Will You Quit Facebook?

32 Comments

  • Sreeprad Dronamraju - 12 years ago

    I dont want to delete mine or get deleted because, i used to live in U.S.A. and had sooooo many friends and i lost contact since i came to India, the only way I found was facebook, so if mine gets deleted, i wont have any furter contact with my friends.

  • @kkoolook - 13 years ago

    it's been over a year now… and I'm proud to say "I'm out of it"!

  • Alan - 14 years ago

    Already quit.

  • CC - 14 years ago

    My personal FB account I can do without, and I put very little personal information on it as I had been very mindful of personal information on the www. However I organize activities etc via an alternative FB account and its the quickest most efficient method to share information/gain feedback/RSVP etc(better than mass emails) so if my members quit FB, I would have to find alternative means of communication.

    Email? It gets pushed down the list if I send out invitations too early, people forget about it; if I sent it out too late, people are often otherwise engaged; if I send out multiple invitations, eventually people ignore it and/or mark it as spam...

    FB is still useful for something. Just be mindful of privacy issues... and don't put too much personal information on.

  • sum - 14 years ago

    Are these people not trying to shut down facebook to make there own???
    FB has been very popular and many people has benefit from it. Its our choice to put our personal stuff on facebook or not.

  • danngil - 14 years ago

    I was a reluctant Facebook joiner but it was the only way I could stay in touch with some of the weirder members of my family. For me, most people on Facebook are so boring social morons so why should I network with them. Example: My ex-wife is on Facebook.

    As soon as I joined, i started to get spam in my mailbox that I never had before. I can only attribute this to Facebook letting my e-mail address leak out to the spammers. I killed my Facebook when I realized where all this spam originated.

    Goodbye ex-wife, Nigerian letters and Canadian pharmacies.

  • Offgrid - 14 years ago

    If Facebook was smart they'd offer revenue sharing with their users.

    ie: If I say Avatar was my favorite movie and they post a link to sell the Avatar movie - then I should get a 50 % or 75% cut of whatever they earn.

    If they want to make it about business let's make it about business.

    Those that don't want to run Fcebook as a business could opt out -I'm betting most would opt in.

    Mark - you listening ???

  • qaddafi - 14 years ago

    My FB died yesterday. I feel so ... so ... indifferent.

  • Jenn - 14 years ago

    I only joined Facebook when an organization asked me to post events for publicity. Now I manage the page for my workplace. It's become so much of a time-waster that I want to quit, but have to maintain my responsibilities. I did delete all of the apps and change to the strictest possible privacy settings.

  • Brian Whitehead - 14 years ago

    If you look at the privacy settings for Friends, tags and connections
    you will find the following Disclaimer:

    “These settings only control the information people can see on your Profile.
    This information, such as your Pages and list of friends, is still public, so it
    could appear elsewhere on the site and be accessed by applications you
    and your friends use.”

    Comment 1: Surely the last line of this should refer not to apps used by you
    and your friends, but to apps used by you, your friends, Facebook's commercial
    partners & anybody else. Facebook claim 800,000 (and rising....fast) developers
    are currently writing apps for Fb. Nobody (Fb included) can have any idea just
    how many of those apps are likely to be written for malicious purposes.

    Comment 2: One criticism made of Fb has been that they make it very difficult
    to delete an account in that it has been necessary to delete everything in that account
    first. Although I believe they have backtracked on that, making it easier to delete
    an account, one thing they have not backtracked on is this: When an account is
    deleted, Fb still retain ALL the personal data from that account on their database.
    Facebook accounts are therefore NOT deleted, merely deactivated.

    Presumably then, Fb will continue to use your data for marketing purposes
    (otherwise there would be no point in them retaining it). It would seem logical
    that if they do this, they will continue to update that data with data acquired
    from "partner" sites. Any site with which you do business and that links to Fb
    will presumably continue to update your "deleted" profile for marketing
    purposes. A corollary of this is that even the "deactivation" of a Facebook
    account can only be a partial deactivation.

    Your only legal right under UK law (Data Protection Act, 1998) is that
    (for a small fee), you may demand to see what personal data a company
    holds relating to you. You may then demand the removal ONLY of that data
    which is incorrect.

    The message to me is pretty clear and is this: If you wish to retain control
    of any data relating to yourself, do not reveal that data to ANY website.

