Facebook questions? [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

Spartana

2-2-12, 2:21pm

Now that Facebook has gone public I'm curious about how it achieved it's revenue stream before. Was it solely thru selling ad space or is it true that it sold it's members private info to marketing places? I don't "do" facebook so am not concerned with that privacy aspect, but I am concerned that a friend (or maybe even a site like this that puts up some of the thread topics on their facebook pages) will inadvertently give out private info of non-facebook people like me. So what's the "real" story on how they make their billions (probably trillions by the time the stockmarkets open this morning :-)!).

Also, while we had a disscussion about this sites (NRMF) use of threads from these forums on their open Facebook page in another thread and how they don't need permission to use our quotes and comments, I'm curious if permission needs to be asked by Facebook to use it's private members info or anything they put up like photos, etc...? All seems scary and intrusive to me but then that's the internet I guess. I know that even when I write something here (or anywhere on the internet) , I'm a lot more causious then I was in the past. Even go thru and delete any photos I post here in a thread after a few days once the thread has "died" rather then leaving them up forever.

Simplygib

2-2-12, 6:18pm

Most of it is from ads. http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-05-18/tech/29983933_1_ad-deal-user-revenues

That article is a little old and doesn't include numbers for 2011. Profits for 2011 were around $1 Billion on $3.7 Billion in sales.

Regarding going public, Facebook filed the papers but it probably won't be actually selling shares for awhile yet. Maybe a couple of months.

Facebook had (maybe still does, I don't know) a nasty habit of changing its privacy policy fairly frequently which would trigger a "reset" of users' privacy settings. If you didn't stay on top of it and go into your privacy settings to reset it to your preference (assuming you could figure out how, which was another criticism), your data would essentially be fair game for 3rd parties, namely advertisers. At one point they even started something called "Beacon" that would broadcast to the entire community whenever you purchased something online. That practice is what got people mad enough to come up with the "Quit Facebook Day" thing a couple of years ago. This article covers most of that:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-user-privacy-key-facebook.html

I used to have an account but the more I read, the more worried I got. Facebook has made some improvements in their privacy policy settings in the past year or so, I'm told, but I just don't trust them. Then my account got hacked, which was the last straw. Deleted everything, haven't missed it one bit.

RosieTR

2-3-12, 8:58am

Yes, I think it is with advertisements. I hate FB and like it at the same time. For pics of my nieces/friends' kids/etc and for me to post pics of my adventures, it's great. But the frequent changing of formats/security settings is a nightmare! Some friends post snarky comments about that, like "well, it's a free service". Yes, but so is hotmail and linked in and they don't change every 3 months. I definitely self-sensor on FB way more than, say, an email. My friend is not going to forward my email with a political rant to my prospective employer, but that prospective employer could theoretically find such a thing on FB if I were to post it. Sure, it's an opinion and probably something I might say in real life, but you never know what kind of impression that sort of thing will give to an employer. For example, legalizing pot is going to be on the ballot for Colorado in the upcoming election. For a variety of reasons, I would be in favor of this but not because I intend to get high if it is legalized. However, if I express a positive opinion on legalization on FB and an prospective employer sees that, they might conclude that I wouldn't be an appropriate employee and thus might not interview me, or might not hire me. The annoying thing about FB is that they are now planning to trot out this thing, Timeline, that shows all your posts ever posted. Most of these will be crap but again, if someone were looking for dirt it's even more accessible. I'm on the fence about leaving FB but haven't pulled the trigger because I do like the sharing. I realize it's free so accept that targeted advertising is part of that and that's fine. But the deeper invasion of privacy is a little more concerning, especially when it's difficult or impossible to opt out of stuff (like Timeline).

ApatheticNoMore

2-3-12, 5:28pm

Now that Facebook has gone public I'm curious about how it achieved it's revenue stream before.

just because it has gone public doesn't mean it necessarily has a viable revenue plan.

I'm curious if permission needs to be asked by Facebook to use it's private members info or anything they put up like photos, etc...? All seems scary and intrusive to me but then that's the internet I guess.

there is an article I saw on how Facebook scanned the photos uploaded on Facebook into facial recognition software (the article was on how they can use this to identify criminals/terrorists but trust me even that patriot act doesn't require that - that's just Facebook invading your privacy on their own accord). Something to be aware of.

Some friends post snarky comments about that, like "well, it's a free service". Yes, but so is hotmail and linked in and they don't change every 3 months.

They seem unable to grasp the concept that it is possible to have a free service that doesn't do this (it is amazing how much they buy into corporate propaganda - I mean hook, line and sinker). Any such service without that nonsense would probably be open source, many people are trying (diasporia and so on), but without a critical mass ....

definitely self-sensor on FB way more than, say, an email. My friend is not going to forward my email with a political rant to my prospective employer, but that prospective employer could theoretically find such a thing on FB if I were to post it. Sure, it's an opinion and probably something I might say in real life, but you never know what kind of impression that sort of thing will give to an employer.

