You can
certainly find any number of legitimate, scary reasons to dump facebook. Any
cursory search on google has tons of interesting articles on why you should
dump them. I invite you to look at
several – very eye opening. As for me
personally, I’m listing the main ones for me.
I don’t do
this lightly; I think Facebook had - and
still has – some very useful attributes.
But I can’t just keep ignoring their gross bullshit. I’m tired of feeling powerless in the face of
greed, duplicity, and dishonesty, and I certainly
don’t think it’s right that such an amoral institution should continue
profiting off my images, data, info. etc.
So here’s my personal Top Ten Reasons I Am Leaving Facebook:
1)
They
compromise your privacy. I’m not even one of those folks who worries too much
about this kind of thing – even after being a victim of identity theft – but the
fact that they’ve been so shady on this AND so unapologetic when busted just
makes me angry.
2)
They own
your data. I could go on and on AND ON
about their disgusting, overly verbose agreements they have you agree to –
knowing 99% of people don’t read it all.
3)
Cambridge
Analytica
4)
A New York Times investigation has found that Facebook gave Netflix, Spotify and the Royal
Bank of Canada (RBC) the ability to read, write and delete users’ private
messages. The Times investigation, based on hundreds of pages of internal
Facebook documents, also found that Facebook gave 150 partners more access to
user data than previously disclosed. Microsoft, Sony and Amazon, for example,
could obtain the contact information of their users’ friends.
5)
Facebook had been keeping records of Android users’ phone calls
and texts.
6)
Facebook was in secret talks with hospitals to get them to
share patients’ private medical data.
7)
Facebook acknowledges it
didn’t do enough to stop its platform being as a tool to incite genocidal
violence in Myanmar. A New York Times report reveals the company hired a PR
firm to try and discredit critics by claiming they were agents of George Soros.
8)
Facebook admitted it exposed private photos from 68 million
users to apps that weren’t authorized to view your photos.
9)
Last July,
Facebook was fined $5 billion for just one of their privacy violations. Five. Billion. Dollars. Now, to me, and
probably you, this is a SHIT TON of money, but to Facebook, it’s so meaningless
their stock price actually went UP on the news.
10)
Not to
mention the stupid, continual changes in format, sponsored posts, and increased
advertisements.
This quote
form an article sums it up for me: If
you’re still on Facebook after everything that has happened this year, you need
to ask yourself why. Is the value you get from the platform really worth giving
up all your data for? More broadly, are you comfortable being part of the
reason that Facebook is becoming so dangerously powerful? Are you comfortable
being on a platform that has, among other things, helped incite genocide in Myanmar?
