Facebook loses nearly 50% value off its shambolic May IPO price, and reveals it has 83million FAKE accounts

• Facebook's stock fell to an all time low of $19.82 a share at one point today
• That is almost half its May initial offering price of $38
• 8.7% of its 995 million active users may not exist, social networking firm admits
• Astonishing figure revealed in company filings
• Users found to have multiple accounts, and even pages for their pets

By MARK PRIGG
DAILYMAIL
August 2, 2012

Facebook's share price today hit an all time low of $19.82 which values the social networking giant at almost half its May initial offering price of $38.

The company’s stock dropped 88 cents on Thursday, dropping to its new low after the company posted disappointing earnings last week.

It also directly followed the revelation today there are now more than 83 million fake users on its social network.

Are your Facebook friends real? Mark Zuckerberg's site has been found to contain over 83 million fake profiles

 The astonishing figure makes up 8.7% of all Facebook's 995 million active users.

The true scale of the problem was hidden in a company filing published this week, the first since the firm went public.

Duplicate profiles made up 4.8% of the fakes, user-misclassified accounts amounted to 2.4%, and 1.5% of users were described as 'undesirable'.

There were 83.09 million fake users in total, which Facebook classified in three groups.

The largest group were duplicate accounts, such as those set up by people to keep their activities from their partner...

(Click here to continue reading the article on DAILYMAIL)

When will the youth learn that plagiarism is crime; don`t paste to FB without credit

Why does the modern day youth behave so haughty and in total disregard for others rights. To them the word respect is lost upon them in no comprehension. Particularly, they steal other`s work or intellectual property in complete wanton and disregard. With the advent of modern technology, intellectual property is ripped off left and right with no due proper credit or citation. To them its just cut and paste everywhere without ever thinking of the person the credit belongs to or any mention.

With social media upbeat with the youth, all the material is posted and pasted in an instant to the whole world. With the work they 'steal,' they never give an effort to give credit or citation to the author. For example, many of my blog posts that I`ve written with great time, effort and heart are copied and pasted onto Facebook without ever a mention to my name or at least the blog title. And they do it knowingly for other works they post onto their Facebook wall. This is just wrong and a flagrant violation of copyright. Its plagiarism plain and simple. At least to not have the common sense to give credit when credit is due is just not wrong but plain stupidity and irresponsible. When will they learn some responsibility in their lives? They are truly doomed if they go about their lives in such manner, infringing on others rights. They will surely learn a hard lesson one day...

Your Facebook pictures may turn away perspective employers and lose you a job

Dislike: Having inappropriate pictures on your Facebook profile really could lose you a job

• Researchers warn of increase in employers checking candidates social networking profile
• Lifestyle, attitudes and even your appearance in photos can matter

By MARK PRIGG
DAILYMAIL
July 23, 2012

Your Facebook profile really could lose you a job, researchers have found.

In one of the biggest ever studies of the importance of Facebook profiles among job hunters, American scientists found that employees increasingly use the social networking site to weed out unsuitable candidates.

'While employers are using Facebook to monitor their employees, they have also begun to use it as a screening tool when considering potential candidates,' said Vanessa de la Llama of the Florida International University in North Miami, who led the research.

However, the lack of guidelines means many firms simply follow their own judgement of just how bad your Facebook profile pictures are.

'Because this is a fairly new trend, a standardized set of guidelines has yet to be established, with employers often assessing job applicants in a subjective manner.'

The researchers said they hope to raise the ethical questions for debate surrounding whether or not employers should be using Facebook and other social networks to screen candidates.

'The question of whether employers are providing job candidates with equal opportunities if they are assessing online "image" prior to interviewing candidates must be raised,' they wrote.

'Of course, it is possible that one's Facebook activity is a perfectly acceptable window on to one's personality.'

Two U.S senators are calling for an investigation into the practice of asking for Facebook passwords in job interviews so that interviewers can 'look through' accounts for information that might be concealed from the public.

The practice, which has horrified privacy campaigners, could be against Federal law.

Facebook itself has already said that the practice - which has been documented at several American organisations - is a violation of its terms of use and could potentially lead to legal action.

Facebook to blame for rise in plastic surgeries

Plastic surgery on the rise because 'people hate the way they look on Skype and FaceTime'

By CHRISTINE SHOW
DAILY MAIL
July 12, 2012

More social media users are turning to plastic surgery after being repulsed with the way they look in pictures on video chats like Skype and Apple's FaceTime.

