Reason # 3,000000,000 Why I don't go near Facebook

[HiFlyer 5,800]

Waaaaaaaayyy to much personal information on these sites, which are semi-regularly hacked, not to mention being focal points for information stealing virus and etc. Robberies like this are not uncommon, which is why you should never post that you are leaving your house, even for a few hours, or post pictures of your enticeingly nice possessions.....

 

http://www.digitaltr...d-within-hours/

 

Quickly attracting unwanted attention from criminals, a teenager in Australia failed to use her common sense when posting a photo on Facebook

 

As mentioned by the

BBC News recently, a 17-year-old girl was visiting her grandmother in Sydney, Australia when she took a picture of a ”large sum of cash” while helping her grandmother count her cash savings at the home. The teenager posted the picture on her Facebook feed around 4 p.m. on Thursday May 24. Approximately seven hours later, two masked men armed with a wooden club and a knife entered the girl’s family home 75 miles away in the town of Bundanoon. Upon entering the family home, the men found the 47-year-old mother of the girl as well as a 58-year-old man and 14-year-old boy, likely her father and brother.

 

When speaking to the family, the two men wanted to talk to the girl about the sum of money in the picture that was posted on Facebook. After the girl’s mother convinced the two armed men that her daughter no longer lived at the address, they “took a small amount of cash and other personal property before leaving the house” according to the

official police statement regarding the incident.

 

Also within the official statement, the police reminded the public to be careful of the type of information that’s posted on social networks like Facebook. With the rise in popularity of geotagging photos with location data prior to posting on a social network, Facebook users may want to use groups to limit the amount of sharing among their entire friend’s list and avoid using public posts when publishing personal information or location data.

 

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[lthendrix 25]

Face book and its brainless minions ARE the zombie apacolypse

[FIVE-BY-FIVE 453]

My brother is married with 2 kids and posts everything about his day on facebook, including hundreds of pics and video of his house and children. Alot of people are addicted to Social Sites just like we're addicted to Sims.

[TurboTomato 90]

Meh. It's common sense. I use facebook quite a lot and don't have issue with it, but then I'm not a moron. If you act like a moron then yes, as with so many things in life, it will probably catch you out. People wonder why it catches up with them when they do something like slating their employer on facebook. Me? Talk about plenty of things on facebook, but never work related - there is a time and a place for that, but it's not facebook.

[pmanhart 176]

I use Facebook, but have never posted a single picture save my profile picture. I also only use it to communicate with long lost family and friends, only posting the most essential of information.

 

Like most things in life, it's not the tool that is dangerous, it's the ignoramous using it.

[747-fan 19]

A bit of RTFM and common sense and you'll be just fine on Facebook. A few absolutes for me: Never add your boss. Close your account for people you don't know. Don't say that you're out of town and have left your house unguarded. Don't post your personal information people don't need to know. Never click on suspicious looking links. Use your eyes properly and be mindful.

 

Also, never add facebook commercials, including "liking" commercial companies or posts they make. I don't "like" PMDG, even though I like them in real life. McPhat's scheme to require that you "like" them to get a free repaint is bonkers. No chance in h**l I'm going to do that. Nor should anybody else either.

 

Don't be an idiot and you'll be fine.

[FLEX1978 371]

C'mon, posting pictures of a large sum of cash? Someone that stupid (or trusting) is going to be done over one way or another. We have control over social media because we choose what we want to upload.

 

I used to have this angst against Facebook until I realised I can block out most of the crap. I initially added so Many random family members ex girlfriends etc etc, even weirdos that wanted to add me because we had the same surname.. The whole ethos of social media is now changing, just like if some random guy comes up to me in the street and says 'hey, I used to know your sisters ex boyfriend who owned the same dog as you' doesn't make you friends. Take a bit of control and decide who you want to have access to your information and what information your willing to share.

 

I have got in contact with so many old friends now abroad and vice versa through Facebook, some people I grew with I don't even need to contact, just to see them them post a pic with there families and see them happily getting on with there lives is great, something like that would have been almost impossible previously without hunting through a huge phone book.

 

The only problem with Facebook today is some people try to use it as platform to be a mini celebrity, who cares what you had for breakfast...

 

Last time I checked I was an individual with choices, and I have plenty of choices regarding how I maintain my profile

[HiFlyer 5,800]

Problem is that those choices can be overridden, and there are numerous examples of information that was intended to be segregated from casual acquaintances becoming public through errors or exploits in the system(s) Not to mention red-faced companies forced through whistle-blowers or other incidents to admit to skulduggery or outright theft/loss of peoples private data.

 

A very (VERY) large company I use to work for with zillions of customers very quietly changed its policy page to claim that all your data, private or public collected on its systems was now the personal property of said company to do with as they pleased. I run screaming from as many of these services as I reasonably can, because your trusted information can become anybodys at the drop of a hat and the change of a particles charge.

[FLEX1978 371]

Hiflyer, my initial reply was regarding Facebook. It seems now you are referencing large corporations that sell on data that you are normally obliged to submit when purchasing a product, eg Broadband,LCD TV (in the UK) , etc etc.

 

I am in complete agreement on you regarding that side of things, when I get back to my house in the UK I am normally submerged in junkmail wondering how the hell did they get my name? Facebook is slightly different, you have a choice regarding what information you give out, and if you have any doubt don't post it. It's really not that complicated.

