People vs Facebook

 

First there was fake news on facebook. Now there is bad news. The fact that the tirade agains facebook has been trending for weeks now is sheer irony. Educated, literate, smart, intelligent facebook users just woke up theo the fact that everything they shared on the social media site was shared with countless companies without their ‘consent’ or knowledge. Bah, humbug !

Look at all the articles popping up on and around this topic. Each word in this last sentence points to a new, trending article.

All of these people blaming facebook still do not realize that the ultimate fault lies with they themselves. How can these people be so naive ? Facebook was always sharing user data, this was known for at least a decade now. That was their business model all the way. That one sentence on their banner “It's free and always will be.”, should have looked creepy, but people embraced it. The thought of a free for life service to manage your social life was too good to be true.

And so the revolt against one of the big-tech continues now, spilling over to India’s already  complicated political battlefield.

I have never been on facebook. Everytime I move jobs, or make new friends, one of the first questions people ask me is ‘what is your facebook id ?’. And everytime I say I am NOT on the network, I get this puzzled look. At work, in any social gathering, once even on a train. They find it uneasy that can stay away from this ponzi scheme of data.

I have always been wary of sharing personal information on the internet. Because I spend so much of my time building internet and integration applications, I know how unsecure the whole system is. I am also wary that I am sharing a tonne of information on google, but I am already dependent on them. The least I could do is to stay away from other networks. Everytime I have thought of getting on facebook, I read another article about a privacy breakdown, or data leak. Not being on the network meant sometimes I missed out on some friends and events, mostly in personal life. The upside was that I could sleep peacefully knowing that nobody knows my first pet’s name, or the name of my first school. (Back in 2005, a celebrity’s account was hacked because she shared too much information the wrong way.)

 

So, what next ? The problem with leaving facebook is that people still like facebook. And so people will still stay. We also have a short attention span, so everything will be forgotten. Facebook will get back its billions, and will also get a billion more users. And all will be fine …until the next bad news.