Anonymous Vows To Destroy Facebook 575
DarkOx sends this snippet from BusinessInsider:
"Anonymous has vowed to destroy Facebook on November 5th (which should ring a bell). Citing privacy concerns and the difficulty involved in deleting a Facebook account, Anonymous hopes to 'kill Facebook,' the 'medium of communication [we] all so dearly adore.' They continued, 'It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. ... Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them "for their own good" while they then make millions off of you. When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.'"
Uhm... DUH. (Score:4, Insightful)
How long did it take the Anonymouse script-kiddies to figure this out?
"When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.'"" Hello - that's been the model of free services for as long as services have been free. You guys need to get a refund for that pot you're smoking and go detox somewhere. People consider it an amicable trade. A few are inconvenienced - boo hoo. Grow a pair and move on.
Baby, Bathwater. (Score:4, Insightful)
Anonymous may have a technical point about Facebook's motives & mechanisms, but they've missed the point. Facebook has become something of a default mechanism for people to stay in touch and communicate, and for some people to store photos etc. To do anything to take down Facebook would be hurting many millions of blameless people. It's all very well to say that people could just go and find an alternative like Google+, but in the end it's not up to anonymous to decide unilaterally that Facebook=Bad. If they want people off Facebook "for their own good", they should mount a public information campaign and let people decide for themselves. Militancy in this case is simply the wrong, most hurtful approach.
Re:It would be interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)
The majority of people on facebook are well adjusted, sociable people. Facebook is used to let your friends know what you're up to without having to call them one by one. It's used to share photos, without having to email out links to an online album. It's used to make plans and invite people to parties. Yes, it's also used for stupid shit like Farmville, but even the people who play that generally do other things too. Methinks you're projecting.
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:4, Insightful)
"A few are inconvenienced."
I don't think people understand how much information companies like Google have on its users. Unless you are completely off the grind living in a shack in Montana, credit card companies know what you're spending your money on, as does PayPal, eBay, Google Checkout, and Amazon. So does all the tracking websites with the persistent cookies. Your email, your most intimate thoughts and angriest words along with your buying habits are all in there. Google Voice is fucking ridiculous in terms of getting information. It knows who you call and text, and its learning what you're saying. (Voicemail transcription, anyone?)
If I went to your Google.com/Dashboard, I'd know a great more about you than you thought you were giving up. And that's only one aspect of the web. You are giving up more than you think.
Target (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:if not at least deface it! (Score:3, Insightful)
How would we tell? Have you seen what people post?
Anono-hypocrites (Score:5, Insightful)
Authoritarian governments by definition rule people because they think the people cannot self-rule. As in, authoritarian governments think they are "saving" their people. With that in mind, balance this quote from Anonymouse: "Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria." ...with this one a few sentences down:
"One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you."
Sound familiar? Anonymouse are doing what those they claim to fight against are doing. Just another dictatorship that claims to be "rulers of the internet" that defends its "dictatorship" with petty DDoS attacks and makes outlandish and extremist claims that are on par with the "We will destroy America" claims we hear from the dits in the Mid-East. In the end, Anonymouse are nothing but wannabe digital terrorists and nothing they have done or will do matters. Their activities are as much a waste of time results-wise as the Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda and all the years of ridiculous and resultsless claims, proclamations and violence had accomplished nothing, while one humble fella with a can of gasoline and a match set the dominoes falling, toppling governments in one simple act of self-immolation. And, interestingly, as much as they brag about being anonymous, a bunch of them are being rounded up by the Feds. So much for anarchistic intelligence.
Re:Target (Score:5, Insightful)
The world is always crumbling around our feet...
Re:Bunch of self-important pompous kiddies... (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't have to join Facebook to be tracked by them. See those Facebook buttons on almost every site? Yeah, they're using those to track you.
"When a user does not have a Facebook account, there is no cookie and no user ID available. In this case, an HTTP GET request for the 'Like' button doesn't issue a cookie.
"However, when a site is visited which includes Facebook Connect, this application issues a cookie. From that moment on, visits to other websites which display the 'Like' button result in a request for the Like button from the Facebook server including the cookie."
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/30/facebooks-button-tracking-you/ [thinq.co.uk]
Sure, it can be blocked fairly easily, but it's an opt-out, not opt-in. And many (most?) people have no idea.
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:5, Insightful)
I know what I'm giving up, and I give it up gladly for the services I receive. You may disagree. But who are you to tell the rest of us what we should and shouldn't do?
Why should I care that some companies know my buying habits? I am one of billions. There exist some unfathomably vast spreadsheets with a row that indicates I like oatmeal for breakfast and enjoy the works of Terry Pratchett. Why should that bother me? If anything it means that more stores will stock oatmeal and more quality humorous fantasy books will get made.
They certainly don't have my most intimate thoughts, because those rarely leave my lips and never enter a computer. They may have a few angry letters I wrote, but so what? I'm one of billions. No one's likely to see it, and unless it's something really egregious, no one will ever care.
Frankly, I think you're paranoid. You think that people care about tracking you, personally. Let me assure you, you're not that important. No one cares. That's a good thing. You're one of billions, and well below the notice of multinational corporations. If you're afraid of using facebook, fine, but don't go demanding it be destroyed because of your fear.
Whose fault is that? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:4, Insightful)
That's the point. No one walks on water unless it's frozen. Everyone deserves anonymity, but none of us get it. Google and others can read my cookies and figure out any little dark secret they want. Maybe they'll get http_referrers and keep appending the list. The method doesn't matter, the ad-based economy is designed to optimize selling to you at the price of your privacy. They'll put 2+2 together, however, and come out with 44.13833.
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact you had to use hyperbole to make you point, in fact destroys your point. Act sensibly on the net and you'll be fine for the most part. These 'what if' scenarios are so statistically insignificant, particularly if you follow the sensible part I mentioned, that it's basically a barrier to being able to use technically in a useful and fun manner.
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:3, Insightful)
No one "deserves" your protection. You aren't their nanny, no matter how certain you are that you know best.
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:5, Insightful)
In an age where people have ACTUALLY been thrown off a flight and threatened with arrest at an airport because they had a PICTURE of a gun, it's not necessarily an exaggeration. The "authorities" have gone insane and cannot be expected to operate in a rational manner. They might attach odd significance to nearly anything,. much like any sufferer of schizophrenia.
Re:Uhm... DUH. (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, and parents nanny their children. That doesn't change the fact that you don't know best for anyone else. You not only have no responsibility to save my parent's privacy, you have no right to be part of the equation.
Re:if not at least deface it! (Score:2, Insightful)
Outcome 6a: Nobody gives a sweet fuck about any public relations scandal, and Facebook still races towards a billion users, and Anonymous reveals itself once again to be a worthless bunch of virginal fucktards with stock hacking tools and the imaginations and wit of retarded rocks.
Re:Um... (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a lesson in the Gunpowder Plot for those Anonymous children. The Gunpowder Plotters didn't restore Catholics their liberties, they in fact pretty much fucked over English and Irish Catholics until the 19th century. Anonymous is creating the conditions under which governments will ultimately be able to justify destroying a free and open Internet. They're stupid, self-centered and uneducated, basing their world view on a fucking movie of all things, and they are going to fuck us all over.