Surgeons are seeing such a rise in people getting cosmetic procedures like facelifts and nose jobs that some of have even created specific procedures to accommodate patients unhappy with closeup views of their appearance on the social-networking sites, it has been revealed.

The social media images offers people an alternate perspective on how they look by showing off fatty and unsightly parts of their body that they otherwise didn't notice in a mirror.

Eye of the beholder: More social media users are getting plastic surgery after being repulsed with their looks in Facebook pictures and video chats (file photo)

One surgeon from California, Robert K Sigal, has developed a specific procedure related to the issue called a 'FaceTime Facelift.'

'People don't come in asking for a FaceTime Facelift per say,' Dr Sigal said in a YouTube posting on his practice's website. 'What they'll say is, "I don't like the way I look when I'm video-chatting. I seem full and heavy under the neck.'

The plastic surgeon went on to say that people often pull their neck down when talking on a video chat on an iPhone, for example, that shows unflattering flabs under and around their face.

Dr. Adam Schaffner, a New York plastic surgeon, told Betabeat.com that more and more people have come to his office because they were unhappy with their presence online.

'Frequency': Online images offer people an alternate perspective on their looks by showing unsightly body angles that they didn't see in a mirror (file photo)

'With a good degree of frequency, people will come in and say, "I saw myself in the mirror, but I didn’t really notice it until I saw myself on Facebook or on my iPhone or iPad."'

He continued: 'When you look in the mirror you’re seeing the mirror image of yourself. But when you see yourself on social media, you’re seeing yourself the way the world sees you.'

Tina Consorti, 60, a regular Skype user, told Betabeat.com that she got a facelift after deciding that she had an unattractive chin and wrinkles while chatting with someone on a Skype video.

She said her chin looked double its size: 'Going on Skype or FaceTime you definitely see it - it looks twice as big as it normally is.

'I just wanted a nice clean look when I’m conversing with someone on Skype.'

Is Facebook Really Haram?

Published on Mar 26, 2012 by TheMercifulServant
http://youtu.be/D9UUPF6csyg

How a Muslim should act and behave while conducting themselves on social media networks such as facebook.


fb.me/TheServantsofAllah
www.youtube.com/TheMercifulServant
www.youtube.com/QuranWeekly

Facebook: The Hidden Danger

Facebook: The Hidden Danger
by: YASMIN MOGAHED |FEBRUARY 27, 2011 
SuhaibWebb.com
from the Islam and the Internet Series

We live in an iWorld. Surrounded by iPhones, iPads, MYspace, YOUtube, the focus is clear: Me, my, I. One need not look far to see this obsession with the self. In order to sell, advertisers must appeal to the ego. For example, many ads appeal to the part of us that loves power and being in charge. DirectTV tells you: “Don’t watch TV, direct TV!” Yogurtland says: “You rule! Welcome to the land of endless yogurt possibilities, where you rule the portions, the choices and the scene.”

But advertisers aren’t the only ones who appeal to our ego. There is a global phenomenon that provides a breeding ground and platform for that ego. And it’s called Facebook. Now, I’ll be the first to assert that Facebook can be a powerful tool for good. It is, like many other things, what you make of it. A knife can be used to cut food which feeds the hungry, or it can be used to kill someone. Facebook can be used for great good—after all it was Facebook that helped facilitate the toppling of a dictator. Facebook can be used as a powerful tool to organize, call, remind, and unite. Facebook can also be used to strengthen our connection to God and to each other… Or Facebook can be used to strengthen the hold of our nafs (lower self or ego).

The Facebook phenomenon is an interesting one. In each and every one of us is an ego. It is the part of ourselves that must be suppressed (if we are to avoid Anakin’s fate of turning to the dark side, that is). The danger of feeding the ego is that, as the ego is fed, it becomes strong. When it becomes strong, it begins to rule us. Soon we are no longer slaves to God; we become slaves to ourselves.

The ego is the part of us that loves power. It is the part that loves to be seen, recognized, praised, and adored. Facebook provides a powerful platform for this. It provides a platform by which every word, picture, or thought I have can be seen, praised, ‘liked’. As a result, I begin to seek this. But then it doesn’t just stay in the cyber world. I begin even to live my life with this visibility in mind. Suddenly, I live every experience, every photo, every thought, as if it’s being watched, because in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “I’ll put it on Facebook.” This creates a very interesting state of being, almost a constant sense that I am living my life on display. I become ever conscious of being watched, because everything can be put up on Facebook for others to see and comment on.

