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Businesses Facebook Social Networks The Internet Technology

Nearly a Third of Tech Workers Are Ready To #DeleteFacebook (betanews.com) 307

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BetaNews: A survey conducted in the wake of the #DeleteFacebook campaign that followed revelations about the data breach and the logging of Android users' calls and texts, found that a surprising number of tech workers were ready to delete their Facebook accounts. 31 percent backed the #DeleteFacebook campaign, including 50 percent of Microsoft workers, and 38 percent of Google workers. The survey -- conducted using the anonymous app Blind -- found that nearly a third of those questioned were planning to delete their Facebook accounts. In all, over 2,600 people were surveyed between March 20, 2018 and March 24, 2018, so it neatly took in the peak of the controversy. Broken down by company, the numbers make for interesting reading:

-50 percent of Microsoft employees said they will delete Facebook.
-46 percent of Snapchat employees said they would delete Facebook.
-40 percent of Uber employees said they would delete Facebook.
-38 percent of Google employees said they would delete Facebook.
-34 percent of Amazon employees said they would delete Facebook.
-2 percent of Facebook employees said they would delete Facebook.

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Nearly a Third of Tech Workers Are Ready To #DeleteFacebook

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  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:47PM (#56338105)

    and you haven't deleted Facebook already, you're behind the curve I'm afraid.

    You KNOW what they're doing. Why are you still there ?

    • by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:58PM (#56338159)
      I downloaded what they have on me. Nothing I didn't post there in the first place. I know enough about tech to stop them from getting anything else.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:41PM (#56338383)

        I downloaded what they have on me. Nothing I didn't post there in the first place.

        And you trust that? Facebook decided what was available to "download", remember? Did you have unlimited query access to their data stores? How can you know what they have or don't have on you, short of an independent forensic audit?

        I know enough about tech to stop them from getting anything else.

        Did you know that your profile on Facebook and the data associated with it consists of more than simply what you gave them first hand? How can you work in tech and not have at least an inkling of that? Ever heard of data brokering? Yeah, it's a whole industry that knows just about everything about you despite the fact that you probably mostly never gave them any of it first hand. Please tell us you're not this naive.

        • They can't be that careful about what you can download.

          The recent discovery that Facebook is retaining detailed call data from Android app users was found out by someone looking at the zip Facebook let him download.

          • by gnick ( 1211984 )

            The recent discovery that Facebook is retaining detailed call data from Android app users was found out by someone looking at the zip Facebook let him download.

            Have you actually looked at that .zip? Here are a few things I found:
            * Call numbers & durations for a portion of 2016
            * List of every app that is, or has been, installed on my current & previous phones
            * Complete transcripts of every conversation I've had using messenger
            * No location history information
            * No web tracking history

            They're not giving us everything with the "Download my Facebook data" option.

            • by jrumney ( 197329 )

              * No location history information

              Mine has "Location inferred from IP address" up until mid 2016, that is logging in exclusively from web browsers. I'd expect that if you were using the app, and had given it location permissions, it would have snarfed that as well. .

              * No web tracking history

              Not web tracking per se, but they have a full record of which ads you have clicked on (mine has about 6 records over 8 years, all of which I suspect were accidental slips of the mouse).

              • by gnick ( 1211984 )

                Mine has "Location inferred from IP address" up until mid 2016...

                Mine doesn't; at least I haven't found it. I wonder what the difference is. In any case, I'm more concerned with the location information they get using "Location Services". I once stopped in a parking lot on the way home from work. That evening, FB asked me about my visit to a business that shared that parking lot. I want to know what's up.

                Not web tracking per se, but they have a full record of which ads you have clicked on...

                Mine had a list of ads I've clicked on within Facebook but I'm more interested in what they've scraped up about my activities away from their site.

                The information they p

    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:00PM (#56338181)

      Oh please. I knew what they were doing when I joined. It's a trade off. Get over yourself.

