Google gives wrong answer to question about “Texas voter registration deadline”
Google answers the question “texas voter registration deadline” with the wrong date that would leave a prospective voter unable to vote in the November election.
Hold the presses! National news! "Starbucks barista in Philadelphia alledgedly mocked customer's stutter"
This is a LOCAL story at best. The news media continues to damage itself into irrelevancy by promoting local click bait trivia stories into a national conversation: A barista at a Starbucks cafe in Philadelphia is accused of mocking a man with a stutter. Source: Starbucks barista in Philadelphia alledgedly mocked customer’s stutter This is not national news. This is creative writing by a trivia reporter designed to hook an emotional response. Emotional nonsense news is perfect for sharing on…
The main purpose of social media is to spread disinformation?
Is the main purpose of social media to spread disinformation? Sure seems so, whether intentional or unintentional. Yesterday, our local Sheriff’s Office spread disinformation on Twitter with a goal of encouraging safe driving (definitely approve that!) But they did so by using a logical fallacy linking bike and pedestrian accidents to cellular phone usage, a conclusion that is false per the reference they cited in their tweet. Because viewers of the tweet learned something that was not true, viewers became…
Riding a "bike generator" for 30 minutes will power a house for a day? No, not even close. #Facebook #Bicycling #nonsense
This made me laugh – can you see why? A typical bicyclist may generate 100 to 200 watts per hour on a bike. A very fit bicyclist might generate up to 300 watts per hour (and their peak output – like a sprint – can produce 500 or more watts briefly). (Good explanation here. Another way to look at this is that 1 horsepower is 746 watts. Are you as powerful as a horse?) Consequently, for most people, 30 minutes…
Social media sites share everything, even your private health information #Facebook #DeleteFacebook
Grindr, a gay dating app, will stop sharing users’ HIV statuses with third parties after a report disclosed that the company passed the information on to two vendors. Source: Grindr changes policy of sharing users’ HIV status with outside vendors – SFGate If we’ve got your personal data, we can share it with everyone because we are social media surveillance and we are the future!
#Facebook says internal memo saying dead users okay was just "fake news" #DeleteFacebook
From the 2016 memo: “Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools … And still we connect people.” Andrew Bosworth now says he didn’t mean what he said, you know, it was just fake news. And Facebook staff are experts at fake news! Hah hah! Source: Facebook is defending itself again after an internal memo suggested growth was more important than user safety – Recode
#Facebook VP who said its okay to kill people or support terrorists as long as it grows FB #DeleteFacebook #Ethics #Privacy
Since he knows all about us, here is the VP that thought killing people is fine if it helps grow Facebook – Andrew Bosworth. He was promoted after writing this memo. Source: Facebook VP’s memo suggests relentless growth is good, even if it gives a platform to terrorists or bullies | VentureBeat He’s now backpedaling and saying he didn’t mean what he actually wrote. Nothing anyone at Facebook says turns out to be what they mean, like Zuckerberg promising in…
#Facebook VP argues in email we should collect everything even if it results in killing people #DeleteFacebook
Facebook admits their system is designed to dupe people and treat Facebook users like, in Zuckerberg’s own words, “Dumb Fucks“. We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it,” VP Andrew…
Technical details of exposing #Facebook user data
For those of you with software development backgrounds, you can learn about the Graph API, which is the application programming interface into the Facebook spying database. Apps can use this to gain much information – for apps created prior to 2012 and in operation as late as October 2017, these tools could lift far more data than today, including from those on your “friends” l ist. More detail about the various operations you can perform with the Graph API Source:…
#Facebook is a friction-less platform for illegal discrimination #DeleteFacebook
Facebook’s ad platform enables discrimination based on age, sex, and race. That means, Facebook enables advertisers to display ads only to say, whites, or only to young job applicants or only display nursing jobs to women. It is a sneaky way for firms to discriminate against groups of people – generally without any risk of being caught because the target selector is secret. Thus minorities never see housing ads targeted at whites and will never know that Facebook is a…
#Facebook threatened to sue The Guardian the day before the Cambridge Analytica story came out #Bullying #DeleteFacebook
Campbell Brown, head of news partnerships at Facebook, said: “If it were me I would have probably not threatened to sue the Guardian,” adding it was “not our wisest move”. Duh. Source: Facebook says warning to Guardian group ‘not our wisest move’ | News | The Guardian Facebook is in desperate need of adult supervision.
Facebook has angered everyone
Conservative Republicans are sure the company has discriminated against them. Democrats on the left will find it hard to embrace the network when claims of helping to their opponent into the White House — whether accurate or not — have become a dominant public narrative in the press. Source: Even Facebook Former Insiders Are Turning Against the Company With #DeleteFacebook | Inc.com
Until 2015, Facebook allowed app developers to access your private messages
The social media giant sells not only demographic data, but also information about how you behave Source: Facebook: Your personal info for sale – CBS News As I have previously noted, this article confirms: When you download your FB data, it does NOT include the advertising “purchase behaviors” that advertisers get to see, which includes things you buy outside of Facebook, your derived “interests” and so on. Think about that for ten seconds. The FB app also tracks your location…
Bingo: "If Facebook wants to protect user data, it needs to disclose what it has and let people opt out"
The company says it’s ‘outraged’ over Cambridge Analytica’s actions, but it doesn’t want to stop selling access to your information In fact, all Zuckerberg said was “sorry”, made “mistakes”, and we take it “seriously”. Not a single action item indicates he has a clue. Indeed, FB is spending $1 million to fight a California initiative that would require European like data transparency from tech companies. Source: If Facebook wants to protect user data, it needs to disclose what it has…