More importantly, it creates a false sense of self-importance, where every insignificant move I make is of international importance. Soon I become the focus, the one on display. The message is: I am so important. My life is so important. Every move I make is so important. The result becomes an even stronger me-focused world, where I am at the center.

As it turns out, this result is diametrically opposed to the Reality of existence. The goal of this life is to realize the Truth of God’s greatness and my own insignificance and need before Him. The goal is to take myself out of the center and put Him there instead. But Facebook perpetuates the illusion of the exact opposite. It strengthens my belief that because of my own importance, every inconsequential move or thought should be on display. Suddenly what I ate for breakfast or bought at the grocery store is news important enough to publish. When I put up a picture, I wait for compliments; I wait for acknowledgement and recognition. With the number of likes or comments, physical beauty becomes something that can now be quantified. When I put up a post, I wait for it to be ‘liked’. And I am ever conscience of—and even compete in—the number of “friends” I have. (Friends, here, is in quotation marks because no one knows 80% of their “friends” on Facebook.)

This preoccupation and rivalry to acquire more, is mentioned in the Quran. God says:

“The mutual rivalry for piling up (of worldly things) has preoccupied you.”(102:1)

Whether that rivalry is in piling up wealth, or friends and ‘likes’ on Facebook, the result is the same: We have become preoccupied by it.

Facebook also strengthens another dangerous focus: the focus on other people, what they’re doing, what they like. What they think of me. Facebook feeds the preoccupation with others’ assessment of me. Soon, I enter the orbit of the creation. Inside that orbit, my definitions, my pain, my happiness, my self-worth, my success and my failure is determined by the creation. When I live in that orbit, I rise and fall with the creation. When the people are happy with me, I’m up. When they’re not, I fall. Where I stand is defined by people. I’m like a prisoner because I have given up the keys to my happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and disappointment to the people to hold.

Once I enter and live in the orbit of the creation—rather than the orbit of God—I begin to use that currency. See, the currency of God’s orbit is: His pleasure or His displeasure, His reward or His punishment. But, the currency of the orbit of creation is: the praise and criticism of people. So, as I enter deeper and deeper into that orbit, I covet more and more of its currency, and I fear more and more of its loss. While I’m playing Monopoly, for example, I covet more and more of its currency. And it feels great to be ‘rich’ for a moment. But when the game is over, what can I buy in the Real world with Monopoly money?

The human currency of praise is Monopoly money. It feels great for a moment to collect, but when the game is over, it’s worthless. In the Reality of this life and the next, it’s worthless. And yet, I even covet this false currency in my worship. In this way, I fall victim to the hidden shirk: Riyaa (showing off in worship). Riyaa is a consequence of living in the orbit of the creation. The deeper and deeper I enter into that orbit, the more I become consumed with gaining human praise, approval and recognition. The more I enter that orbit, the more I fear loss—loss of face, loss of status, loss of praise, loss of approval.

But the more I fear the people, the more I become enslaved. True freedom only comes when I let go of the fear of anything and anyone other than God.

In a profound hadith (Prophetic teaching), a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: “O Messenger of God, direct me to an act, which if I do, God will love me and people will love me.” He ﷺ said: “Detach yourself from the world, and God will love you. Detach yourself from what is with the people, and the people will love you.” [Ibn Majah]

Ironically, the less we chase after the approval and love of the people, the more we gain it. The less needy we are of others, the more people are drawn to us and seek our company. This hadith teaches us a profound Truth. Only by breaking out of the orbit of the creation, can we succeed with both God and people.

So while Facebook is indeed a powerful tool, let it be a tool of your freedom—not a tool of your servitude to yourself and the assessment of others.

Facebook NOW has facial recognition...now a bigger asset to the CIA and intelligence agencies

Facebook buys facial recognition startup Face.com
by Jennifer Van Grove
Reuters
June 19, 2012

Facebook has purchased facial recognition startup Face.com, the companies announced Monday morning.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint in
2011 against Facebook over their facial recognition capabilities.

“People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends, and Face.com’s technology has helped to provide the best photo experience,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a long-time technology vendor in house.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but previous reports pegged the acquisition price at between $80 million and $100 million. The deal, which is still pending, is expected to close within the coming weeks.