      • by slazzy ( 864185 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:25PM (#56338317) Homepage Journal
        Same here, the only reason I have a Facebook account is to show potential employers I'm not too anti-social, I have cute dogs and some friends. Login once a year and like a few things. So far, I've gotten the jobs that I wanted to so I assume it works.
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I work in tech and am not on Facebook - for the sort of jobs I go for it's important to demonstrate to potential employers that I'm not stupid enough to be on Facebook.

        • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:43PM (#56338393)

          Where do you work that facebook friends counts as proof of social aptitude, a prison library?

        • by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @09:56PM (#56338683)

          I've been quite desparate for jobs in the past (I'm over 50...) - but I'd never create a fb account JUST to 'show them' ... ANYTHING.

          any job that you would not get BECAUSE of a lack of fb is no job worth having. and I'm saying that as someone who has been nearly broke from unemployment more times than I care to count.

          I think you are lying to yourself, though. no job insists on having fb next to your name. you assume too much.

      • I'd say you were in the minority. I think a lot of people understood that if they posted a picture of their dog that they'd get some dog related advertising. A few years down the road and a after a chat with a techie, they might have realised that if they click about on the Internet on cat websites that when you log onto facebook you might see some cat related adverts.

        What I don't think very many people knew is that data was bought and sold to a myriad of companies that you have never heard of. They then us

    • by Excelcia ( 906188 ) <slashdot@excelcia.ca> on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:45PM (#56338399) Homepage Journal

      And look at the wording "...would delete facebook...". Who is going to go through the trouble? What will really happen is they will stay off it for a few weeks, Facebook will ramp up their "we miss you" emails. You know, the ones like "So and so has messaged you ten times and you haven't responded. Click here to see their messages", and "Hey look at the ten single girls who would probably respond to a friend request, click here to see them". After a few of those they'll go back on and it will be business as usual.

      I will be more impressed when I see "nearly a third of tech workers HAVE deleted Facebook". Then I'll think the movement is working.

    • and you haven't deleted Facebook already, you're behind the curve I'm afraid.

      You KNOW what they're doing. Why are you still there ?

      This is self-congratulatory bullshit, twice over (and note that I deleted my Facebook account in 2010 or so, so I'm not defending my own actions here).

      First. It's perfectly possible to work in tech, have a full appreciation for what Facebook has done, and to decide that the trade for the services received is acceptable. This may be because someone doesn't place a high value on privacy on principle, but only on actual negative effects they think they're likely to receive, and they think those are probably

    • Dang it. I'm so far behind the curve I never got around to signing up/installing the app in the first place.
      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        There was a election way back in Australia and the Labour Party posted some stuff to face book and I wanted to peruse it, so an account was temporarily required. Managed to unknowingly offend some people when I would not respond to the forced Facebook must communicate everything scam, I was not logging in and I done the bit I was interested in and new used it beyond that. Little did I know I had to actively delete that account to escape the Facebook must read and post treadmill. So disconnected and checked

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      To poison their well. If you don't have an account they just shadow profile you and have only truthful data about you. If do have an account, you can create a lot of noise, which hides your genuine activities. Better yet, log from VM set up for that specific purpose to make tracking harder.

      Remember:
      1. The only way to hide is to blend in.
      2. The best disinformation is too much information.
      3. Offence is the best defence.
      • Good points. It surprises me that so many people are under the illusion that having an account makes any difference. Try using a script blocker like uMatrix on Firefox for a while and you will see that almost every website on the planet is trying to track you with Facebook and Google scripts. They have a profile on you whether you think you have one or not. The trick is to screw around with it as much as possible. Moving on from script blockers one should probably move on to using VPN and ultimately Tor. Pe

    • Google (Score:2, Insightful)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Next thing : Delete Google.

    • You KNOW what they're doing. Why are you still there ?

      Because I don't care.
      Because the information they have is quite meaningless.
      Because the service still offers things I want despite the fact I pretty much never post stuff.

