Think before you flush Facebook

What about those pictures and the history of trips, affairs, loves, lovers, good times and comfort when tragedy strikes?

St. Petersburg, Fl Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhDAuthor: In Search of Robin, So You Want to Blog.

There is a lot of panic right now about Facebook and the way they handle your data and “watch” what you do.

In fact, it ranges from paranoia to outrage.

If you take a deep breath and think about it for a moment, consider this:

Facebook has been doing this for a long time. Along with Google/Android, Twitter and every other social media site you use. The more information you share or enter into those sign up pages the more access you give to those who would paw around in your information and more importantly in your life.

Bad, bad, bad right? Well Maybe.

How have things been going for you lately? Made any new friends on Facebook, found a lot you did not know? Been pestered by those ads only to have something really neat popup, and you bought it.

Your first clue about all of this sudden panic over data harvesting should be the outrage from the politicians.

 Any time you see this group protesting loudly, promising to investigate and assuring you they will protect you from all those cyber bullies and the Facebooks, Snapchats, Pinterest and Twitters of the world take note and ask yourself this question:

Why are they really interested?

 Answer - it is election time soon and beating up on the big players makes for a lot of good press and CNN sound bites. If you think, Congress is in this for your benefit, you may as well give Mark Zuckerberg the key to your apartment.

If you Google  How can I make my  Facebook account safe you will get about 210,000,000 hits. Somewhere in all of that is an answer that will fit your social media privacy concerns.

Before you decide to flush (delete) any of your social media accounts be sure to stop and think about what you are throwing away. Do you have another way to reach those friends and contacts?

What about pictures and the history of trips, affairs, loves, lovers, good times and comfort when tragedy strikes?

The real blessing of social media is it gives access and outlet in a time when one on one personal interaction seems less and less possible.

Is it infuriating that those who control these complex social media systems would use their technical ability to exploit those of us who use their sites?

Yes!

However, unless you have never seen a si-fi movie in your entire life you should not be surprised. The plot is almost always the same: the technology and those who control it turn on us the unwitting users.

The bastions of all things interconnected will fain sorrow and regret, promise to make sure their devices are not listening to everything you say and their sites and wonderful talking devices are not listening and recording everything you do but the fact is they will simply figure out a more secure way on their part to keep doing what they are doing.

As to the politicians, they will huff and puff, subpoena and hold hearings, threaten and cajole, but they need all that social media data to keep their cushy jobs so don’t look to them to be much help.

Why don’t you go back up and click that Google link and clean up your profile and permissions on all your social media sites, e-mail accounts and especially your cell phone and all those wonderful apps?

Then sit back and enjoy life; tweet, post and e-mail to your heart’s content.

E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (E. Eugene Webb) Friend request. Like or share on Facebook and follow me on TWITTER  @DOC ON THE BAY.
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