Facebook may have helped Trump win election

Anybody deleting because of this?

I was trying to wean myself off Facebook before/independent of this brouhaha, but this may help me stay off. They are a very arrogant company. 

I gave up FB two years ago after learning many actually get their news from there. Incredible. 

This made me wonder if MySpace still existed. I just checked, and it encourages one to sign in with their Facebook account.

I never created a Facebook account (when I started getting piles invitations from "friends" I barely knew, I was scared off by Facebook's overuse of people's contacts lists, and figured maximum data-mining was a feature, not a bug). 

But I'm going to forewarn you, as a Facebook-less person, it's a bit of a lonely world (which is fine for my hermit-side, but may not work for those who are more social). And I have a ridiculous amount of logins for different things because I can't simply use the "Sign in with Facebook" option on many sites. 

So, just be aware that your account may be what currently provides you access to other things, and some other modern conveniences and connections will probably be lost.  But if you decide to join the 'hermit' club, then: Welcome. And... that's about it.

didn’t we know this already?

Yeah, realistically I'm not very confident I'll stay off, given Facebook's reach. But for me it's worth a try, even if it's only a temporary break.

Aside from bad corporate behavior, I had been finding my FB feed generally becoming less and less interesting but I still I found myself clicking in and mindlessly scrolling, too often. 

sprout said:

This made me wonder if MySpace still existed. I just checked, and it encourages one to sign in with their Facebook account.

I never created a Facebook account (when I started getting piles invitations from "friends" I barely knew, I was scared off by Facebook's overuse of people's contacts lists, and figured maximum data-mining was a feature, not a bug). 

But I'm going to forewarn you, as a Facebook-less person, it's a bit of a lonely world (which is fine for my hermit-side, but may not work for those who are more social). And I have a ridiculous amount of logins for different things because I can't simply use the "Sign in with Facebook" option on many sites. 

So, just be aware that your account may be what currently provides you access to other things, and some other modern conveniences and connections will probably be lost.  But if you decide to join the 'hermit' club, then: Welcome. And... that's about it.

There was a general awareness that people used Facebook (and Twitter, for that matter) to disseminate misinformation before the election, but the FTC suit that's now in the news takes it one step further about how lax Facebook allegedly was in protecting user data.

FB stock is down 12% this week so far, so this is definitely news on the corporate level. 

conandrob240 said:

didn’t we know this already?

I deleted my account. I stopped using FB altogether a couple of months ago, and warned my family I wasn't using it at all any more. Not that I was ever a frequent user. 

But after the latest, I just deleted my account altogether. As far as I am concerned Facebook is over. I hope their stock plummets, and I have done my little bit to help it along. 

The harvesting of the personal data of 50 million users is new news, I think. As is the Cambridge Analytica/Russia connection.

conandrob240 said:

didn’t we know this already?

This is sad news in some respects. FB is a very effective platform for charities and other organizations to mobilize volunteers, raise money, and get the message out. It's been great for animal rescue. I can't think of anything that will replace it.

I have never actually joined Facebook, although there have been times when I have felt like I was unnecessarily partitioning myself from a large segment of society. It has been a personal decision of mine, mostly driven by knowing that I would spend far too much time checking in and seeing what was going on. I actually deactivated my Twitter account back on February 14th, which means at this point it should be completely deleted.

Kthrny I totally get what you are saying. The problem is when you make a deal with Facebook, where about you get  a digital presence with no direct Financial cost, but the hidden cost in terms of the value of data they collect from you and resell he is so hard to quantify. You just don't know what you are giving up in exchange for what appears to be a free service. The current situation makes it apparent that Facebook isn't interested in enforcing even the simplest expectations of privacy. Their profit motive is entirely biased toward making it easier for people to acquire your personal information or the personal information of a charity or other organization.