  • My shocked face (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    30% of #FACEBOOKCOMPETITOR employees say they would delete Facebook. [Until their boss leaves and they whisper 'no I wouldn't ever.']
    • by jrumney ( 197329 )
      Or... 98% of Facebook employees already deleted it, since they know how creepy it is for their employer to be tracking them in that way. The other 2% are janitorial staff.
  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:50PM (#56338117)

    Saying you'll delete your Facebook account is one thing. Doing it is another. Especially in the tech industry where if you're not on at least half a dozen anti-social media sites, people will think there's something wrong with you.

    Until these people actually delete their accounts, it's all talk.

    • I for one didn't even know it's possible to delete anything from Facebook.

      Disable your account, sure. Hide messages from everyone including your self, no problem. But actually deleting stuff? I highly doubt it. Whatever you place on Facebook will be there for eternity.

      Just like /. comments, for that matter. But without that much tracking.

      Anyway, not going to delete my account. Too useful to promote my local business, and it helps many people to contact me. If only they realise that it's not the way for last

    • I'm not on Facebook, or Twitter, or Snapchat, or Google+, or any other similar site. And I've always known there was something wrong with me so it's OK if other people think that, too. But I like it here. It's a good place to be. I'm happy in this little slice of the world that is mine, where I'm only being judged by cats.

  • Frogs on a log. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mistlefoot ( 636417 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:51PM (#56338125)
    There is an old proverb:
    There are 5 frogs on a log.
    2 of them decide to jump into the water.
    How many frogs remain on the log?

    The answer is 5. As deciding to do something is not the same as doing something.

    31% are ready to do it. But that 31% hasn't yet. What is holding them back?
    • Probably their relatives are holding them back. You know the ones, who practically demand that you post pictures of your kids on Facebook so they can watch them grow up without getting off their lazy asses and coming to visit.

      Yeah... not that I'm bitter or anything :)

    • by Subm ( 79417 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @09:27PM (#56338565)

      > 31% are ready to do it. But that 31% hasn't yet. What is holding them back?

      They're procrastinating on Slashdot.

    • 31% are ready to do it. But that 31% hasn't yet. What is holding them back?

      Possibly the fact that they haven't actually decided to do it but as still thinking about it? Deciding to do something might not be the same as doing it but it does mean that you are definitely going to do it. If not then you have not really decided anything and are still considering your options.

  • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:51PM (#56338127)

    What is the big outrage here? Did everyone not see that screen when you installed the app asking for permission to access every single area of your phone? Why did you think it needed access to the microphone or your contacts? You 100% gave permission for this.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      PRISM should have stopped all use of social media in global corporate environments.
      Some brands top cyber security experts just enjoy social media too and don't want to stop it at work?
    • by tsqr ( 808554 )

      1. Install the app.
      2. Do not run the app until completing step 3.
      3. Turn off all the permissions you don't want the app to have.
      4. Relax

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      You don't have to install the app, just speaking near someone who installed it.

      And even if you did agree, I doubt many people saw the microphone permission as agreeing to have all their conversations sent to Facebook, and I have a feeling most courts would agree.

      Even if they put "we will record you 24/7" in their ToS it would still be morally indefensible, considering how deliberately unreadable those things are.

  • "Ready too" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kamapuaa ( 555446 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:53PM (#56338133) Homepage

    You either delete it or you don't. This is like people who are going to start going to the gym "next week."

  • by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:56PM (#56338145)
    Tom is ready to welcome me back.
  • by AHuxley ( 892839 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @07:58PM (#56338155) Journal
    When competitors talk of doing something to another brand its all for the users privacy.

    How much did social media profit from your workers use of social media while at work over the years?
    Why did you allow your workers to risk company security by using social media at work?
    Who in your company thought it would be ok for social media to track your workers habits and sell that data about your company to anyone with cash?
    Time to stop using other brands social media at work. Create your own networks that are safe and help your company be more productive.
    Social media is a brand that is using your workers for its profits on your time. Your company networks are paying for social media to profit from your workers.

