The latest one is hardly worse than the others. Sure, it's bad if you use instagram, but I have zero interest in sharing photos of my lunch with crappy filters on it, and IIRC that's the key change this time. Meanwhile, google add more and more anti-privacy provisions to their terms all the time and don't get anywhere near this amount of coverage.
I'm definitely critical of facebook and their privacy record, but most of the linked post is about their app, which I never use and of people I'm close to, I don't know anyone who does exactly due to those excessive permission requests. The tracking with like buttons is worse, but easy enough to mitigate with any number of addons. Facebook may be dodgy, but they are no worse than google, apple or microsoft in that respect.
There isn't anything as good as facebook for communicating with friends, and for that reason, trying to stop people using it will never work, no matter the privacy implications. Treat facebook as something dangerous, be careful what you share, and contain it appropriately with addons, etc., but it's unfortunately necessary. What are the alternatives? Google plus is a ghost town and run by the one company worse than facebook on privacy, and disaspora is a joke. I do wish there was a good alternative, but there won't be, as facebook is as much a platform as a site these days.
G+ is actually *not a "ghost town"; it doesn't presume that you have friend-like connections, and allows you to follow/circle and correspond easily with anyone. I tend to think of it as a more powerful Twitter, and have used it to stay in touch with what's going on in my profession. Very helpful to follow and participate in discussions with people from all over the world.
I find that messed up, that anyone can add me without me having to accept. Guess it makes sense in google's ideal panopticon world where privacy is a swearword though. It's just not something I would ever be a part of.
Oh, and it is a ghost town. When it launched, 3 people I know made profiles. None still have them.
I'm definitely critical of facebook and their privacy record, but most of the linked post is about their app, which I never use and of people I'm close to, I don't know anyone who does exactly due to those excessive permission requests. The tracking with like buttons is worse, but easy enough to mitigate with any number of addons. Facebook may be dodgy, but they are no worse than google, apple or microsoft in that respect.
There isn't anything as good as facebook for communicating with friends, and for that reason, trying to stop people using it will never work, no matter the privacy implications. Treat facebook as something dangerous, be careful what you share, and contain it appropriately with addons, etc., but it's unfortunately necessary. What are the alternatives? Google plus is a ghost town and run by the one company worse than facebook on privacy, and disaspora is a joke. I do wish there was a good alternative, but there won't be, as facebook is as much a platform as a site these days.