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Why social networks are a threat to life as some know it

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f0dder:
I still don't see it as a scam. If the terms of service didn't state that "all your data are belong to us", I might have been inclined to agree with your. But it is, afaik. And the site is a valuable resource for me, unlike things that I would classify as scams (like the "click here to see party pictures of your friends!" MSN spam worms).

And yes, I do feel that facebook is pretty harmless, since I choose which information I want to enter. So, they know my name and email address, and some of the people I know. Big deal. Of course there's a lot of sheeple who enter a lot more information about themselves, have compromising pictures, and install whatever spam-infested data-mining third-party "applications", but well... I'm not one of them.

Ehtyar:
I won't get into f0dder vs. kartal, but one of my biggest concerns is that websites like Facebook do what most people would probably consider unscrupulous things with their data, and despite the fact that their TOS mentions it, most people are likely entirely unaware of it. It's similar in a way to 3rd party tracking cookies, it's plain as day that it happens, but no one's concerned about it ('cept probably kartal and I). Anyway, I digress, my concern is that this sort of veiled underhandedness (please don't pounce on that phrase, I use it simply because I'm not sure what else to call it) is becoming more and more common, and people seem to be more and more accepting of it. I worry how soon it will be unavoidable in every day life (think credit cards).

Ehtyar.

f0dder:
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I enjoy being datamined, and I'm certainly not a fan of the "all your data are belong to us" mentality. And you definitely won't see me using gmail (or any other free mail service, for that matter!) for anything personal/important.

On the other hand, I just don't see the super big deal wrt. facebook. Yeah, you can see it as a downward slope of increasing acceptance (or ignorance) of datamining in general. But as long as there's still cash (as in coins and bills) and I don't have to take on organic chemistry, well... *shrug*

mahesh2k:
As far Orkut/Twitter is concerned its better not to reveal your personal information,Facebook is much safer than Orkut i think :)

40hz:
Yeah, you can see it as a downward slope of increasing acceptance (or ignorance) of datamining in general.
-f0dder (November 01, 2008, 06:09 AM)
--- End quote ---

Seriously, is there any other way that trend could be taken? The time to take a stand on privacy is not the day after there isn't any.

I don't see kartal arguing against the whole notion of social networking. I think he/she is raising concerns about the many so-called "social" sites that are really little more than fronts for other business endeavors - endeavors which they try to camouflage as much as possible.

 :)

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