f = friend or foe?
I have always been a little uneasy about Facebook because it seems to know more about me than I’ve intentionally revealed. At first I joined because I wanted to see what my kids and close friends were up to. This had the unintended consequence of revealing that only one of my adult kids ever uses FB; the eldest didn’t have the time or inclination and the youngest is a quasi-Luddite. On the other hand, I found that Facebook is a good way to reconnect with distant friends and family and to keep up with local friends who are too busy to get together. For a while, I enjoyed taking all those quizzes that reveal, on the basis of five questions, who my true soulmate is or which goddess I most resemble. Then someone tipped me off that these “clickbait” quizzes might be a way to make my FB information available for less benign uses. And now we find out our Facebook data has been shared (or stolen) for illegal purposes, like election-tampering.
I still haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do but this Wall Street Journal article is the clearest explanation I’ve seen about how to secure (and eliminate) personal information you don’t want shared, how to take a hiatus from FB, or how to quit altogether.
