Your Facebook information

I may be feeling smug that twitface does not have info on me, but how do members feel about their social media with the revelation that particular groups are ‘vulnerable’ and have been targetted in this way?

Accept it happens and carry on, stop using it, be far more careful when using it, or delete your membership?

Even supermarkets target their loyalty card users (they would not be doing it unless there are benefits to themselves).

What next? Children targeted by preying individuals, on the basis of how gullible/impressionable they might be? OAPs (or anyone else, for that matter,) that are likely to be easily scammed?

Several steps too far, methinks, and I have no intention of signing up to anything that offers incentives, with the ultimate aim of not only making money (by selling anonymous data) but actually selling your personal details to all and sundry.

I was surprised to read that marketing is based on my Facebook profile, I am pretty sure I didn't say "fat, bald and impotent" but I get plenty of e-mails offering to cure one or more of these.

Brian

It's not just them, look at all the things like yahoo groups and gmail wanting to have your mobile phone number 'for your security' or the excuse of sending a verification code. All so they can have your phone number giving your location then that links them to all your smartphone activity to cross link to your computer activity.

Edited By Frances IoM on 21/03/2018 19:15:20

I have my suspicions that Siri is listening in as a few times I have discussed something verbally with my wife and then even though I have not mentioned the subject on the Internet a relevant advert appears on my pc soon after the discussion, it has happened more than once which pushes the limits of coincidence.

Mike

I don't worry about any more.

I deleted my Facebook etc years ago.

Bigger things to worry about!

Jim

I'm too boring to be worried about them, I don't even visit porno sites anymore

Mny years ago one of my staff got conned over our data protection fee renewal (which was due imminently) by gettign a letter regarding that from a third party that charged afee for doing so. The next day we got the genuine reminder. That experience made me realise how poor our government's own data protection and security is.

Folk are constantly being conned and targetted and social media is just another avenue of the same. You car's registration is recorded all over the place as well as service stations and I'm sure those records are not secure either - gives patterns to your behaviour as does carrying a mobile phone and your ISP knows exactly what you browse and you can bet they're monetising that info too.

VPNs may help but still someone knows. I do go as far as cover the mike and camera on 'puters that have them and since i live in a dead spot I only use my mobile when going any distance away..and only turn it on if I have to nevertheless there's dozens of companies that have my address (to send stuff) and dozens of gov depts that have my home phone number and other details they could cross reference with email addresses. You can't avoid it.

It's more sophisticated than that, they take account of things your friends say too

Not sure what they've been saying about me, but there are a couple of very nice Russian ladies who are anxious to meet me

You too ?

Mick

That'll be why my inbox is full of messages from Bangkok chick-boys

Given the air fares from Russia to the UK, it's only fair that the ladies should be able to visit all of their friends on the one trip.

What's Facebook?

Read George Orwell's 1984 and you realise how far ahead of times he really was! The olny way to stop people spying on you is to drop off the radar.

No phones, no internet, live off grid and put any bills in someone elses name. Takes about 5 years and then you disappear off the system.

Edited By vintagengineer on 22/03/2018 08:55:15

According to an 'expert' on a radio programme I heard, dropping off the radar is one sure way to draw attention to yourself these days . . . different if you've never been on it of course.

Of course you'd also need to avoid going anywhere in range of a CCTV camera . . . or a spy satellite

Mike, I am also sure that SIRI is listening in the same has happened to me, I am also sure that ALEXA is in your home environment with the prime purpose of listening in to our home conversations, or am I just paranoid.

Dave W

You don't have to be on Facebook to attract "Fat, bald and impotent" advertising. I'm not on Facebook, yet I get those, plus advertising for high-interest loans, ambulance-chasing lawyers, dodgy-sounding insurance schemes and on-line gambling. Perhaps the only answer is to do what I had to do in the late 1960s, and mark a deluge of mail from Time-Life magazines with "return to sender - deceased." Or do the spam merchants follow you beyond the grave?

You cannot escape from the Tax Man’s radar, apparently even death does not achieve that!

...........nor the TV licencing authority. They automatically assume every house has a TV, so investigate any home that does not have a licence.

I'm afraid they do. It's not just spam that's the problem. For example, the law isn't clear about who owns personal information on the web after you've died. For example, if you publish photographs or other information about a grand-child who later becomes a celebrity, it may be impossible for them to fix your intrusion into their privacy.

Another good reason for not telling a computer system that you're dead is that they share that information too. Expect embarrassment when you try to do anything that that requires you to be alive when everybody knows you've passed.

Without boring everyone to tears, 'big data' is becoming a big problem. The intrusion appears to be unstoppable. My advice is to minimise the amount of personal data you share, for example by installing Privacy Badger or similar and not creating accounts willy-nilly or typing in unnecessary details. Always look for and tick the 'do not share' boxes. Read the Terms and Conditions. Would you stand in a crowded supermarket loudly discussing what a big pension you've got and your massive collection of gold coins before giving your name and address to those young men with interesting tattoos?

Don't be naive. When online it pays to assess the risks:

• Who is it wants to know?
• Why do they need the information?
• What will they use the data for?
• How will they protect my data?
• Where do they store the data?
• Are they going to share my data with someone else, either deliberately or by accident?
• Is there any redress in the event that the data is misused?

Dave