I decided there’d be no harm getting that Facebook archive since I was no longer using it. And while I didn’t see phone logs as Dylan McKay did (I only had the app for about a month or so in 2012), what I did find was entirely in line with the privacy breaches I had […]
Tag: deception
Is the death of expertise tied to the Anglosphere?
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Boris Johnson: usually a talented delivery, but with conflicting substance. I spotted The Death of Expertise at Unity Books, but I wonder if the subject is as simple as the review of the book suggests. There’s a lot out there about anti-intellectualism, and we know it’s not an exclusively […]
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Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: the signs were there for years, if one only looked
Facebook’s woes over Cambridge Analytica have only prompted one reaction from me: I told you so. While I never seized upon this example, bravely revealed to us by whistleblower Christopher Wylie and reported by Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison of The Guardian, Facebook has shown itself to be callous about private data, mining preferences even […]
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Wired’s Louise Matsakis did what no other journalist could: break the story on Facebook’s forced malware scans
With how widespread Facebook’s false malware accusations were—Facebook itself claims millions were “helped” by them in a three-month period—it was surprising how no one in the tech press covered the story. I never understood why not, since it was one of many misdeeds that made Facebook such a basket case of a website. You’d think […]
Why the love? Google tracks you when location services are off; Facebook allegedly listens in on conversations
Above: We boarded the Norwegian Jewel yesterday—then my other half got a cruise-themed video on YouTube. Hat tip to Punkscience for this one. My other half and I noted that her YouTube gave her a cruise-themed video from 2013 after we boarded the Norwegian Jewel yesterday for a visit. Punkscience found this article in […]
After years, the tech press catches on about Facebook’s inflated user numbers
In 2014, I began warning that Facebook’s user numbers were false, and I also began saying that at some point, the site would boast more people than there were online users on Earth. (In fact, I said this very thing again earlier this week, ironically on a friend’s Facebook, above.) I couldn’t see how […]
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If Facebook says you have malware, do not download their program—here’s a way around it
An interesting weekend on Facebook. Despite regaining access, I’m not allowed to post links (with the accusation that my computer is infected—see above), and after considerable research, I know this to be completely untrue. The Facebook malware accusations are targeted at certain users and, from the tiny sample of four that have responded to […]
Facebook forced me to download their anti-malware, and my own antivirus gets knocked out
When Facebook says it cares about security, I laugh. Every day I see bots, spammers and click-farm workers plague the site, and despite reporting them, Facebook lets them stay. It will make a statement saying it would no longer kick off drag queens and kings, then proceed to kick off drag queens and kings. So […]
Google tracks your searches, and uses them, even when your web history is turned off
My dislike of Google is no secret, and, as a precaution, I have every known Google tracking setting turned off. I even block the Doubleclick and YouTube cookies. However, I have to manage a page at Google Plus—and Google cleverly tracks you through its Plus service. It doesn’t lie about it: When you use […]
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Does frictionless sharing go further than we think?
Frictionless sharing on Facebook, as I understand it, works largely as described in the diagrams at Shortstack. If you want more depth, ReadWriteWeb explains it. But what if you have never authorized the application? In my case, I have never authorized anything from Disney or ABC. I double-checked today to see what apps I […]
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