Posts Tagged ‘Facebook privacy’

Why I am (still) on the notoriously bad Facebook (but not “bad” in the relatively respectable Michael Jackson sense of the word “bad”)

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

I said I was leaving Facebook. I didn’t leave but I have been inactive, which is worse because my presence on Facebook adds a silent air of credibility and consent to Facebook’s unethical intelligence gathering and data-mining operation.

I did take a break though and ignored the continuous stream of begging e-mails from Facebook to look at this thing, that thing and some unknown stranger’s ting-a-ling.

Have you counted how many types of spam Facebook sends you?

You don’t even have to be registered to get Facebook spam. They manage to find your very private e-mail address. How? By gate-crashing your friend’s address book and keeping it. Yes, it’s called stealing. Worse, they pretend to be your friend inviting you to join Facebook and surrender your contact list. That’s called phishing and it’s a crime. Insurance salesmen call it "referrals" and con-artists know it as "working the mark’s trust network".

Do you love your friends? If "yes" then protect them from FaceBook, don’t push them into Facebook’s abyss. Especially your techno-naive granny who will get a Facebook-specific virus like the kooBFace virus and lose all of her bank accounts and pension funds to the inevitable 419 scammer who will prey on her goodwill by pretending to be a god-fearing person in dire need of money.

Without Facebook, what a glorious month of peace, quiet and productivity it has been and no Facebook clouds on the horizon! No news of the latest Facebook privacy leak. No fear, just ease of mind. Priceless!

I spent most of the time by the water lounging in the hot sun. We get the benefits of global warming in Finland too. The polar bears are sliding in on melting polar icecaps up in Lapland. Come and see Finland meltdown next July!

Life without Facebook is fun!

First Belly Laugh! Then Learn Truth. OK?

It’s been a creative time for the Oshana Teaching. I managed to achieve previously unattainable goals:

So why have I returned to using Facebook?

The answer is right there in the title of Douglas Adam’s "Restaurant at the End of the Universe". It’s the second book in the very funny "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe" trilogy. Which is not a trilogy at all but in fact 4 books. I like funny. Do you like funny? I bet most of you can can have more side-splitting belly laughs per day than contractual orgasms (the married kind).

I am using Facebook to promote my Transmission Teaching, especially my Live Online classes (every Sunday) and having fun watching the unethical T-Rex of a social networking dinosaur, Facebook, fall to the floor never to get up again because while it as has two good legs it has only puny arms.

I know some of you will laugh at my prediction because Facebook has 500 million Facebook users, reportedly, and rising. It seems that, like Caesar, it cannot fail. Go ahead and laugh, a big belly laugh, and then laugh some more. I will have at least achieved my first purpose in writing: to get you to laugh. Laugh loud and laugh long. After laughing long you might start to see more clearly. Once you drop your fear of losing your Facebook friends (if you lose them then you never had them) you will get what is going on here and everywhere.

I am on Facebook to watch the spectacular firework show as the monstrous edifice Facebook comes crashing down at the end of its dark Empire reign. Truly a Dark Ages for human consciousness.

If that sounds like harsh words then blame Facebook! The new legal defense heard in courts across every land is "Facebook made me do it" – and it will be very true. First, "They" corrupted the world with drugs, then baby milk power/formula, then Coca Cola and now Facebook!

As well as promote Enlightenment, I will spread an awareness of Facebook’s poor privacy practices and search for healthier social networking alternatives which allow you manage your own networks on your own computer. Ref: the fledgling “Diaspora” project.

My main Facebook teaching account will start again to provide spiritual teaching event dates under the Events section:

http://facebook.com/dave.oshana.spiritual.enlightenment.transmission?v=app_2344061033

But, what did I just say? It’s not really MY Facebook account – because Facebook totally owns it. They can cancel it at any time. Did you realise in your wildest dreams that they can lock you out, pretend to be you and play with my friends’ minds forever? Or worse archive your drunken lavatory photos and make them display them in their futuristic advert sing for time immemorial?

I will update you savvy Facebook dwellers about my Free Teaching audio and video recordings (hosted on DaveOshana.com).

BUT IF REALLY YOU WANT TO WISE UP, GO OFF-SITE. GET OFF FACEBOOK!

I would prefer that you don’t visit me on Facebook. Instead visit my real, self-owned websites – where you can get up-to-date information, articles and resources on Enlightenment, Awakening and come to know who you really are. Let’s avoid the unnecessary hassles of messing with Facebook’s poor and buggy pages. They clearly don’t know or care how to code user friendly pages that would actually work.

