Never used the FB app, never played any games on FB. And I use a script blocker. Those of us who know something about cyber [in]security have been cautious for a long time. And with all due respect to our esteemed admins here, I won't use any social account that requires an app on my phone.

your phone has 2 microphones . one for you and one for eavesdropping . your tv has a camera in it pointing at you. I know this as a good friend runs an electronic repair store. the only way to deny signal is to unplug the tv. big bro is here to stay

I wasn't all that upset about them collecting the data we put on facebook since the use of a free site means you gotta give up something.

This however does disturb me because now they have data that should have nothing to do with facebook.

I wonder if one could copyright their personal, then sue companies that steal it?

I hate Messenger and avoided it until recently when a project group I was working with was communicating through it. Ugh.

The ad-following isn't just Google and FB. In advertising, we did this all the time for our clients. This is a simplistic explanation but, in a nutshell, we provide the ads in standard sizes to load to an adware website, and they will "follow" anyone who has gone to any page of the client's website, and place the client's ads in those other websites. You can even have emails sent. All that was needed was a pop-up telling the site visitor that we were using cookies. So when the clothes you looked at on Macy's website pop up in ads when you're browsing elsewhere show up, it's Macy's that did it.

Yes you will see this in effect by the ads that show up on your page.
Google does the same and not only wI'll you see ads about something you looked up but in some cases get emails from companies.

Using Apple devices.

I was at GAP about 15 years ago with the now ex-wife. I'm a typical guy who's totally uninterested in shopping. So we're in the checkout line and I'm already half way out the door when the cashier asks the wifey what her zipcode was. I hollered '90210" and the cahshier girl plugs it into the register. I'm from Texas, btw. What an idiot! I love screwing with people's attempt to collect demographic info. I'm going to hell. Oh...wait a minute

canceled my account

I wonder will there be financial compensation for the "theft" or "misuse" of member's data in the light of stories we read in the news? Will the vast fortune accumulated be deemed to be ill-gotten gains? Will law suits ensue?

The workings of FB and Google had a very big editorial in today's paper. It is interesting and I'm glad I have no devices and only participate very selectively on FB and nothing on Google.

When these things come to light the companies stock initially falls (which it has done) and then they run around trying to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, this is how our reactionary economic system works. The Europeans are not as capatilistic as we and have been after the high tech compaines for years. I experienced how the governments worked when living there and, yes, we need more socialism in our country.

I'd love to know, after Apple got busted a few years ago for helping track of geolocation data of its users, how companies think they're going to get away with this sort of violation. Facebook is hemorrhaging users and revenue right now, and I hope this cripples them permanently (but I'm not holding my breath).