Yea, but some political issues are way too important imo to shut about. I'd rather be unemployed having fought the good fight if it comes to that, than cowering my whole life fearing I'll be punished for giving a darn. Still when an alias is just as good I'll use one. Oh I can easily see us evolving to a society where expressing political opinions online is a great negative for employment, but I won't live my life in fear of it.

AnneM

2-4-12, 6:28pm

I deactivated my facebook account yesterday after all the publicity surrounding the IPO regarding the sharing of all the personal information with advertisers, regardless of the privacy settings on my account.

Wildflower

2-4-12, 6:39pm

I am not only deactivating my Facebook account, but deleting it permanently... I don't think I'll miss it either.

pinkytoe

2-4-12, 7:29pm

I don't have anything to do with buying social media for my organization but I see the bills. We pay hundreds every month to facebook and google ads for all the ads and "likes".

AnneM

2-4-12, 7:30pm

I am not only deactivating my Facebook account, but deleting it permanently... I don't think I'll miss it either.

How do you delete it permanently? I would have liked to, but only found the option of deactivating.

Simplygib

2-4-12, 9:12pm

How do you delete it permanently? I would have liked to, but only found the option of deactivating.

Oh yeah, that's another big criticism of Facebook. They bury the instructions in the site somewhere for permanently deleting your account. Basically you have to request the account to be deleted, and then wait for a couple of weeks for it to actually happen. Not sure if it's still the same as it was when I deleted mine, but at that time if you went back into the account before they actually got around to deleting it, it would automatically cancel your delete request. That includes if you even just hit "Like" on something somewhere - like a product, news story, whatever. ARGH.

Anyway, here's the instructions. I hope they're up to date: http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account

AnneM

2-4-12, 10:07pm

Thanks, I deleted it.

Spartana

2-8-12, 1:20pm

Thanks for the info everyone. makes me glad I never had a facebook acct - except a dummy account that is in no way connected to anything in my real life. I just use it to spy on ...er. ..I mean view other's facebook pages. The info you can gather is pretty amazing - even when you aren't "friends" with a person or they have a closed to the public account. I heard on TV last night that scammers (those lotherios who woe women via online dating sites and then get them to send them money) use facebook to copy a photo of someone onto the Google facial recognition program and then use that person as their "front" to woe these (crazy imho) women to give them money. One woman sent a guy who did that over $50K!! And she had never met him irl. Gads!! Foolish, foolish people.

Alan

2-8-12, 1:39pm

Spartana

2-8-12, 2:09pm

I like Facebook, but just like here, I never post anything that I wouldn't want the entire world to see. If one is not comfortable with personal information being made public, don't post it and then blame the medium.

I agree. But I think what bothers me is that there is "implied" privacy on Facebook. You are given all these privacy setting to block out whatever you want from viewers, but then Facebook can use your images, posts, info, etc... to sell or unblock when ever they want. When I first looked at FB, I assumed that privacy meant privacy. Now I know better. As for the internet in geneneral, I do now watch what I post. But it's not what I post that bothers me - it's often what others post about me without my permission or even letting me know. I have no control over how they use my info, photos, posts, etc... I realize there is nothing I can do to stop that other then asking people not to do it - which of course never works :-)! I know I'm bad sometimes in that regard myself. Posted a pic of my sister here the other day to show her long hair for the "long hair" thread. Then realized I had no right to do that so deleted it. Other people aren't so nice.

Alan

2-8-12, 3:08pm

Does that mean I shouldn't have re-posted your pics on Facebook?

iris lily

2-9-12, 12:49am

ApatheticNoMore

2-9-12, 3:12am

I'm not particularly worried about things being sold to marketers. You can try to sell to me but I'M NOT BUYING! (ok except for the occasional book recommend from Amazon :)) I mean really the marketer who gets my data has info that is almost entirely useless. Selling ice cubes to Eskimos would be a better business plan.

Spartana

2-9-12, 2:30pm

Does that mean I shouldn't have re-posted your pics on Facebook?

I guess that means I shouldn't have re-posted YOUR pics on "America's Most Wanted" :-)!!

Spartana

2-9-12, 2:31pm

Stop stalking Sven!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sven-Kramer/32078502930

He is creeped out!

ha ha ha ha

Yes the stalking material is pretty amazing on Facebook.

That's the 12 year old Sven - even too young for this old cougar :-)!!

Here's "my" Sven - Sven Larson - and yes he's on facebook :-)!

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=681&d=1328840825