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Dark side of the face

First thing first, I am a Facebook user but I never feel comfortable with it. I joined it because one of my friend, who has similar background as I do, joined it and I thought it's okay to follow. The problem I was worrying about was the personal information I'd put there. Facebook is different from many social web site in the way that real personal information is encouraged to post there. This is where I never feel comfortable with using it.

Then came the "Beacon Incident". In case you are not familiar with it, it is a Facebook feature that broadcast your internet activities to your Facebook friends. For example your friends will know what books you've  bought at Amazon or what movies you have watched if you rented them online. This feature attracted a lot of criticisms because Facebook's default setting of it was "ON". It can be too late even if you've managed to find a way to turn it off. Of course, putting these little pieces of information of you together helps them to profile and target you as a potential money spender.

Consequently I never really trust Facebook at all. Yes, I put some personal information there but stopped doing so for a long time. On top of that, there's discussion of quitting Facebook. It was reported that terminating your Facebook account is ridiculously difficult. It required you to remove every single bit of footprint you left there in order to successfully terminate your account. Say if you are active Facebook member for a few months, it will be hours of cleanup before you can bow out of the social network. Thus putting stuff there is definitely not my top priority.

Once in a while, I saw my friends got a "vampire attack" or "attacking some other friends" via Facebook. As someone who never spend much time there, I have no idea what that is. However the word "attack" should be a taboo on the internet as it frequently associates with hacker attack. Honestly I do not think the "vampire attack" is some hacker activities but it alerts me. Sometimes I also see other little programs or games or even surveys in Chinese. I am not against computer stuff in Chinese but these Chinese programs are obviously not developed by the Facebook administration which is in the States.  To me, it is very unlikely that these user-developed programs get any official Facebook seals. Indeed, given the track record of the Facebook administration, I never trust their approval of other third party programs as well. My rule of thumb on these program is quite simple, say "NO"! (Well I lied. I installed one after several friends' invitations and they seem okay using that particular program.)

So, you can imagine what my reaction to the following news is. Perhaps it is time for me to retreat from it!


黑客程式扮鬼扮馬 Facebook 私隱易泄

9 則留言:

  1. 我己經冇埋會FACE BOOK任何消息幾個月呢……太煩了……
    [版主回覆05/03/2008 21:55:00]Facebook 對我來說不是太煩,而是太亂不明白其他人在做甚麼。

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  2. You have the same thought as my sister's but what kind of privacy can they get?  For instance, I don't publish any work and education background and limit access to close friends only.  To me, it's a platform to share photos and have a little fun with those stupid apps.
    [版主回覆05/03/2008 22:03:00]Yes, this is a good move. After all we should be the one who are responsible to our privacy rather than leaving it to the hands of the Facebook administration.
    BTW, perhaps you should consider introducing your sister to me

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  3. 對於小弟 (電腦白痴) 可以話係好彩.....
    未玩過 facebook,唔知係咩 ? .... 原來係會公開私隱.....
    [版主回覆05/03/2008 23:37:00]老實講,所謂公開私隱只是小事,因為那些「私隱」是你自己認為較次要可以放上 Facebook 的資料。但那些我們不知底蘊的黑客程式有可能在你的電腦中放病毒,連一些你絕不會放上網的資料(如報稅資料,自拍裸照等)也從電腦中偷取了,甚或破壞你的電腦硬件也有可能。總之讓一些不明來源的電腦程式在自己部電腦啟動就是一件令人不安的事情。

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  4. She's in the States wor!  Ain't you got married already???
    [版主回覆05/04/2008 22:22:00]Still single...

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  5. 通过这篇文章,我才知道facebook,长见识,还能锻炼我的英语阅读能力,哈。
    [版主回覆05/04/2008 22:23:00]Facebook 本來就是老美的產物,要看英語有何奇哉!

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  6. 四個加拿大人就有一個係佢用户, 你都咪話唔得人驚!
    [版主回覆05/04/2008 22:24:00]可能因為加拿大人特別怕煩不肯去取消户口吧

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  7. 莫講話Facebook,就算MSN對我來說,已是非常複雜,所以都唔知係好彩,定係無知 ;好似唔關我事,但對部電腦越來越重介心!
    [版主回覆05/04/2008 22:36:00]MSN 都有類似問題,我個 MSN 一開,只要某親戚在線的話她就立刻 send message 給我,內容卻是叫我去安裝一個軟件。好肯定她的電腦受了那軟件影響而濫發訊息!

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  8. 但一個喺東, 一個喺西(加州)喎! 
    [版主回覆05/05/2008 02:27:00]This is alright as a joke

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  9. 我都好耐冇係Facebook update野了~
    開頭以為真係可以找到好多好舊既friend, 但係都唔得既...
    [版主回覆05/06/2008 05:47:00]如果你係美國佬就也許可以從中找到好多舊朋友;始終這玩意一開始的設計就不是供美國以外的人用的。

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