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Is Facebook Evil?

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it's cuz, like most engineers, Zuck never thought through his business model clearly before going public..and now he's clutching his head in desperation in finding ANY way possible to monetize his users. It's a sign of desperation and shoddy business model design.

His company is more a sort of "omg this got so popular, let's just add random features cuz it's fun! [think 5 iterations of "walls" now "timelines," etc] ...and then they're like. Oh snap. how are we gonna pay back our angry investors?
 
mikedt said:
Is this HTC phones supplied by HTC themselves, or customised carrier ones? I know Wechat/Weixin comes on many phones supplied by China Mobile now in China, as well as QQ, Weibo, RenRen, etc.
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Here in Taipei, Taiwan I saw that the HTC ONE Smartphones being sold individually,at CHT and Farestone and Taiwan Mobile all came with Facebook and Wechat preinstalled. Not only that but all came with no option to uninstall these applications. Yet if you look at the Permissions on all of them they are all still there.

I do not mind having Facebook and Wechat but I do mind Facebook having access to all my personal SMS messages,personal photos,personal contacts and personal SMS messages. Here in Asia if you withdraw money from an ATM they send you a message notifying you of your ATM withdrawal for safety and security reasons and if you buy something with your visa card or master card then they also sent text message notifying you that a charge was just placed on your credit card. By Facebook and Wechat along with others being able to read all your text messages they have access to know where you shop,where you bank,how much you spend etc.. This is a breach of privacy if you ask me..
 
why would you give Facebook a credit card?
Were you buying virtual flowers or something?
I don't get it.
They don't have my credit card info and never will.
 
Texts or emails sometimes will come with the last 4 digits of your card.

"A purchase has been made on xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.1234. Please contact if not correct."

If all your texts and emails are available - they know where you shop, your home area, your home phone #. Maybe the actual card number is too hard - but if XYZ gas station has become really popular - install a skimmer. Same for any cash machine or card reader.
 
androidexpat said:
Here in Taipei, Taiwan I saw that the HTC ONE Smartphones being sold individually,at CHT and Farestone and Taiwan Mobile all came with Facebook and Wechat preinstalled. Not only that but all came with no option to uninstall these applications. Yet if you look at the Permissions on all of them they are all still there.

I do not mind having Facebook and Wechat but I do mind Facebook having access to all my personal SMS messages,personal photos,personal contacts and personal SMS messages. Here in Asia if you withdraw money from an ATM they send you a message notifying you of your ATM withdrawal for safety and security reasons and if you buy something with your visa card or master card then they also sent text message notifying you that a charge was just placed on your credit card. By Facebook and Wechat along with others being able to read all your text messages they have access to know where you shop,where you bank,how much you spend etc.. This is a breach of privacy if you ask me..
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Couple of years ago, friend of mine brought back a phone he bought from 3 in Hong Kong, that had FB junk on it that couldn't be removed without rooting. And it was causing the phone severe lag, because it was still trying to phone home and couldn't because of the censoring in the Mainland. Only fix was to root it and blow the FB junk away. FB wasn't even logged in, it was just there trying to do what FB does, phoning home, invading privacy, etc. This was a phone that was customised for 3 HK, but it was unlocked. The browser's homepage was set to 3 HK, and couldn't be changed.

BTW I do use Wechat though, that's been very useful to me for my life in China. Even helped me to get back in contact with friends whom I thought I lost contact with. Because of Wechat I'm actually meeting up with a good friend this summer in Xi'an.:) I've not seen or spoken to them in over three year，we lost contact.

But there's no way anything like that should be forced on anyone. Presumably Tencent and FB are paying HTC to bundle their junk on the ONE in Taiwan.
 
zuben el genub said:
I've seen it in other sections on Daily Rotation.

Report: AT&T dropping Facebook phone after dismal sales ? The Register
AT&T to reportedly drop HTC's 'Facebook Phone' following sluggish sales
AT&T Considers Dropping HTC Facebook Phone on Tepid Sales - Bloomberg
AT&T May Drop the Facebook Phone: Ahead of the Ticker - TheStreet
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Thing is, all 4 of those are just reporting BGR. Three of them are upfront about it, while AppleInsider don't mention it in the text but have it in the link in the article.

That's the way with the blogosphere - multiple articles don't necessarily mean there's any confirmation, because chances are they're all just repeating the same source.
 
Facebook,whatsapp and many out there are a real problem these days. Invasion of privacy and the whole 9 yards. Governments should crack down on them but I doubt it as they work together often.

BBC News - Google privacy policy criticised by data watchdog


What would be very nice to see is if manufacturers would manufacture a smartphone with two flash drives in them of which are separate and basically runs like Parallels on a Macbook. Flash A can not access flash B and Flash B can not access Flash A. They would need to be heavily and securely encrypted. One could have call logs,emails,sms messages,pictures and contacts on Flash A and downloaded applications go on to Flash B. Then they can have access to anything that they want on Flash B of which has nothing on there but other applications :D They could also look at contacts of which there are none accept of ones of which you choose to add manually. If they can make a smartphone run with 2 sim cards and Samsung can make a smartphone run with Windows and Google OS (coming up) then they make one like I had said.

Samsung's ATIV Q tablet runs both Windows 8 and Android Jelly Bean - Computerworld
 
Facebook the land of false reality and unrealistic expectations. And cause for many firings.

I knew of someone who called in sick to their work. But she posted that she was on her way to Great America on Facebook. Instant firing.
 
androidexpat said:
Facebook,whatsapp and many out there are a real problem these days. Invasion of privacy and the whole 9 yards. Governments should crack down on them but I doubt it as they work together often.
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Don't think Facebook is really invasion of privacy, the whole premise and their entire business model is for people to be social and to share things. If one is not happy to do that, then don't use FB. And if one does use it, be very careful about what one shares on there for the whole world to see. Employers often check FB when screening and vetting job applicants.
 
The other side of the coin is that most of us (me included) just tap "i agree" without a second thought :)
 
funkylogik said:
The other side of the coin is that most of us (me included) just tap "i agree" without a second thought :)
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I knew of two people personally who were very nearly sacked from their jobs for things they posted on FB about their employer. They faced "gross misconduct", and had to submit signed written apologies and remove the offending remarks from FB.

I'm sure many have been sacked or denied employment for the things they post on FB.
 
I read everyone complaining about how evil Fb is yet most of you continue to log in. I read everyone complaining about not being able to uninstall Fb mobile and dogging Fb for it, yet Fb doesn't make mobile phones so why not dog on Samsung, HTC, ect.... For it?

I get that privacy is important, but most of the people complaining about Fb mining there data don't seem to mind Google doing it.....
 
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