Rocking the Boat

I'm not sure that the relationship between facebook, advertising and you is any different from the relationship between advertising, anything and you. The argument advanced here is, by extrapolation, the same one that says you should stop watching football because the players have corporate logos on their chests. The other stuff about targeted advertising is common internet stuff, and is the equivalent of a more focused direct mailing operation. You donated to Mind, you get a mailshot from Rethink, for example. The other stuff about collecting information about you comes down to a simple rule: Don't put anything into the public domain that you don't want to. If you don't want someone, for example, to know your partner's place of work, make sure that you don't tell anyone online. Everything that you put onto the internet will be archived somewhere, pretty much. As to the posting up your consumer preferences on facebook: You don't have to. It's more frightening that some many people choose to do so. Take away facebook and people would do it in other ways. Personally, if someone tells me they're a 'Prada kind of person' or that they're 'totally into Ben and Jerry's', I want to stick a fork in their cheek. In short, facebook is a tool which you don't directly pay for, therefore the people who own it are always looking for ways in which to turn your use of that tool into cash for them. Oh, and the who-ha about facebook and copyright is cobblers, too. The contract is the same, more or less, as the one you have with ABCtales. You grant rights when you put stuff up, you take them back when you take stuff down. In theory, facebook can use any of your stuff in publicity, to sell on etc. but in practice, why would they want to sell your snaps of your hilarious holiday japes. Cheers, Mark

"Should I try to untangle myself from the Facebook web?" Actually you can't. According to their T&S you cannot remove your details from their database, even if you die. I think there's a parlimentary comittee or something looking at that, though I don't know quite what they'd be able to do about it.

I'll have you know that photos of my hilarious holiday japes could attract good money if marketed at the right audience. "Personally, if someone tells me they're a 'Prada kind of person' or that they're 'totally into Ben and Jerry's', I want to stick a fork in their cheek." I read this and agreed completely, then realised I do go on about the brilliance of my Mac on an almost daily basis. I am a free walking advert for them. MACs RULE! Please don't cheekfork me! But seriously, it seems to me that everything you've said is reasonable, especially the bit about taking responsibility for what you put online. Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

My wife, who is computer illiterate, believes that facebook is the spawn of the devil and delighted in thrusting this article at me. I think I'll go and clone her credit card.

Targeted advertising can be very useful. I am thinking in particular of Amazon recommendations which often alert me to books that will interest me based on my previous purchases. Because of my specialised tastes, many of the books I am after wouldn't be discussed in the TLS. Anti-advertising hysteria seems a bit far fetched to me. Advertising can be useful, entertaining, irrelevant or just plain annoying. If people are not wise enough to be discerning about their spending choices, they deserve what they get. Facebook is as Mark says free to use and therefore needs to find other revenue streams. Spamming members and displaying ads is nothing new. There is no disputing the popularity of the site but will it just be a flash in the pan I wonder? When the next generation of social networking sites with skype like interaction takes off, will somebody else exploit it succesfully, leaving facebook languishing in the dot com graveyard having nicely performed its task of making a few people very well off? You don't need to read between the lines of this article to see that author's agenda. His problem is not Facebook but the people behind it (the fact that an entrepeneur and a venture capitalist have made some quick billions) and how they have done this ... he paints Thiel as a particularly sinister character. The CIA stuff and so on... unless we go to great lengths to live 'off the grid' (no bank account, credit card, electoral role entry, council tax registration etc etc.) the 'authorities' could find out pretty much anything they wanted to about most people Facebook or no Facebook. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

I read somewhere that Facebook has long been the place of choice for fascist groups to hang out. This alone is a good enough reason not to support it.

Really? I heard exactly the same thing about Brewers Fayres and therefore avoid them like the plague. jude "Cacoethes scribendi" http://www.judesworld.net

"I read somewhere that Facebook has long been the place of choice for fascist groups to hang out. This alone is a good enough reason not to support it." I don't really what people with unpleasant views using a communications and networking tool tells us about the service itself. Fascists also use the phone.

Agreed, but it's slightly more specific than the phone. I'd say it's more like avoiding a pub because the regulars are troublemakers and the landlord lets them get on with it.

There are also anarchist groups on Facebook; permaculture groups; comedy groups; reading and writing groups; oh and my dad and his blogging mates. I have come across no fascists so far. I don't really like it and I think it's an excuse for sending people junk, but it doesn't seem any more prone than any other web communication channel to being used by fascists. I think fascists use the post too.... the problems they have aren't with finding media, but with talking, typing or doing joined-up writing.

:) Let me make it clear - I have never come across any fascists on there either, so can only pass on what I've read. The nub of the issue for me is that I don't understand Facebook; when I tried get going on it, I found it inpenetrable. And just possibly, I don't have enough friends to make it worthwhile. Stupid Facebook.

www.lorrainemace.com I'm on it, but as it seems to consist of being invited to spend all my time doing things I'd rather not be doing, I rarely go on there. I also find it quite a pain to navigate.

Join the group for my book on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2618721629 ** "arrested by the CIA" Yeah! A good career move for any aspiring writer.