This day’s Facebook News Update is courtesy of PC World. See the full article at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/229870/facebook_photo_tagging_a_privacy_guide.html .
Ah, Facebook is at it – again. When will these people learn that their network (all of us who use Facebook) HATE CHANGE and especially BEING TRACKED, like some weird scenario out of the book “1984”? They are really caught between a rock and a hard place. Their users and fans demand they stay on the cutting edge of technology, yet anything implemented immediately elicits the response of putting up a, “I Hate the Latest Change Facebook Has Made to My
Page” fan page. Who needs t.v.? It’s as entertaining to watch the users react as it is to watch Facebook react to the reaction.
This week’s trauma & drama comes courtesy of the Facebook Gods decreeing there will be an easier way to tag your photos via facial recognition. Should you be afraid of it? Should you react like a cobra who reacts to being stepped on – with hissing and spitting and biting back the hand that enables our world’s largest social network? Uh, no. And here’s why:
If you are afraid of this newest tool, you could be an escaped convict on the run and shouldn’t be playing around on Facebook in the first place, so do us all a favor and go quietly turn yourselves in to the police already.
Or you could be an overly paranoid person, in which case you might want to go take some courses on self-esteem. They can only do you and your friends a world of good.
If you are neither of these, you are probably a pretty well-balanced person who just doesn’t want your ex-husband or boyfriend to find you. In that case, turn off the Facial Recognition option and go back to your business. You see, that’s the problem with this implementation because, like everything else Facebook had done, they have turned this damn option “on” for everyone instead of “off” and letting people decide for themselves whether they want to utilize it or not. Maybe it’s a limitation of the software platform they use, but if it is, they should find a way to remedy that before they get into trouble with someone big enough to do something about it like, say, the Gods of the Internet or the U.S. Government.
And if you think the government isn’t watching them, check out this little factoid in an online article amusingly called, “The Paranoid’s Guide to Facebook”: “Congress recently sent Facebook an open letter asking the company to explain the disclosure of user identities to third parties (as originally reported by the Wall Street Journal), and how the
company plans to address this issue.” Yeah, that’s the ticket, now we’re really getting Orwellian on their hinies!
If I were you (or me) I would be MUCH MORE WORRIED about the utilization of Facebook “places” for as this same article continues, “Using Facebook Places has its benefits, but whether you’re using a mobile device or a desktop, telling the world where you are has major disadvantages. When you broadcast your location, you’re exposing vulnerabilities for an ill-intentioned person to swoop up. And your iPhone or Android-based Smartphone can broadcast your exact geographic coordinates down to a few feet.”
Yes, there is a lot to be paranoid about in the world, people, but we can only keep track of so much of it. Pick your battles and win them so in the end you really can win the war.
Article also cited:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/210859/the_paranoids_guide_to_facebook.html%23tk.mod_rel