Founded in 2007, Face.com makes technology that can identify people in photos and even guess a person’s age. The company makes mobile-friendly products such as a developer API and an iOS camera application called KLIK that uses facial recognition technology to help users...

(click here to read the full article)

Facebook deletes account and demands passport! - WTF?

Facebook Deletes Account, Demands My Passport

Infowars.com
Thursday, June 7, 2012


Published on Jun 7, 2012 by PrisonPlanetLive
http://youtu.be/SZ7X7Y1AOFU

Facebook has deleted my account (Paul Joseph Watson) for no reason and is demanding my passport. Social networking websites routinely censor alternative media. Another fantastic reason to sign up at Planet Infowars - 
http://planet.infowars.com/

FACEBOOK to disappear in 5 to 8 years? So says analyst

[...Facebook is down 27% from its IPO price of $38, making it the biggest two week loss of any IPO since 1995...]

By: Cadie Thompson
CNBC.com
June 4, 2012

Kainaz Amaria | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Facebook will lose dominance as a major web company in less than a decade, Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital said Monday on CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

"In five to eight years they are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared," Jackson said. "Yahoo is still making money, it's still profitable, still has 13,000 employees working for it, but it's 10 percent of the value that it was at the height of 2000. For all intents and purposes, it's disappeared."

Jackson said there have been three generations of web companies. The first generation was big web portals, such as Yahoo [YHOO  15.01    0.09  (+0.6%)   ], where content was aggregated in one place. The second was the social web withFacebook [FB  26.90    -0.82  (-2.96%)   ] and the third generation is companies focused entirely on monetizing the mobile platform, something Facebook will continue to struggle with, Jackson said. 

"When you look over these three generations, no matter how successful you are in one generation, you don't seem to be able to translate that into success in the second generation, no matter how much money you have in the bank, no matter how many smart PhDs you have working for you," Jackson said. "Look at how Google [GOOG  578.59    7.61  (+1.33%)   ] has struggled moving into social, and I think Facebook is going to have the same kind of challenges moving into mobile."

Last month Facebook acknowledged its mobile challenge in a regulatory filing. The company stated that the growing number of mobile users using Facebook is hard to monetize and "may negatively affect our revenue and financial results."

Jackson's comments on the future of the social network come at a time when Facebook's stock is down about 27 percent from its IPO price of $38 a share, making it the biggest two-week loss of any IPO since 1995.

"The world is moving faster, it's getting more competitive, not less, and I think those who are dominant in their prior generation are really going to have a hard time moving into this newer generation," he said. "Facebook can buy a bunch of mobile companies, but they are still a big, fat website and that's different from a mobile app."

Forget FB, its more like Fadebook now

Read: Facebook Shares Fall Below IPO Offering Price

Related: 

• [Rubaiat`s Blog] Facebook stock IPO debut a bust so far...just tip of the iceberg? - Banks spend big to prop up Facebook shares on first day of trading

Facebook stock IPO debut a bust so far...just tip of the iceberg?

Banks spend big to prop up Facebook shares on first day of trading

By GARETT SLOANE and MARK DECAMBRE
NY POST
May 18, 2012

It was another Wall Street bailout — but this time the banks had to cough up the cash...

Photo credit: NY POST

(click here to read the full details)

Beware of Facebook...

Photo credit: Infowars

Visit:
Infowars.com
PrisonPlanet.com
PrisonPlanet.tv

Dangers of Facebook, now a massive government spying machine

The Terrible Truth About Facebook

Uploaded by TheVideoPatriot on Jul 19, 2009
http://youtu.be/UJqGbA2tLww

Think you have any privacy when it comes to a social networking site? Think again. Just take a look at who has invested in the site and open your eyes.
[Video property and courtesy of The Video Patriot`s Channel, please give proper credit and citation]    

Zack says FB is losing ground with young people
who find the relationships built there are shallow
ones., credit: NYPost/Angel Chevrestt

Why I quit Facebook
A New York City high-school senior, 18, explains why he quit Facebook
By ZACH PROCHNIK
NY POST
Last Updated: 2:23 AM, February 12, 2012
Posted: 10:34 PM, February 11, 2012

It’s Saturday night, and I am at the house of a good friend. After the usual hours spent playing Xbox and watching “1000 Ways To Die,” I ask him if it would be OK if I used his computer. I want to check my Facebook, because I’d last checked it that morning — and who knows what I’d been missing since then? Best-case scenario: a notification from the girl who — despite the fact that our passion is unspoken — has posted on my wall claiming that she was checking my page and has suddenly realized her true feelings for me. Maybe on top of that a cool, funny kid sent me a friend request saying that I was “the man” and we should be homies for life. No big deal, I get that all the time.

