Stop using facebook.

First I would like to start this by saying that I have used the facebook for a year and a couple months. It was brought to my attention by a good friend to really read the privacy statement (Which always should be read but seldom is). It has some very interesting things to say about your privacy that I would like to share with you. So you have been putting all that nice info like IM, phone, address, and also you have been putting up pictures and setting up parties. We should have a look at what the facebook has to say about this.

Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site.

So from this first quote we can assume that not only are they taking all this info but using it in ways that I am sure you do not want them to.

We use the information about you that we have collected from other sources to supplement your profile unless you specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done.

This is another nice quote telling us that they actually do get info about us from other sources.

We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship. For example:
• We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to send emailsolicitations. In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use in connection with these business activities.
• We may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.
• If the ownership of all or substantially all of the Facebook business were to change, your user information would likely be transferred to the new owner.

So now we know that they are giving away all your info organizations affiliated with them (such as walmart) and they more then likely will be sending and have been sending you emails (thank you spam filter). Perhaps the biggest shock is that they are giving away all your info to the police. So those pictures you have up of you bonging beer at the age of 19 are pretty incriminating. So the next time you put a kegger up on the facebook make sure you are not going to be underage when you are there. On more then one account dorm room drinking has been caught using facebook. Do you seriously want to have to worry about this? So what can you do? Well the first thing I would do is remove all your personal information, although it is more then likely saved somewhere else. After that straight to deleting your account. That is what I did but wait how did that go?? I will show you with a few pictures. In this picture we see that after I have deleted my account that it is still active and needs to be registered.





So then I get two very nice emails from facebook.





Not only did they send me one email but two! Seriously! I DEACTIVATED my account. Why would I want to reactivate it? Why would you send an email with those intentions?

Overall I was dissapointed with this whole situation. I expected much better from the facebook people. I hope people follow my lead and don't end up getting busted by the facebook. Peace everybody.

Edit: Also facebook says your info is secure on firewalled servers. That is just saying it is secure from random people. Not the list of xx-companies or the police and school administration.