http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/break...172215377.html

We have already stopped using FB... it drives ME crazy all the ads and pages to friend people endlessly.

Looks like
exploitation maybe around the corner.

What on earth does Zuckerberg do with all his money?? I've never heard of him donating any to charity or helping out any particular cause. Maybe he has.....and I just haven't heard about it.

Those who choose to remain a Facebook participant need to check their privacy settings closely.

Hubby has his at maximum setting for security. We don't have accurate B-day there, or any family photos. Neither of us has gone there for weeks. When we were on vacation, I looked there once when we got home. FB sent a thank you email...for "returning"...!! Once in a while I look up a neighbor or former work colleague etc. But that is it.

I'd be wary about investing in Facebook's IPO to begin with. Their revenue model is based around the premise that advertisers can use Facebook's rich data store to have ads targeted to users. The problem is that they're going to get many views but not many clicks. The clicks they do get will likely be accidental, revolving around people seeing something that seamlessly integrates with Facebook's user interface and trying to browse, only realizing that it's an advertisement. What you're going to find is that many advertisers will have a hard time linking Facebook ad clicks to revenue generation, and may have difficulty justifying the cost of a Facebook partnership.

The second is this concept of consumer level brand equity. This revolves around the concept of creating a registered Facebook page that people will "like" on the site. They also post promotional content and get direct feedback from users while creating buzz and conversation all from within the confines of this one page, creating consumer associations . We've seen this for years. Coca Cola, for example, has associated that shade of red on their bottles and that distinctive shape with their brand. They've spent millions in research and advertising to try and condition you to associate winter and Christmas (Polar Bear and Santa ad campaigns) with their brand (because everybody wants an ice cold, sugary, calorie-laden drink during the coldest time of the year), and now they're going to use Facebook to do it with the next generation.

I'm sure many people just join and start clicking & friending...
not thinking at all about what privacy and info they are giving away.

I only use it for family and my settings are strict, I remind family to do the same.

I don't use fb for all the obvious reasons but my daughter did. I'm not sure that having max security settings helps totally anyway. Not all that long ago she decided to have her account removed completely. Now she's removed all the apps on her iPhone because she's read somewhere that her general usage (internet, txt and calls) was being scanned.

She was suddenly being inundated with spam calls as well and has no idea why. It became so bad that she got a new number. I know she's always been careful with personal information.

I'm still so annoyed that gmail scans personal emails. Write someone an email that mentions a car for example and the next thing there are adds suggesting to buy this car or the other and they're all in my general area.

Your address book is mine: Many iPhone apps take your data
February 14, 2012 4:00 PM
Jennifer Van Grove
http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/14/iphone-address-book/

Twitter Admits Storing IPhone Contact Data
Keeps user's entire address book for 18 months if you use Find Friends feature
By Ben Camm-Jones
[my settings blocked a pop up window on this site - just letting you know if you don't have pop ups blocked]
http://www.csoonline.com/article/700...e-contact-data
Apps need to stop stealing contacts from phones
James Temple
Friday, February 17, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl....DTL&type=tech

etc...

Just a few more points of note:

1. Deactivating your account does not delete your account. Facebook still has all of your data stored on its systems. A true delete of your account is a complicated process and it can take up to 14 days for the request to be processed. Even then, nobody outside the organization truly knows what they do with your data. With a deactivation you just have to log in and your account is instantly reactivated with all of its existing content in tact.

2. Security settings only limit which users can view certain content you upload (notes, pictures, wall posts, etc). All of that data is still stored on Facebook. You can't control whether or not advertisements are targeted to you based on that information.

3. Facebook applications are the easiest way to leak information. I wouldn't recommend installing any third party games or applications to your Facebook (IE Farmville, Guess Your Weight, etc) unless you're sure about how any why they use your data.

Thanks.

Yes, we figured out the difference between deactivating and deleting. The delete did indeed take 14 days.

Ugghh, yep.
I never do any of the FB games or apps or use the find friends.

I stopped using gmail for anything important, mostly for misc site signups and newsletters..