I hit enter. My eyes immediately jump to the top left of the screen. The page loads and my heart drops. All I can see is blue. Blue, the color of 21st century social mediocrity. The color of people’s indifference towards you. I quickly realize the reality of my situation: The world does not revolve around me. My friends all have other friends. Every minute that I spend navigating the Facebook universe, I am shrinking.
But as I scroll down my home page, I realize that I’m not the only one desperate for attention. Every status and post seems to be saying “I’m here! Tell me that I’m somebody!” Hundreds of kids are selling their identities — like livestock at a market — for a couple of comments and “likes.”

As I scan my alleged friends’ profiles, I’m seized with feelings of jealousy and rejection. I want to say to them “I thought I was your friend! So who the are these 200 other guys commenting on your stuff?” As our circles get wider, our interactions become fewer.
I joined Facebook four years ago. and at first it was amazing. You’d friend someone, and you’d be linked to all their friends. In fact, the standard that classified a kid as your friend was quickly dropped. That girl your friend told you about was now your “friend”; that friend of your sibling was now your “friend.” You now shared everything with anyone whose name or face looked vaguely familiar.

This quickly wore me down. Being constantly informed that you make up just a small portion of another person’s life erodes the feeling that you are at all meaningful to them.
Adolescence, to begin with, is a time of awful social anxiety. Now a website exists that exacerbates your most irrational social fears to the point of paranoia. Instead of just a private hormonal case of nerves, this is a massive, corporate crowd-sourced paranoia that a huge economic sector is encouraging us to take part in.
On Facebook, I saw how I was taking time away from being with my real friends to feel bad about all the other people who were hardly even part of my life.

Leaving it was easier said than done, however. I couldn’t find where to deactivate my account. I had to look up “how to deactivate Facebook” on Google. After navigating multiple pages, I found a tiny link at the bottom of the security-settings page. After clicking the link, a page popped up with bright photos of my good friends and me. “Jake will miss you,” one caption read. “Jules will miss you,” and another saying “Aaron will miss you.” All of my friends were smiling at me and telling me they would miss me.

I was struck by the irony of this statement about how my different friends would miss me when I left. When you’re an adolescent, what Facebook is really all about is creating a sense of distance between you and your friends, not about strengthening the relationships. Distance because it makes you realize that you’re both lost in a crowd. Worse still, this website that profits off the data it collects about me by selling it to advertising companies is now trying to hold onto me by enlisting my friends to seduce me into staying.

Why are my friends going to miss me? My friend Raymond is still sitting next to me playing video games. I’m still talking to people in the halls at school. Maybe next time someone takes a cool picture, they’ll call me up to hang out and stare at a screen side-by-side, which is what real friends do.

I’m not the only one who is deactivating my Facebook account. I’ve had other friends tell me that they’re sick and tired of going on Facebook everyday hoping to connect, but ending up feeling only more disconnected. Lost in the hype of the company’s stock-market debut this year is that while Facebook is ubiquitous, it may also be a fad.

Before I went off Facebook, my friend made a status update saying,“Deleting your Facebook is like running away from home. You do it for attention but you’ll be back one day.” But I’m not doing it for attention. I’m doing it so I won’t go there when I’m hungry for attention, only to end up feeling more alone.

Zach Prochnik attends a Manhattan public high school.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/unfriend_VhP9QLXispf2RzznaNHPNK#ixzz1mPdgmpnn

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The Curse of Social Networking

Life outside Facebook and Google Plus
Posted by Muslim Faith on January 16, 2012
MuslimFaith.Wordpress.com
Sheikh Danish Riyaz

Image: MuslimFaith

I see after the advent of social networking sites and before that was chatting rooms, people are so overwhelmingly busy in virtual lives on Facebook and Google Plus that they have completely forgotten about their real lives. They have developed dual character in which they behave so good virtually so that unknown people can praise them virtually and back home they are what they really are. The person who is not on Facebook is like a person who does not exist and people ridicule him. Now relatives don’t visit each others homes and exchange gifts with each other, but now they Poke each other virtually and they message each other and this is where we are heading with our next generation. Youth is so much busy in social networking that their social networking does not have a particular time, but whether they are in classroom with teacher in front of them, they are talking with parents, walking, travelling, they are on-line for this all the time.