 

Btw, don't take me too seriously mate ;) I just think some people get really involved with social media then wonder why they get burned, just use it for what it is, another medium to communicate

[HiFlyer 5,800]

Hiflyer, my initial reply was regarding Facebook. It seems now you are referencing large corporations that sell on data that you are normally obliged to submit when purchasing a product, eg Broadband,LCD TV (in the UK) , etc etc.

 

I am in complete agreement on you regarding that side of things, when I get back to my house in the UK I am normally submerged in junkmail wondering how the hell did they get my name? Facebook is slightly different, you have a choice regarding what information you give out, and if you have any doubt don't post it. It's really not that complicated.

 

Partially right on my intent. Facebook for me comes into that category because many people who tried to limit extremely personal information to a small circle of friends or family found out (in many instances) to their dismay that the "privacy settings did not do what they expected, or were easily undermined in various ways. Information is simply not as safe or as private as many people think, and that includes Facebook.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Beacon Things like this continue to pop up from time to time and I am super-wary. Nothing against Facebook specifically. I don't completely trust any social media at this time.

[Propane 16]

http://en.wikipedia....Facebook_Beacon Things like this continue to pop up from time to time and I am super-wary. Nothing against Facebook specifically. I don't completely trust any social media at this time.

 

You do understand that this forum is a form of social media as well, right? Yet you post here, with a first name included and an 'enticing' setup in your signature. Someone checks out your IP, gets a general location, digs a bit deeper and will end up with a nice target for some breaking and entering. Who knows, someone might be outside your house sniffing for wifi networks. Or perhaps at your local coffee shop, scouring the free wifi there which you might use to check your email.

 

Yes, your real name might not be Devon, or you might not own that setup, or whatever. You can also register on Facebook with a fake name and post pictures you found on the web of stacks of money and be perfectly fine.... Point is that there is no privacy on the Internet, or at least you should treat it that way. Just use common sense on what you do and do not wish to disclose all too publicly. You'll probably be suprised once you get a glimpse on what some companies already have on you. Probably a lot more than what you're trying to prevent them from getting by avoiding social media.

 

Or at least that's my simple opinion.

[HiFlyer 5,800]

You do understand that this forum is a form of social media as well, right? Yet you post here, with a first name included and an 'enticing' setup in your signature. Someone checks out your IP, gets a general location, digs a bit deeper and will end up with a nice target for some breaking and entering. Who knows, someone might be outside your house sniffing for wifi networks. Or perhaps at your local coffee shop, scouring the free wifi there which you might use to check your email.

 

Yes, your real name might not be Devon, or you might not own that setup, or whatever. You can also register on Facebook with a fake name and post pictures you found on the web of stacks of money and be perfectly fine.... Point is that there is no privacy on the Internet, or at least you should treat it that way. Just use common sense on what you do and do not wish to disclose all too publicly. You'll probably be suprised once you get a glimpse on what some companies already have on you. Probably a lot more than what you're trying to prevent them from getting by avoiding social media.

 

Or at least that's my simple opinion.

 

Yup. I keep all of that firmly in mind, and expressed my concerns when another sim site considered making user pictures and, I believe, Facebook access mandatory. Its the balance between calculated risk and making it all too easy. And as for what companies have on you, I was once, as part of my job, able to get pretty much every bit of data on a person just from an address (without having to ask thier permission or tell them about it) including their credit information and that of their relatives on the premises (and with a few cross checks) all across the US and Canada, usually within less than 30 seconds.

 

I hated the fact that it was possible, and itched to tell people what was being done to them without their knowledge. I was ecstatic when states, beginning with California of course, began slowly erecting barriers. (poor ones that are being taken down now) I know the dangers all too well.

 

But just because you will be inevitably pricked by some thorns, it doesn't mean you give up and just fling yourself into the briar-patch. The problem is that too many people don't even know the briar-patch is there, or how quickly its growing. That's how you wind up with stories like I posted. Many people just don't really grasp how it all works, and just assume its safe.

 

Stories like this and others are slowly making people see the pitfalls.

[Matthew Kane 984]

Quickly attracting unwanted attention from criminals, a teenager in Australia failed to use her common sense when posting a photo on Facebook

 

But how is that any different then anyone here on AVSIM???

 

Some people on here post their Hardware specs and a lot of their Flight Sim Software, and then they post their location on the Member Map.....Kind of the same thing if you ask me.

[Cessnaflyer 56]

AVSIM is social media. You come here and talk and AVSIM is supported by targeted advertising. The only way to be isolated from the world is to not live on it. No matter if you like it or not there is always an all seeing eye on you.

[HiFlyer 5,800]

There may be an all seeing eye, but that doesn't mean you shrug and throw open all your windows when you are not home. Or leave your doors unlocked, or leave your id and credit cards laying about. And then post notices about it. Unfortunately, for some reason, the day to day common sense we use to protect ourselves in the real world does not get applied to the web.

 

There is some sort of disconnect.

 

And there is some sort of reality dysfunction as well. Is locking your car door, and keeping track of your wallet and the valuable data in it, isolation from the world? Our culture seems to be pushing us to go with the flow and simply accept that we are naked as babes on the internet, and many people, acclimated to this mentality, don't even give a second thought to what they put out there now. Again, this story and others like it are the result. I understand the commercial incentives for encouraging this heedlessness, but its still (for now) a personal decision whether one rolls over for it or not.