PSA: Facebook and Myspace

[unixronin]

The Silly Goose had a friend over recently, and a friend of theirs didn’t have a Facebook page, so they set one up for him.

I do not have a Facebook page.

I do not have a MySpace page.

Nor will I ever.

If you see any page on FaceBook or MySpace purporting to be me,

IT IS NOT ME.

That is all.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Oooooh boy.

*wince*

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

I can see why you're not a fan of Myspace, but what've you got against Facebook?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, let me toss just a couple of things out.

First, there was the recent revelation that you can't actually delete any information from Facebook, and that Facebook reserves the right to keep any information you post on the site forever, and use it for pretty much whatever purpose they feel like. (I believe they subsequently backed off on some of that. But only some.)

More recently, go look at this C|Net article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10270002-36.html). To briefly summarize it, FBhive discovered a security hole, weeks ago, that let anyone who knew about it break into any Facebook profile and steal any information posted there, even if the information was marked as private and not to be shown to other Facebook users. FBhive informed Facebook about the vulnerability ... and Facebook did nothing. Apparently because they didn't care. Until 8am this morning, that is, when the C|Net article posted and the vulnerability — and their inaction — became public knowledge. THEN they fixed it, or claimed to have fixed it, within three hours. A vulnerability that allowed theft of private information from their users wasn't important enough to take a couple of hours to fix ... but the risk of being publicly embarrassed over it, well, that gave them motivation to fix it. Because god forbid they should be publicly shamed over anything.
But mere exposure of confidential user information? Fuck that. Who cares?

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

You could get it an lock it down so no one has your nick.
I've done that and shut off all the emails.

[databeast.livejournal.com]

I had to do exactly that, when some guy in the Philipines opened a MySpace page identifying himself as 'Conrad Constantine'

Now, I'm pretty anal retentive about making sure that all first-page google links for my name, all point to properties I control.
Well motherfucker, google rates MySpace pages higher than linkedIn, or personal sites.

And so now, I have a myspace page, it says only 'Go away and look me up on a site that respects its users privacy'

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's a thought. But there's something that rankles about the idea of having to go use a "service" I don't want to have anything to do with, even to that extent. Because once I start, where do I stop? Do I need to set up "Go away" profiles on Twitnet, Friendster, OKCupid, Friendfinder, Fark, 4chan...?

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

Good. At one time I was 12 people, 4 races with 22 addresses. I poisoned sites that collected personal data as much as I was able.

Facebooked finally allows nicknames. I'd not heard of any lawsuits against them for stalkers. Protecting my real ID is something I've done since I was on the Fidonet.

[databeast.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of juggling the steamboat here. I'm less about protecting my real ID so much as advertising the hell out of it, and making sure nothing could be convinced for something of mine. I've got more in common with corporate Brand Protection lawyers and less in common with the person shredding their unwanted credit card apps.

Of course, I still do all of that too, but I abandoned any semblance of anonymity on the internet years ago. My handle and my Real Name have been linked together for quite some time now. (yeah, /two/ names I have to make sure nobody else could be confused for).

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I have a Face Book page, as I tutor at a University. I have a profile that contains the information that can be found by any reasonably competent person using a phone book. I update it about once a week to keep it active. It keeps identifiers associated with me under my control.