Facebook....Is it worth it?

Joe Hohmann posted:

In my case, I find pop-up ads more related to my Google searches than my Facebook groups. Anyone want to suggest not searching for anything?

I'm not professional like some of the respondents here, but I had been led to believe there are some search engines that are less intrusive than Google. 

I use one called Startpage for generic web searching, though I admit I do use Google when I want to look at maps, as Startpage does not have that feature. 

Maybe I've been misled and Startpage is just as bad, so hopefully some who really know what they are talking about can confirm or dispute.

Rich's comment is a bit ironic.... I know he's been retired from the magazine for a while, but the logo at the top of the page has been up there for a while.  Of course, that logo (along with the many train advertisers) is part of what keeps the forum free, so.......

And in case it's not obvious, I don't have a FB account, though I have viewed some pages that let you without logging in, so I guess I am screwed anyway in terms of FB grabbing any of my data they deem acceptable until they are told otherwise by law enforcement.

-Dave

I check out Facebook once in a while to see which of the neighbors is bad mouthing the other neighbors, other then that there is really nothing to spend anytime on.

Dave45681 posted:

I'm not professional like some of the respondents here, but I had been led to believe there are some search engines that are less intrusive than Google. I use one called Startpage for generic web searching, though I admit I do use Google when I want to look at maps,-Dave

I use DuckDuckGo, it seems to work as well as google, maybe better and claims not to track you browsing. I will use Google for their maps as they are better than the Bing maps that DDG uses.

jonnyspeed posted:

Lots of correct and incorrect info on this thread. Even by people I would expect would know better. 

I am an IT Security Solutions Director by trade. Do I use FB? Yes, but I know what I'm doing and have systems and controls in place to protect me and my privacy. I could scare the socks off people if I wanted to, but it comes down to personal education, tolerance for risk, and privacy. It's not just FB. The whole world has changed. AI and ML are pouring over videos and audio of you and your family. Anyone have an Amazon Alexa? We do. But if you don't know what you are doing I would think twice about putting a live microphone in your house. So you really have two choices... 1. Get educated and take precautions or 2. Don't participate. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, you really won't have a choice anymore. Your data is being gathered and sold today.

Here is a fun example... I was in the office building where I used to work. I don't have access to their Wi-Fi any longer obviously, but since I forgot to "forget" that network on my iPhone something interesting happened. When I got home and got onto FB (On my PC, not my phone) I got a message asking me to give information about my former employer. It said "We see that you recently visited XYZ". So because my phone recognized the SSID for that Wi-Fi and associated it to my phone, even though I didn't actually connect it knew where I was, and then passed that information to FB. There is more going on behind the scenes than most people realize...

I started and manage the 2R/P48 group, S Scale group, 3R to 2R conversion group and a few others. I find that our posts are far deeper and more hands-on than over here. Sort of the way this site used to be in the early 2000's. Sharing video, photos, etc... is much easier on FB. Not to mention how well it integrates with mobile devices. I can attend a show and stream live video to my group from my phone. Pretty cool.

Can it be used in a safe manner? Yes. Is it safe/private right out of the box with no education/settings/controls/3rd party apps and hardware? I'd say probably not. Is it changing everyday? Yes, and you have to keep up with it.

Thank you everyone for responding.

When I started this thread I should have realised that it would open the proverbial "Can of Worms" and it did. I am 76 years old age does not concern me I still go out in the bush with a pack on and live in a tent for days while walking all over the place but with technology I have fallen behind I just don't have the time to do everything I want to do, so something has to fall by the wayside and what I have chosen is the Computer. While everyone else is singing the praise of technology I still use DC for my layout my machines are all manual machines no CNC I make things using my hands no plastic mold machines or are they called 3D machines, I still do banking by going to a bank my 4 children call me an old fashioned bloke but my mind is active along with my body I see no need to change my lifestyle I am having fun the one thing in my life where I fail is communicating with people I struggle to answer emails I dislike phone calls and cell phones I don't have a television set yet I still have friends and visitors who come around for Friday's train running and one of them happens to be a computer technician along with his sons who set up all kinds of programs and install computers in the business world who are all on Facebook so tempting it may be I am not going to join facebook as I said before this Forum might not be perfect for some people but it suits me and that's all that matters and it's the only one I am on. Now where did I leave my Abacus I have to reconciliate my bank statement that I received in the mail printed on paper delivered by a human being called a postman except he now rides a motorbike not a pedal one some things do change a little bit ! Thanks again. Roo.

You can use other broswers to connect for a less inrusive Google search (personally Bing WAS better until they started to copy google and ignore boolean searches.) Some will search bing and google and combine them for you too.

  I find today they find you what they  "want you to know" instead of what you "need to know" añd the more personalized the less impartial and objective the results.

  I didn't catch up before my post. Duck Duck Go is one that uses Bing and Google results to compile their own results.  

And it's not collection of general data that concerns me so much as the personalized data. I see that as being downright dangerous to any "free" society. If I had more to lose, I'd be more corncerned.  I don't even mind ads within reason; that trade fed me for a while. But greed and desperation has taken that too far again and again.

Roo, It's always great to hear someone literally on the opposite side of the world have similar tastes in some things that make me feel odd(er) at times 😎