Facebook and Carcassonne

[Tobias]

Their privacy policy is a joke, and the safeguards for this information have proven multiple times to be ineffective. They are simply too cavalier with people's personal information. Thanks but no thanks.

Well, to be honest - the whole idea with facebook is to not indulge in privacy. You are using your real name (most often) and your real phone number etc. You can mark your profile so no one but your friends can view the details though.

And, about pictures and such becoming their property - that is how it is pretty much everywhere.

[mjharper]

I don't think it's that kind of privacy that Ganty means. Check this page on Wikipedia, for example.

Clearly, the aim of Facebook and similar sites is social networking. That isn't the same as making your information available to all and sundry without your knowledge or consent—and in some cases, in against your will.

[mjharper]

Incidentally, Tobias has spurred me to attempt to delete my Facebook account. Given that from within the account itself, I could only opt to deactivate it, I had to look elsewhere. So I found some advice here, which provided a link for permanently deleting my account using this link. Given that all this did was send an inquiry to Facebook, and I received an email in response telling me that they would "get back to me" soon, I'm curious to see what happens.

Edit: Facebook apparently closed my account at 01:13 on Friday 4 July.

[Wishmaster]

Facebook - No not me. Really don't see the point.

[denalin]

Their privacy policy is a joke, and the safeguards for this information have proven multiple times to be ineffective.

Why would you even have a need to put up vital personal information in the first place?

[mjharper]

Their privacy policy is a joke, and the safeguards for this information have proven multiple times to be ineffective.

Why would you even have a need to put up vital personal information in the first place?

Well, part of the point of such social networking sites is precisely not to follow the usual internet practice of using false information and/or avatars. How are you going to find old school friends if you do? Sure, I personally am fairly upfront about who I am. But how many people here know Gantry's real name? And what would be the point in him making a Facebook account as "Gantry"? No, he'll make an account as Michael Mustermann (no, that isn't Gantry's name). And what happens when some firm wants to check on a potential employee and finds his Facebook account, which he can't close down properly after he quits university, because Facebook won't let him? On top of which Facebook tracks your behaviour on its affiliate sites, even if you're logged out of Facebook at the time.

Just why do you think that all these advertising companies are quite so interested in Facebook, and its valuation is so high? It's because it presents them with a form of targeted advertising hitherto unseen on the net, with identified and tracked customers. And Facebook themselves seem perfectly happy to buy into this, even against their users' wishes. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook.

Edited for typos.

[Gantry]

Spot on.

[Scott]

I don't think I've commented in this thread yet, but I agree with Matt.

Besides, there are lots of people I lost touch with on purpose and don't want them to be able to find me back.

Some of my friends and family encourage me to join Facebook, but it bothers me that they are too lazy to just send me an e-mail when they want to talk.

[mjharper]

Okay, just so that no-one thinks I'm a huge hypocrite (fat chance!), a couple of days I re-opened a Facebook account. Why? Peer pressure, mostly. I moved recently, and almost everyone I know is on Facebook. It decided to give it another go, avoiding giving much personal information, and to see how it integrates with other services I use.

Not a hypocrite. Just have no backbone

[Novelty]

But there's even a larger outcry about the ToS recently.  I was watching about it on CNN...

[mjharper]

Yes, I know. Ironic, really. But yesterday I read that they will now put any changes to the ToS to the vote of members. So maybe there's hope...

[Deatheux]

carcassonne on facebook, waht a #@$%$?&%??%#@ world, what more useless than facebook... phah

can a GAME, stay a GAME?

[mjharper]

@Deatheux:

But you could say the same about this website too, and the whole of BGG.

Also: no need to shout.

[Scott]

I have been feeling the pressure myself. Not only are many of my friends and relatives on Facebook, but also many of my co-workers. I remain undecided.

[Wishmaster]

I caved in a few weeks back as both my daughter's and then my wife joined so did to see what the fuss was about... and I still can't see it. Is there a Carc group on it? Why is Deatheux yelling?  Is he objecting to us talking about something that isn't Carcassonne? Strange.