Parents come back home from their jobs and they stick to TV for news and children in need of their time but parents say, go didn’t I brought you iPod and Broadband connection, so go do that I’m busy. Parents are busy in each others argumentation hence children try to search for on-line pair of parents who can listen to them all the time. Time has come to the extent that if their profiles get hacked or they lost their password, they mourn for that like they lost their child and I’m an eyewitness of this thing.


I want to write more about this curse of social networking and chatting time where we now live virtually and we are aware of the world news but we hardly know about out own family members, but I think this is enough for the people of intellect as a reminder!


-Sheikh Danish Riyaz

Finally a short victory against Facebook

image: thesangfroid

Facebook Settles U.S. Regulator’s Complaints Over Violations of Privacy
By Sara Forden and Jeff Bliss - Nov 29, 2011 3:56 PM ET

Bloomberg News

Facebook Inc., the world’s biggest social networking site, agreed to settle complaints by the Federal Trade Commission that it failed to protect users’ privacy or disclose how their data could be used.

The proposed 20-year agreement would require Palo Alto, California-based Facebook to get clear consent from users before sharing material posted under earlier, more restrictive terms, the FTC said today in a statement. It would also compel independent reviews of Facebook’s privacy practices...The settlement “will protect consumer choices and ensure they have full and truthful information about their data.”

...In a blog posting, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company should have been more vigilant in protecting users’ privacy.

“I’m the first to admit that we’ve made a bunch of mistakes,” he said.

...Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center...said today’s settlement “is a sweeping order that will prevent Facebook from disregarding the privacy interests of its users in the future.”

(Click here to read the full article)

The Facebook secret service

posted on: muslimfaith.wordpress.com
November 20, 2011, Jon Stock

Do you know it’s finally a book you have to face!

It started off as an innocent university paper. Austrian law student Max Schrems, 24, thought it would be interesting to find out how much information Facebook had stored about him over the past three years. Facebook’s European headquarters is in Ireland and, under European privacy laws, which are stricter than in the US, the company was obliged to disclose the data. Schrems was surprised to receive a CD containing 1,222 pdf files.

He was alarmed to discover that information he had removed from his profile, including deleted messages, had been retained by the social networking site.

“ If the post office opened, scanned and analysed every letter that came through and never deleted it, everyone would freak out,” says Schrems. “ That is what Facebook is doing with our messages.

I have read their privacy policy but, after a year investigating, I still have no clear idea of what they use this data for.” Schrems set up an online campaign group called Europe versus Facebook.

To date, it has lodged 22 complaints with Ireland’s data protection commissioner.

All Facebook users outside the US and Canada— about 600 million people, including users in India— have a contract with Facebook Ireland Ltd.

Schrems is concerned that the data will turn into “ life archives”. These, he claims, could fall into the hands of advertisers or intelligence services. I have had a look at the complaints and Schrems is definitely on to something.

I don’t believe that Facebook has any hidden, malicious agenda. “ The assertion that Facebook is doing some sort of nefarious profiling is wrong,” Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes recently told Fox News.

I do think we have no idea how much personal information we are agreeing to share online and how it might potentially be used. Schrems’s allegations are based on the assumption that Facebook is not only hosting data, but also processing it without our control. It also stores all deleted posts, photo tags and pokes.

More seriously, Schrems alleges ( in complaint no. 2) that Facebook is compiling “ shadow profiles” of people who have not even joined the site. They keep a record of names that have been searched for on Facebook. When someone then joins up, they are alerted to anyone who has been searching for them. Facebook encourages users to hand over data about users and non- users, including email addresses, telephone numbers, addresses and work information. It asks us to synchronise our Facebook account with our email address book contacts.

“ Facebook Ireland is creating extensive profiles of non- users and it is also enriching existing user profiles,” claims Schrems. “ This means that Facebook Ireland is gathering excessive amounts of information about data subjects without notice or consent…. This information might be embarrassing or intimidating or constitute sensitive data such as political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs and sexual orientation.” Another complaint ( no. 17) concerns the “ like” button. Many web sites feature this “ social plugin” and you and I might think that Facebook only knows that we have visited the site if we choose to like it. But, as Schrems points out, Facebook starts gathering data the moment we land on the page, including date, time, URL and your computer’s IP address, browser and operation system. If you visit Facebook even as a non- user, a cookie is placed on your browser, allowing your internet activity to be tracked.