  • Sunking278 - 14 years ago

    I only used Facebook for a couple of days about a year or so back, and I never saw what the big deal about it was. Granted, I hardly ever use my account on MySpace now that I've got Twitter, but how is it any better or worse than Facebook? Why is everybody down on MySpace? At least there I'm allowed to use an alias. Frankly, a lot of us do care about our privacy, and not so much because of anything to hide. Some information should just be nobody's business; unless you know me, my name is not your concern. Nor is my occupation or anything else. Furthermore, I really don't need all the yahoos I went to school with trying to get back in touch with me after all these years, which is all I ever my friends going on about whenever they speak of their Facebook accounts. Leave the past behind. We're becoming a nation of busybodies, and it makes me sick. Point is, I CHOOSE to sound off on politics, sports, etc. via Twitter and my own blog, and believe very strongly that one should never share any information online they don't want public. I myself am quite opinionated and do not shy from expressing my opinions, but my personal details are still none of your business. Seems to me like the people behind Facebook want to take that option away from its users. Such a company does not deserve my business - even if it is a free service ... for now - and if any of you out there have even a shred of dignity and self-respect left (most in America today do not, but that's another rant) you'll tell these Facebook bozos to go screw.

  • Kathy - 14 years ago

    If you quit FB because of privacy, you should delete your real world account too. FB ans real world are not so different. In real world you don't tell your private life to any stranger you meet, do you? In Facebook it's the same: don't let anyone to be your "friend" if you don't know him and as far as you fear your private information could be spread all over the web, just don't tell any private info! Behave in FB as you would in the street.
    You're upset by the way facebook uses your habits on the web on a commercial purpose? Is it so different from all the information collected by the big stores fidelity cards? Any supermarket delivers its card and record everything you buy and uses these information to make you commercial propositions, but that doesn't scare anyone.
    Your credit card and your mobile phone "know" where you are and when, so do your bank, your phone provider and their commercial partners. Will you stop paying by card and phoning?
    That's how our world is. The most surprising is not what is happening with facebook right now, it's that it didn't happen sooner...

  • Ed Rosen - 14 years ago

    There are ways to prevent your information from being shared. You can opt out of the "public search" default setting by unchecking the box in the privacy settings. You can limit who sees your profile, either all of it or certain parts, by setting your privacy settings appropriately. I took these steps, and NO PROBLEMS!!

    These steps have been well publicized on the internet and on other media.... so sorry, folks, I really don't see any reason to discontinue my account with Facebook. And if someone out there DID have a problem with privacy issues becausse they failed to take the proper precautions, well, again, I'm sorry, but it isn't Facebook's fault if you neglected to take those measures.

  • Nigel Jones - 14 years ago

    I won't be quitting, but will be careful on how I use it, which will likely decrease.

    Whilst I far more often use twitter (esp to communicate with a broad spectrum of people) I still intend to retain my facebook profile to keep track of old school friends, colleagues & other less IT focussed friends that are still happily using fb......

    There doesn't appear to be a widespread alternative yet.

  • Bob - 14 years ago

    I was debating closing my account, but it really has nothing to do with privacy. It just seems to be so useless, friending people you never talk to, invitations to games, etc, etc. Not super high in the priority list I guess.

  • Julie - 14 years ago

    I am rather fed up with Facebook and the fact that a friend was a victim of a hacker just last week has given me even graver concerns. However, for all its faults, Facebook has given me a chance to reconnect with old friends and get to know cousins that I had been aware of in name only. That is the only thing holding me back at this point. The relationships with distant family members have become stronger and I would hate to lose the daily online family reunions. If there were a viable alternative that my friends and family members could trust, I would willingly embrace it. Facebook is getting to be more trouble than it is worth.

  • Dante - 14 years ago

    If there's no alternative for people to use, they won't quit Facebook. They may just do what many people have suggested which is provide as little info to Facebook as possible, which inevitably would have the same effect as people quitting. I think that would be a good question to add to the poll.

    In the end, a website like Beat-Play is going to come along, be a Pandora, a Facebook, and a Youtube all in one and Facebook will have no reasons left to use it. There are big changes ahead anyway. Quiting your Facebook account wouldn't be such a big deal. http://beatplay.wordpress.com

  • Alex - 14 years ago

    If FB does'nt do it, what % of ppl will really abandon FB. Not alot

  • Andre - 14 years ago

    It has happened with Google Buzz. Now it is Facebook. Didn't Yahoo! screw up with introduction of the Connections feature? Nobody noticed the Yahoo bungle. My take is that, Facebook is too good a service to give up on. Bugs do occur in applications and they get sorted out. The benefits are far greater than any other social networking service available today. Regarding privacy, are you okay with your house appearing in Google's street view, along with your home network and computer' information ? Did you know that your exact location can be tracked if you use Google maps from your mobile phone? And you can do nothing about it! C'mon people. You cannot live being paranoid. This too shall pass.

