May 21st, 2010
FARCE-BOOK, LINKEDIN, and PLAXO
In my quest to expand relationships and at the pressure of many customers and friends to join their teams of "associates and acquaintances", I succumbed to those who suggested my entire world would change after I joined FACEBOOK. The social network built in a college dorm my Mark Zuckerberg who is rumored to have gotten plenty of girls with the program.
My world did change, unfortunately I got more junk mail than a normal person can handle in one day. And doing a bit of research I found many like myself with years of detective work in IT, who get nervous about being that open to the public arena that much. I do too much emailing, writing blogs, and running a business to add frivilous unimportant communication to the heap.
To be honest it was a distraction, for nothing, it was not good for business, it opened doors to a lot of dead ends and worthless discussions. I was not inclined to spend my days in the Mad Hatters Maze and make them rename it to "Alan in Wonderland" !
I suppose it's OK for my imaginary friends but most of my friends and business associates whom I communicate normally and privately with, that is the real ones, I care a great deal about and like talking with them. One on one.
Luckily I saw this pattern develope quickly, and imagined the good I could have done with that time. When a little investigation explained the trash mail and offers I do not need, that was it. The worst part was being asked to join a clique someones list whom I had no recollection of. These are not friends nor even casual aquaintences.
I am mad at myself, even in my article that I posted in my business plan section to be careful about what you ask for, I caved in. After a month or so of community life I am earnestly looking for a small island I can purchase and hide on. The survivor thing looks good after some of the Cro-magons and Neanderthals made contact. Sort of the lost world crew.
I value real friends and customers who pick up a phone, see how you are doing and wish you well. It's so nice to hear a friendly voice. So today with help from the legal pages posted under "How to escape from Facebook", I happily hit the SUBMIT button for permanent removal. See YAHHHHHHHH. Oh I killed The Linkedin and Plaxo, the others they dumped me on too without asking and hopefully enough did not get through to the Gogglers and the other data miners. A goggler is a myopic Googler.
PART TWO - YOU ARE NOT ALONE
Well, to say I am not happy would be an understatement. Immediately 40% of worthless vanished. After I upped out, things started to surface. I grabbed a shovel. It's amazing what you uncover when you dig. And I guess the most important thing to remember with these social sites is information you may of given years ago and forgot about suddenly pops up and revised and updated and there are those 78 people you have no clue about who now know all about you and possibly your deepest secrets.
That was the case with the other two accounts I had thought I had un-suscribed to. You have to do it manually. The Farce Book updated two old accounts I had forgotten about and thought I had upped out of. I was wrong.
One account was saturated with individuals with some really weird alternate lifestyles and causes they believed in. Holy mackerel, viva la vida. Thats fine, we all have different paths, but it's just totally worthless information to me and with Twitter and Facebook you get those who want to spill guts all over the place and for a while we all are nosy, thats human. It gets boring.
(ARTICLE FROM PC WORLD MAGAZINE)
Social networking sites--notably Facebook and Twitter--have recently been the target of cyber criminals due to their large user base. In February 2010 alone, market research firm comScore pegs Filipino Internet users visiting social networking sites at 90.3%, spending an average of 332.2 minutes (or roughly five and a half hours) on such sites, the highest in the region.
And where there are users, there are those who take advantage. According to Sophos's 2010 security threat report, at least 57% of social networking users have reported receiving spam via these services, a giant leap of 70.6% from a year ago.
Social networking spam, Phua clarified, include messages, status updates, and wall posts that promote a certain product. Click-jacking--or hiding the original spam URL through a URL shortening service--is also a prevalent method for spam.
Cyber-criminals--who, Phua noted, have become more notorious and financially-driven over the years--are also the main perpetrators of malware over social media. Just recently, Facebook users were bombarded by their friends' compromised accounts with wall posts containing the "sexiest video ever," a malware that installs an adware on the user's browser once viewed.
I EXPERIENCED IT:
It made sense as I was getting ads for Canadian Drug Companies offering drugs at low prices in emails coming from people whose name at one time may of come from these accounts which search for your friends. Three gave me a pattern and I did some reverse engineering and tracked back, found the folks and called them. They had one thing in common... gmail and FACE-BOOK.
They had no idea what went out. Now I will dump that account because that one has been gleaned. And then in part two I started reading and discovering others have been on this path to social enlightenment.
THINK:
If you analyze what you do when you go on line with one of these networking sites you discover the following; In reality there is nothing there, it's more like the local chit-chat convention, a plethora of basically useless information except for the bigger companies who have learned how to use the players to their advantage. You could find closer friends at a library or a Bruce Springsteen Concert.
If you can't keep back all that personal information and you are just boiling to spill it, get a blog. And a fake name. There is one thing to be Sally and heres my avatar but another to be Sally and here's what my underwear looks like unless Sally makes a living at showing her underwear.
Numbers mean nothing: You could have twenty thousand contacts, tell them you are broke, and need money. Thats how you achieve the right Karma. You can then brag at one time you "had twenty thousand contacts and friends". Traffic and numbers mean nothing. Be careful what you look for and be careful if you find it on the social networks.
Today, May 26th the Congress is "interviewing the President of Face Book" for simpler guidance and information disclosures. Thats like a discussion with "Attila the Hun" on cake bake sales.
IF YOU WANT OUT GOOGLE "HOW DO I QUIT FACEBOOK"