GET OFF YOUR FACE — BOOK.
You won’t miss it!

Find me for real at domains that I will actually own for perpetuity:

http://enlightenment-now.com/
http://daveoshana.com
http://blog.oshana.org/

PS It will really bother me in the afterlife if I have inadvertently caused anyone to join or remain on Facebook. Please leave now if I was the inciting cause and then take the time re-think your options. It probably wasn’t caused by me though. You were most likely stressed out by all that Facebook spam, fear of missing out and looking like a friendless loser.

Do you now realise that you you have no control over such things?

But you don’t have to be a victim. You don’t have to take it any longer.

There is life beyond Facebook! Trust me, I am a spiritualist ;)

Long Live the Miraculous Enlightenment Transmission!

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Posted in Enlightenment, FaceBook, Facebook alternatives, Facebook privacy, FaceBook Virus, KooBFace virus, Spirituality | 5 Comments »

Leave Facebook, Find Privacy Alternatives, Protect Facebook Friends

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

It’s not about me but about you and those that you care about.

I won’t be staying for much longer on Facebook. I do not want friend’s to assume that I support Facebook’s complete lack of ethics for user data privacy.

Facebook data is easy to obtain and could be used to harm individuals and their friends especially in countries under harsh regimes. The value of Facebook has been in seeing friend’s pictorial depictions of their lives. Facebook wall feeds though have been so busy that they are impossible to follow. Facebook gives little and takes away much. Facebook want to own your data including the choices which you have made.

Facebook’s control settings have been frequently buggy, crash or impossible to change (especially privacy options). No one should give Facebook their email password. Once your email account is compromised it could be used for Nigerian fraud scams, banking fraud or spam phishing. Was your password sent using HTTPS? If it was not then a criminal could have it. Even if you sent it by HTTPS then an unethical technician could have sold or abused it. I would not trust Facebook to be ethical nor sufficiently careful given their poor track record.

Facebook has deliberately and suddenly made private user data public.

The Facebook system has been easy to hack. Facebook have, by design, revealed information about user’s geo-location without their awareness. If your bank or email company were this negligent then you would be forced to leave.

I will support safer alternatives though. You can find me in future on my own private network at DaveOshana.com

I resisted joining Facebook for many years. Just before I joined I started to write a blog article about raising concerns about the misuse of privacy and Facebook. In the past year Facebook has blundered deliberately and unconsciously with private user date. I will be posting links before I leave.

Soon after joining Facebook I felt I should leave but others had wanted to do the same had said they would stay because I had joined and was posting. I have enjoyed seeing what is happening with others through their pictures – but you don’t need Facebook to publish on the internet.

I cannot recommend Facebook to anyone.

I don’t need Facebook for my most important life mission: sharing Enlightened Consciousness.

Most people who are interested in my spiritual teaching work have joined DaveOshana.com before finding me on Facebook. Facebook users may have learned about my work via Facebook friends. My opinion is that my presence on Facebook does not bring more attention to my work but gives a false sense of endorsing Facebook. As a person interested in supporting and protecting others I must vote with my feet by leaving Facebook but not without making those reasons clear first.

I encourage you to find social networks that you and your friends can keep private.

It should be possible to set up private networks between friend’s computers using trackerless torrent technology and to have Internet Messaging that does not have to use a 3rd party servers like hotmail, yahoo, skype, etc.

Basically, any company that holds most of your data, could act unethically – and when they are caught red-handed doing it many times over several years then it is time to move on.

My next project will to unhook from Gmail (GoogleMail). I hope there is a similar email product out there.

Blessings,
Dave Oshana
In future find me on
http://daveoshana.com/

Something to Hide?

If someone has something to hide – and people certainly do for a variety of reasons – like client confidentiality then they cannot expect Facebook to respect the need for privacy.

However people tend to naively trust web providers. As I wrote it’s particular dangerous to have your network exposed when a political regime changes – as I know full well happened in Argentina when people burned their address books. The world has not changed. This is one stark example.

It’s also insecure when Facebook users give their email password to Facebook especially if they use internet banking. These are flaws with Facebook’s way of operating that could have been remedied.

Disturbing reading about Facebook privacy violations (just a few examples):

If you understand the risks and consequences and still choose to stay with Facebook then check out this Facebook privacy settings plugin for Firefox:

  • http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/

    • Nothing can protect your Facebook data except leaving Facebook! Find safer alternatives. Protect your friends.

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    Posted in Enlightened Consciousness, Spirituality | 3 Comments »