Entries tagged with privacy

Crossposts: https://sparr0.livejournal.com/86121.html

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Why should I use Facebook less?

After announcing or discussing my recent resolution to use other social networks and communication channels more often, people keep asking me this question. I am often momentarily dumbstruck, not knowing where to start. My general assumption is that people know at least some or most of the problematic (or even terrible) things about Facebook but choose to use it anyway because it is convenient. Of course, for people who get most of their news from Facebook, I guess I should not be surprised that they have missed a lot of important negative news about Facebook. And for people who mostly or even only use Facebook for online communication, I am not surprised they are blind to its failings. With that in mind, here is a list of reasons to rely on Facebook at least a little bit less than you do now:

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Crossposts: https://sparr0.livejournal.com/84603.html

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Resolving to use social network sites other than Facebook

With Facebook and Tumblr taking further steps to alienate their users I expect now to be a great time to re-explore other social networks. My almost-new-year resolution is that I will only load the Facebook news feed on my laptop via a bookmark folder that also opens other social network feeds, to encourage me to read content outside my FB filter bubble and to post to other audiences on other sites. While none of them offer everything that Facebook does, all of them offer something(s) that Facebook does not. That folder currently contains (my profile name/link in parentheses for each):

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Current Mood: embarrassed

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Remember the 4th amendment?

You are protected against unwarranted search and seizure of your property. Unless, that is, you are at the border, an ostensibly sensible exception if you ignore such antics as seizing citizens' laptops *permanently*. However, various border security agencies, and a number of courts who support them, have claimed to be exercising that exception as far as 100 miles inside our borders. This involves traffic stops, road blocks, searches, and interrogations.

Let me paint a picture for you, of the "necessary" area in which you are not protected by this bit of our founding fathers' intentions...

Check out this information from the ACLU on this issue.