Today I received an alert on my iPad from Facebook. It said,
Donna, we made a video of you and your friends.
Huh?
So I click the link, and there’s another message:
The Moments That Bring Us Closer
Donna, today we’re celebrating the everyday things that bring friends like yours together. We hope you enjoy your video!
Beneath this is a video of some random people whom I definitely do not know building some fabric contraption that I couldn’t identify. Superimposed on this are my Facebook photos, displaying one after the other. Then another random video of people I don’t know. When I finally found the sound button, there was music I never heard of playing throughout the video.
I was shocked and furious. Obviously, Facebook created some algorithm that plucked my photos from my page and put them in a generic video.
There was a message that no one would see the video unless I shared it. Still, I felt violated. Why was Facebook scraping my photos and putting them in a video?
I tried to complain — but it was almost impossible! Facebook has a “report video” link on every video — except the one that they created themselves. I finally found some link where I could submit a comment. I don’t know if anyone reads them.
I believe that Facebook and all social media are dangerous. I hardly ever post to Facebook. In fact, the only reason I even have a Facebook account is to extend Lovefraud’s reach. So you can imagine how appalled I was to see that the social media company took my personal photos, without my permission, and made this video.
I also thought it was incredibly stupid of Facebook. The social media company is under serious pressure over other breaches of privacy — why would they even do something like this?
In fact, today, this the top headline in the front page of the “Business & Finance” section of the Wall Street Journal:
Zuckerberg Backs Privacy Measure
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive and co-founder of Facebook Inc., endorsed federal privacy legislation and greater regulation of political advertising, even as he cast governments as too slow to address many of the internet’s thorniest problems.
Huh? Why doesn’t Facebook stop violating privacy itself?
How my sociopath ex-husband used lies and CPS to take my kids away
Sunnygal
Donna- There is an article in USA Today titled ‘Is Facebook llistening to me?’ there is a smartphone app Guardian Firewall to stop it most of the time for 9.99 a month.
slimone
Donna, That is SO incredibly creepy!!!! FACEBOOK is not good. We simply do not have the know how to control it, so it is just running Amok. I have had to good fortune NOT to need it for any reason. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they STILL had access to some of my information. Crazy
Sunnygal
slim- there is the smartphone app which is reported to help.
Sunnygal
There are a few pages I like but may stop.
firstvictim
Yes, I felt the same way. I did not share the video. I do not post pictures of my grandchildren or children (my sons have left Facebook) but I feel Facebook social media is very dangerous. I am having a hard time deciding to leave because it’s the only way I can communicate very quickly with friends and relatives. I may narrow down my friends list. Will there ever be a social media site we can trust?
stars4healing
Yes! I feel your pain. Google photos does the same thing. There’s nothing private about the internet, and FB is the worst. I would suggest never taking pictures you don’t want absolutely everyone being able to see decades from now without your consent. That’s the reality sadly. I love privacy 😂 but the law doesn’t stop any man from standing behind me and blatantly snapping pictures of my ass for example so I’m not free from ending up online in pics even if I don’t post any myself. Consent isn’t a concept men who make the laws seem to grasp.🤪
Sunnygal
Yahoo has an article- Why the U.S. government is coming for Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple.
Sunnygal
Facebook now requires to log in a code sent by text and a photo.