    Time to stop social media selling data about your company and the inner workings of your company.
    Secure your company. Block social media and start protecting your brand.
  • How else could I automatically log in to sites for comments, while making sure that the junk that that will elicit will end up in the black hole that is my Facebook account, which, otherwise, I couldn't care less about? I need my Facebook account as a trash dump.
  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:04PM (#56338207)

    How can I delete something I never had?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • i would blacklist facebook's domains from the internet, have the police confiscate all of facebook's computers & data servers, remove all the harddrives and run them through shredders, all of facebook's employees would have their homes searched if there was even a chance they could have users personal info, and if they do have any they would be arrested for identity theft or conspiracy to commit identity theft, i would have the courts play really hard on this because people's personal info is not to be
  • Deceiving Ourselves (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bruce Perens ( 3872 ) <bruce@perens.com> on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:14PM (#56338269) Homepage Journal

    If most people who understand tech are like me, you never thought commercial social networks were a good idea, you joined them only reluctantly because lots of other people were on them and you needed them for business purposes, and you still have really mixed feelings about them.

    However, the average person is eager to give away their privacy and can't be bothered to assure their own security.

    So, aren't we kidding ourselves to think that anyone but us is going to delete Facebook?

    • I have an account.

      I set it up after pestering from one of my classmates in grad school to bulk up numbers for a group for our program.

      Years later, after they had opened it up, and it wasn't just for '.edu' addresses, one of my friends mentions it, and how great it is. So I casually mentioned that I had an account.

      And the next time I see him, he insisted that I didn't, because he searched for me. I explained that's because I didn't put my last name on it (as there are less than a dozen in the US with it, a

      • What makes you think that they did not grab your ip address when you logged in - or more importantly your MAC address. They are still following you and using all your internet transactions that they touch.

  • > -50 percent of Microsoft employees said they will delete Facebook

    -50? We have either an arithmetic error or a punctuation flaw
  • told by their current employer to say they would delete facebook???
  • ”40 percent of Uber employees said they would delete Facebook.”

    Although, in that particular case, the complaint was Facebook isn’t evil enough for their tastes.

  • by kenwd0elq ( 985465 ) <kenwd0elq@engineer.com> on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:36PM (#56338359)

    Don't say you're GOING to delete Facebook; just DO IT.

    I don't need to "delete" Facebook. I use Facebook for only one purpose; some of the blogs I follow use Facebook for their comments. I logged into Facebook a few days ago (I had to look up my password to do that....) and followed the "Download Everything from Facebook" procedure. Seriously, there's almost nothing there. An empty Profile, no games, no pictures, and the only messages were the ones I posted to the various blogs. Nothing that I wouldn't post openly.

    Part of that is that I've never opened the Facebook apps on my phones or tablets.

    If you're a big Facebook user, go back to email, or start a blog, or do something more constructive with your life.

  • How surprised are you that FB has been caught abusing your data?
    A: Hasn't FB always been doing this?
    B: Shit! My data is logged and is possibly available to ... (my boss, my spouse, the fuzz, ...)
    C: Is Facebook going down? I mean I need my FB apps!!
    D: Cowboy Neal read me the fine print, and I'm sure everything is on the up and up.

    • How surprised am I that Facebook has been caught abusing my data?

      Completely astonished, since I've never had a Facebook account to begin with!

      • Your photograph is still tagged on several of your aunts' facebook pages, and your cousin has you listed. And your contact info was sucked into your invisible profile because your sister said 'okay' when they wanted her contact info.

  • by radarskiy ( 2874255 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:46PM (#56338409)

    Deleting your facebook account is easy for people with no friends.

    • by sloth jr ( 88200 )
      It's just as easy for people with friends, and family. Seriously. I thought it was going to be a big deal, that I would somehow "miss" it. I don't.
      • It's just as easy for people with friends, and family.

        No, it really isn't. In fact, I can honestly say it's not only hard but actually impossible for me to delete my Facebook account since I have no idea how to delete something that doesn't exist. My family and most, if not all, my friends will have the same problem.

