I wrote this over a year ago: Facebook.com is a website solely devoted to data mining – extracting your personal information and selling it to the highest bidder – you are giving up your privacy in exchange for a place to deposit every miserable detail of your McLife.
Some tangible reasons why people are drawn to Facebook.com:
-you really need to catch up with that kid that had a crush on you in Grade Six
-you really need to kill the kid that bullied you in Grade 3
-that 19 year old student teacher had a thing for you in 1974 and now that you are all grown up, it’s time for a follow-up
And for this you are willing to publish your birth date, place of employment, social insurance number, preference in Vodka, etc.
God speed friend, God speed.
And yet today, in June of 2008, we are investigating Facebook.com because of the obvious…
Canada’s privacy commissioner is investigating allegations that the social networking site Facebook.com may be illegally collecting personal information such as telephone numbers, birthdays, and instant messaging addresses without authorization.
Hello. Hello. Read the freaking fine print. Facebook.com has you by the DNA from the word go and all you need do is read the user agreement.
Getting Canada’s privacy commissioner involved with this nonsense is a waste of time. I mean, why not spend those government dollars on some more meaningful study… like why Dog’s bite, why Nun’s always have an evil glint in their eye and why there are signs like “Piercing & Tattoo’s while you wait”?
On a more ironic note – yesterday while waiting for my dear Mom-in-law and wife to finish a round of shopping at the Fairfield Thrifty Foods I watched a guy and a gal who had just met over Thrifty Foods sushi on a sidewalk table… interact, flirt, smile, touch and, get this… exchange Facebook creds. Surprisingly, the pretty Girl (Fiona) from Australia spent more time laughing and touching the guy – a slightly younger dude who heralded from a French farming community in Saskatchewan – he had a French last name starting with B but I was not paying that much attention to him. She was confident, older and Worldly wise. He just looked goofy and spent too much time imagining her naked.
And I did all of this with my ears… without the internet connection…
Try it sometime. Turn it off. Tune it out. And use what God gave you… to participate in the World around you.