1. LRRSA@groups.io

Re: : New Facebook Group: Light Railways of Australia

David Halfpenny
 


On 17 Sep 2017, at 11:38, John Dennis jdennis412@... [LRRSA] <LRRSA@...> wrote:

David,

Whilst what you say is true, too, if somebody creates a facebook page for the sole purpose of joining a railway group, then surely there should be less concerns?  


Yes John, that’s what I’m meaning. A great deal, though not zero.

A simple no-data / no-posts / no-‘friends’ Facebook account insulates you from almost all the social nastiness that Facebook haters hate.
Yet spooks, cops, ex-wives and nasty neighbours can still feign similar interests and joining the same groups, though it’s more trouble for them.
And that doesn’t apply just to Facebook: I run one Yahoo Group that had to be seriously locked down when the founder's poor wife became dangerously psychotic, and another specifically for the hapless Carers of psychotics.

Such a stripped-down account will still tell Trump (and Putin) stuff about you that you don’t even know yourself.
But so does buying stuff online, or merely carrying a smartphone. Get over it - or go live off-grid in the woods.
It’s good to secure your home, but you’ll never keep Special Forces out of it. 

David

John

On 17 September 2017 at 19:08, 'David Halfpenny (Yahoo 2)' david.halfpenny@...[LRRSA] <LRRSA@...> wrote:


On 17 Sep 2017, at 02:20, Copy Text Online copytext@... [LRRSA] <LRRSA@...> wrote:

Sure, Facebook is going to gather information about you but what is it going to collect that you haven't already given away?

Stuart,

While all you say is true, it’s only half the story. 

The other half is what ordinary people make of what we publish online.
My family and I have been “stalked” online. 
Stuff on our Facebook pages was used against us maliciously - and against our real-world friends and family.
No kidding: one series of incidents ended with a suicide triggered (rather than caused) by online images.

I first joined Facebook specifically to monitor the pages of local young-teen choirgirls (makes me sound dodgy already, doesn’t it?) who had got caught up in an epidemic of vile insults and sexual bullying that they were completely unequipped to manage on their own. Suicides were averted.

Dodgy? Well, when I was single, I openly used Facebook to ‘research’ women I liked the look of. Beach photos especially.
Totally innocent in my own view, but I concede in hindsight that girls could be freaked out by the very thought. One lady became a close friend yet deleted a whole lot of Facebook stuff she hadn’t realised was so ‘collectable’.

The cover story in my local newspaper is of a local Member of the UK Parliament raging against another MP’s presumed use of Facebook during an election. Although that’s certainly no fault of Facebook’s, nevertheless Parliament has been publicly degraded by its own elected Members.

So what routinely goes on on Facebook really can be exhausting, threatening, damaging and even life-threatening.


Of course you don't have to believe me .... you can keep living in your dream world .... but you can't escape the facts. If you want to be online ... even just for email ... then you have already given up everything that's worth knowing about you.

I agree with you, Stuart, that it’s futile and unnecessary to attempt to hide completely from the corporate online world, but I do counsel sensible precautions. 
While we can’t evade the security cameras when we venture to the sleazy end of town, at least we aren’t obliged to wear swimsuits there :-)

David 1/2d
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