    • Deleting your facebook account is easy for people with no friends.

      And if you think that the "friends" you have on FB are actually friends (who will help you when you need it, or go for a beer with you or invite you to their wedding) then you are sorely mistaken.

      People collecting "friends" on Facebook is like dogs collecting fleas.

  • I've tried (Score:5, Funny)

    by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @08:55PM (#56338461)
    I tried to delete Facebook, but I'm having trouble hacking in and remote wiping the whole deal. Any ideas?
    • Wait remotely wiping? I don't understand. I thought we were just deleting the app! I even logged in to Facebook this morning to post about how I just #deletefacebooked

    • by WallyL ( 4154209 )

      Have you tried social engineering?

  • I guess a symbolic gesture, if you need or want to keep using FB, would be to Block Mark Zuckerberg... If enough people do it, it might get noticed.

  • and experian while you're at it.
    You'll have about the same success. You think they'll just forget about you? I never had a FB account...that I can log into, that is. Doesn't mean much about what they've got on ya. Heck, they even put together adopted kids with parents when one or both don't have accounts, and some friend noticed....and outed some sex workers as having two accounts, one under a pseudonym. I laugh at puny efforts in the face of that.
  • If I never signed up to join facebook at all?

    Now I can't join the party and delete my account in a fit of revenge!!!

  • And advertising company - and that's what Facebook is - makes money from selling ads, and makes more money from selling demographic information to its advertisers. And grass is green, the sky is blue and water is wet.

    Anybody who is in any way surprised by Facebook doing exactly what they were obviously created to do is a moron.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Follow the US party politics. Social media was all cool and trendy when it helped and supported one side of US politics.
      Another party won a US election by having a winning politician and the losing side could not accept their own party was to blame.
      So they had a story about Russian.
      Now a story about social media and privacy.
      That effort could have gone into policy and a new look to the party.
      The effort is now in showing how demographic information lost an election. All the fault of social media. Not t
      • All the parties are funded by billionaires and corporations. I am surprised you can tell the difference between them. All the parties are going to be using new social media weapons to persuade you to vote for them. The difference is that these weapons are the same psy-ops that are used by a military to defeat a country. Good luck with civilization if you don't try and regulate the use of these weapons.

  • .... some group said they will delete Facebook

    And let's see how many actually do!

    That is all the matters: not what people say (they often will say what they think the surveyor wants to hear), but whether they follow through. And I doubt that many actually will.

  • That telemetry is just as bad or worse than anything Facebook does.
  • 100% of Apple employees don*t give out personal information like that.
  • This movement to delete Facebook is virtue signaling at its worst I fear.

    It's not hurting Facebook any, they will continue to collect data about you from your browsing and through others. That data will still go to advertisers, only now you have zero control over what is stored, whereas if you have a Facebook account you can at least review and modify some of what it thinks about you.

    It also cuts you off from people that may follow you on Facebook, that do not want to leave.

    If you don't want to feed the be

  • That'll cut out more than 2/3s of all the ignorant left-wing posts. So where's the downside?

  • Google employees watn to delete Facebook? LOL! Delete Google! I've been weaning myself off it for a while now. Duck Duck Go for me - and use Google sparingly when necessary (no logins, Ghostery, delete cookies). Ok, it won't make me invisible to them - but seriously - fuck Google.

  • X% said they would delete. One day, maybe, if they get around to it, if they have the time. What % have deleted?
  • Has anyone deleted linkedin? I am considering it as I can't seem to find any value in it and they keep updating their TOS, which they just did again.

  • What I want to know is whether Zuckerberg and all of the rest of the FB execs have Facebook on their phones.

    Akin to The Circle, while maybe not a box office smash, points out how the social network company execs love to have more people join and use their platforms, that often times they know so much about what is going on with the apps and the data that they choose not to participate themselves.

    Being a cynic, however, seeing an active exec on the platform, I would likely assume they had two (or more) devic

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