Facebook says it only keeps the data for 90 days and it is used solely for security purposes, but it is still worrying.

Facebook claims it is committed to transparency and it is not alone in trying to gather information about its customers. There is also much that the savvy user can do ( such as turning off cookies). My fear is that the majority of users outside the US are unaware of the extent that our internet activities are being tracked and recorded. Ireland’s data protection commissioner has just finished its audit of Facebook and its findings will be eagerly awaited.

- The Week

Additional Resources:
Facebook Reveals its User-Tracking Secrets | zokimag

Why are you on Facebook?

by: Muslim Faith on November 5, 2011

Facebook tracks your every move, even after logging out

Ethan A. Huff

Natural News

Wed., Sept., 28 2011

(NaturalNews) The social media empire Facebook has unveiled some new "features" on its platform in recent days that many allege are a total and compete privacy-breaching nightmare. But one hidden feature, discovered by Nik Cubrilovic, an Australian entrepreneur and writer, that few people are aware of is the fact that Facebook now monitors your online activity, even when you are not logged in to the service.

With each new change Facebook makes, users' privacy becomes a little less ... nonexistent, if you will. The most recent "News Feed" modifications, for example, display everything you say and do on the site to all of your "friends," and even to the public. And now, even after logging out of Facebook, permanent "cookies" track all your movements on websites that contain Facebook buttons or widgets.

"Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit," Cubrilovic wrote on a recent blog posting. "The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions" (http://nikcub-static.appspot.com/lo...).

But how many Facebook users will actually know to do this? The site has never announced to its users that it is even tracking them in the first place, let alone given them any instructions on how to "opt-out" of this egregious invasion of privacy.

Facebook, of course, has become infamous for simply changing its site setup, including privacy settings, and leaving it up to users to figure out how to contain their breached information after the fact. It has switched from an "opt-in" approach, where users used to be given the option to "upgrade" to new features, to a much more complicated "opt-out" approach, where Facebook makes drastic changes and leaves it up to users to somehow figure out how to change things back to the way they were (if such an option is even still possible).

"While initially opt-in, the default then seems to be expose everything," says David Vaile, executive director of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, concerning Facebook's "breathtaking and audacious grab for whole life data."

"Facebook, once again, are (sic) doing things that are beyond most users' capacity to understand while reducing their privacy ... the default setting for any site should be 'reveal nothing about me unless I make a specific choice otherwise.'"

Sources for this article include:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/te...

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Facebook a Spying Machine? So says Julian Assange

(image courtesy of currentweek)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has recently come out saying the popular social-media network Facebook is a huge treasure trove of info that is essentially a spying machine and tool for the U.S. government. I mean come on, its one of the most global comprehensive database on personal information just ripe for the picking by major government agencies, especially in the intelligence community. It shouldn`t be a surprise to think the intelligence community doesn`t already have access to facebook with or without facebook directly knowing. With technology becoming more and more electronic and information being compartmentalized, it is now becoming more accessible to people who are able to access it.

Facebook being one of the most or possibly the greatest social-media service currently till another comes, does have it`s drawbacks. People just don`t realize that with a huge treasure trove of personal info just out there in web space, people in the intelligence would would want immediate access to it to track people, profile them, create bio`s on them...and Julian Assange would know. If the government was truthful to the American people then WikiLeaks wouldn`t have to exist to expose the secrets they hide from us. Nothing is transparent and our beloved President Obama who campaigned and championed the fact of government transparency has obviously failed on that task, as well as others too like closing down Guantanamo Bay and the resolution to the 2 current wars!

Read the Dailynews article (5/2/11): WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange rails against Facebook, says its spying tool for U.S. government

View also: RT News America interview with CNet correspondent Declean McCullagh concerning Assange`s facebook 'spying machine' claim (5/4/11). In an exclusive interview with RT, Wikileaks founder Jullian Assange recently called Facebook the "most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented." According to Assange, Facebook exists as "the world's most comprehensive database about people...all sitting within the United States." Further, US intelligence has an interface to access that data at any time, he says. Is he right? CNet correspondent Declean McCullagh thinks he probably is, though no evidence has so far been able to support his argument. If he is right, who will be able to access this information and under what conditions? - RT America