[zackzackzack]

Thanks for the title correction.

Mostly this came about from a thought experiment in guessing what information they can figure out about you based on your profile. Do I honestly think that there is a whole team of engineers sitting around charting out menstrual cycles for 50% of their users? Nope. Is there a nonzero chance that it might be happening or could happen soon? Yeah I think so. My main beef is that facebook can infer a ton of information about me that I don't want them to know and that they could someday be selling to people who I really don't want to know that information.

Also 6 billion people don't have a Facebook account, but condition on Americans between the ages of 18 and 30, and the rate of account ownership will probably go way way up. Those are the people who always ask me why I don't have one. Almost everyone I know has one and I really do have to explain once a week why I don't have one and don't want them to make one for me.

[jacquesm]

If you're worried about facebook, have a look at: your google search history, your ISPs mandatory 'data retention', your mobile phone operator and so on.

Facebook is but one of a large number of companies that hold private data and use it to their own advantage.

In fact, even without a facebook account they'll know about as much about you unless you've blocked their domain/ips on all your devices because those like buttons are everywhere.

Why do you feel the need to justify yourself about not having a fb account? Simply blackhole and ignore them, then get on with your life and if people ask you why not 'because I don't trust them' should be more than good enough, no need to go into paranoid fantasies about what they could do.

If facebook wants EU style data protection / privacy laws in the US then they should definitely try to sell your private data to insurance companies. I'm pretty sure that would sway even the most pro-business anti-consumer legislative body.

[zackzackzack]

For you and I, it's enough to say "I don't trust them". For the normal users of Facebook, people like my classmates, friends, and family members, they have no way of knowing what I mean when I say I don't trust Facebook. They cannot imagine what you and I know to be possible, if not highly improbable. The first question they ask after me saying I don't trust them is why? I've had to explain some variant of this many many times lately and so I've written it up as something I can send them.

And yeah, I'm worried about google, my bank, my phone operator(no smartphone though), and my ISPs. Just because all of these other companies do it doesn't mean it's alright for them to do. I hate that there are hundreds of files out there that have data along the lines of "Zack Maril, Male, 21". I'd like to find ways to prevent companies from collecting all of that information about me. (Using DuckDuckGo and cash only would probably be a great start.)