  • Franco Burlesconi - 14 years ago

    I quit a long time ago, I didn't like facebook then and now I know why. FB is too intrusive and tries too hard too force you into relationships with people you would never befriend in real life.

  • Suzy - 14 years ago

    I find all of this so silly. YOU are putting your private information on the internet and connecting with friends FOR FREE, and you complain about privacy issues? You have to give something in exchange for a FREE service. Facebook is not a non-profit. If people want privacy then Facebook should become a subscription model. Geez people, they are a business after all.

  • Joy - 14 years ago

    Of the people stating they'll quit, how many will quit for a day and join back up? If you use facebook as a warehouse, increase your privacy settings, are cautious of the content you post, and don't upload applications, it's not a bad deal. If you download farmville, games, and other applications without reading the fine print, you're to blame. Just my two cents.

  • alebt - 14 years ago

    I really struggle with whether to quit or not. I am extremely frustrated by the lack or seeming lack of ability to control my content. I have never put up much personal data to begin with, but I despise being hounded by ads and "suggestions". I don't use FB to promote myself or my activities in a "for profit" sense. I don't see the utility for me on announcing what things I like or have read online. I find that kind of exposure creepy. I would pay for a platform that gave me better control over who sees my content and the ability to more easily manage my groups.

  • PeoplestringPammo - 14 years ago

    I will remail on Facebook for the simple reason that Peoplestring is now linked to Facebook and offering its FREE members to make money while playing games. It is the wave of the future. Pay the members to keep the portal open for you.. It's a Win Win situation....

  • Andrea - 14 years ago

    I have also stripped my account as the way use Facebook changes (though my understanding is that the info is stored away on Facebook's servers for eternity). At first, FB was a way to catch up with long lost friends from high school and college. It has morphed, though: Now it is a way to stay in touch with the youth group I run. I've said for a while that I wished there was a 'speakeasy' version of facebook where I could be a bit more honest and tailor who sees what. :) Maybe that is what DIASPORA will be...

  • Adam Twersky - 14 years ago

    Yes, you are going to have a lot of your personal information shared with companies you don't know. BUT, is it really that bad? Here's why I am EXCITED about these Facebook changes:

    There is unlimited upside potential. You build a profile that represents you, and then entrepreneurs develop programs to send you advertisements that you WANT to see. Imagine this: you post a status update that indicates you're having a bad day, and then Facebook reads your location and sends you a message that Joe's Ice Cream around the corner is going to give you a large sundae for a dollar (because you list ice cream as an interest in your profile).

    Here's another one: You check in to a bar on Foursquare, which is linked to your Facebook. Hours later, the bar is closing, and you get a text message that a taxi is available if you want it, and no cash is needed because it goes through PayPal's Facebook app.

    These are examples of extreme integration with social media, increasing transparency, and allowing business people to pitch a hyper-relevant product or service in real-time. I could list a thousand high value, innovative ways for Open Graph to benefit us individually and as a society. However, I don't deny the potential downside... I just won't elaborate since the media has launched it's own assault. The only way to know for sure is to wait it out and see, and it's in my blood to take some risks. Who's with me?

  • JC - 14 years ago

    I am entrapped since I created a business page for a music venue I work at. If I delete my personal account, the business account goes too. Horseshit.

  • Trey - 14 years ago

    I would quit Facebook if there were some comparable alternative that was more concerned with users' privacy (glares impatiently at Diaspora developers). As it is, though, all I can do is wait for an alternative to come along and try to fully utilize what privacy settings there are.

  • Andrew - 14 years ago

    You're only as vulnerable as the information you submit to Facebook. I've stripped my Facebook profile of info over the years to where it's little more than a handle for me to communicate with other friends. No need to post birth dates, interests, hobbies, etc. It's not match.com.

  • theStrux - 14 years ago

    Quitting Facebook was the first step after I read about the changes in privacy. And of course I encouraged some friends to do the same.
    So get yourself into it and spread the facts about the new privacy rules.

  • Anita - 14 years ago

    I already HAVE quit Facebook. (You really don't want to know all the reasons why, do you?)

  • Frances Bell - 14 years ago

    I'd like to see Facebook be set an ultimatum to change their whole philosophy on privacy - otherwsie they'll just batten down the hatches and ride it out.

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