nothing goes out. I will wait for a better alternative from whoever. I consider this "internet state ownership" nothing short of what the USSR was in the real world in the last century. The lack of ownership over your own stuff, be it digital, is NOT OK. Many people died fighting totalitarian political systems. We are giving away our online freedoms with joy to "totalitarian companies". I for one, will no longer be associated with such an entity (who am I kidding, I can't delete it, remember?) from now on.
What you do, is up to you.
As a result, see you soon in the real world, hear you soon over the phone, or read you soon in e-mails, text messages or around this blog. When a decent alternative to Facebook comes around, see you there ;)
Hello. Long time no seen/heard.
ReplyDeleteSi eu am patit aceeasi chestie cand am vrut sa desfiintez contul.In Japonia - si sunt total de acord cu ei - nu e foarte bine vazut Facebook din motive de privacy. Singura ... solutie daca poate fi numita asa a fost sa nu mai accesez deloc facebook...