Because of the Facebook data scandal, should Linux Mint delete its Facebook page?

[stephanieswitzer]

FaceBook is not free to use. Those who create a FB account pay for that account with their private data, their surfing habits and their likes, to mention a few. Parties interested in this data accumulated by FB can pay FB to access it and use it as they see fit as long as the interested party abides by FB usage rules (Cough)... The trouble is that not all the parties are advertisers trying to sell their product as seen in the Analytica issue. FB failed to ensure that the data they provided was used ethically. In an interview yesterday, Sheryl Sandburg admitted that they failed to check that Analytica had deleted the FB data they were given. Sandburg admitted that Analytica had not deleted the data, and may or may not have used the data to sway voters in recent elections/referendums. FB failed.

In a statement last week, the maker of the popular Firefox web browser said it is “pressing pause” on its advertising campaign on Facebook.

Sonos

The consumer electronics company announced it was pulling ads from not only Facebook, but its subsidiary Instagram — as well as Google, YouTube and Twitter — but only for a week, starting Monday.

Pep Boys

On Monday, auto parts and service retailer Pep Boys said it was halting its advertising on Facebook as a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

SpaceX and Tesla

Elon Musk made his feelings about Facebook pretty clear when he agreed to remove pages for two of his companies from the social network as part of a Twitter challenge.

Personally I don't think that Mint should maintain their FB page as we have this community here to freely exchange ideas, ask questions, make proposals and seek help, etc. I've personally deleted my own FB account.

[Arch_Enemy]

I dunno if I'm missing something here, but I thought the Cambridge Analytical thing was a survey you had to opt into, and they used the data based on that survey. As with all surveys, there was a disclaimer about how the data may be used.

Now, what I'm not sure of, did they take FaceBook data to decide who to send the survey to? Of course, you'd want to play to your base in this instance, so looking for certain keywords and links and "Friends" would play into this, but that in itself isn't all that bad. FaceBook and a lot lot of their advertisers use this data every day in order to target certain advertisers and specials to their audiences. No big deal; we all know this has been going on for some time. Uh, haven't we? (Being Mint users are generally more savvy that a lot of Windows home users, I would assume this to be true...)

The only difference is, this time the data was used to target voters.

[xenopeek]

As we already have a topic discussing the recent Facebook events, let's not repeat that discussion here.

Linux Mint's Facebook page, like Linux Mint's Twitter page, is just a convenience for users to be able to follow announcements from the blog https://blog.linuxmint.com/. That's all that is on the page, links to articles from the blog. Users without Facebook or Twitter can just subscribe to the RSS feed on the blog for the same (using a RSS feed reader like Liferea or using web browser feature like Firefox' live bookmarks).

Removing Linux Mint's Facebook page would, in my personal opinion, achieve nothing meaningful except leave the users that prefer to use Facebook as their news aggregator without a means to follow Linux Mint's announcements on there.

[Arch_Enemy]

As we already have a topic discussing the recent Facebook events, let's not repeat that discussion here.

Linux Mint's Facebook page, like Linux Mint's Twitter page, is just a convenience for users to be able to follow announcements from the blog https://blog.linuxmint.com/. That's all that is on the page, links to articles from the blog. Users without Facebook or Twitter can just subscribe to the RSS feed on the blog for the same (using a RSS feed reader like Liferea or using web browser feature like Firefox' live bookmarks).

Removing Linux Mint's Facebook page would, in my personal opinion, achieve nothing meaningful except leave the users that prefer to use Facebook as their news aggregator without a means to follow Linux Mint's announcements on there.

Yeah. What he said. I would imagine the personal data of users isn't available unless you're a FB user anyway, and then it's just a moot point. They got you already.

[KBD47]

It's been known for awhile now that Facebook has gathered user info without the user's consent:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook- ... -watchdog/
Surprised to see so many smart people here defending Facebook, which is nothing but a surveillance program that hoovers up everything it can about everyone, including people who are not even on Facebook:
https://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook- ... ivacy-faq/
Facebook and its leader are horrible. Even going so far as to gather hospital/medical info on its users:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 91716.html
I think it would be great if Mint dropped its Facebook presence. Facebook deserves no one's support.

[Moem]

I don't trust, support or defend Facebook. I just don't feel that the data scandal should be a reason to delete the Linux Mint Facebook page.

[Pepi]

Man ... I'm such a BORING person

[xenopeek]

Linux Mint's Facebook page only affects people that visit that page. It doesn't otherwise affect anybody using Linux Mint or Linux Mint's websites.

There is a link to the Facebook page on the main website but none of Linux Mint's websites have any Facebook widgets or trackers on them. The link to the Facebook page is thus just that; a plain "click here to go there" link. Facebook doesn't see who visits the main Linux Mint website unless they click on the link to go to the Facebook page.

[Cosmo.]

What scandal, exactly?

Are you informed, that Zuckerberg has to appear at the US Congress?

Wrong. He doesn't "have" to appear, because he's not subpoenaed. He just wants to cover his ass.

Correct in the sense, that he is not in the situation of a defendant in front of a judge. But not correct in the sense, that Z does not go there out of free will. He has the alternative between this testify (in one source I read "getting filleted") or having to face far deeper consequences. So at the end he has to appear, even if he is not legally forced.

Nevertheless: It is totally not understandable, how you can ask "what scandal", although you obviously know it.

[lmuserx4849]

I just wish Linux Mint and other distributions would stop polluting our systems with facebook files of any sort. Why does every social media site have to occupy our hard drives and applications' menu lists? Why can't they be separate files/packages that are installed by choice and applications just check to see if a file exists. If it does, create a menu item, otherwise don't.

[xenopeek]

What do you mean lmuserx4849? Linux Mint does not install any Facebook or other social media entries in your menu.

Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon does come with Online Accounts settings and that has the option to configure a Facebook account (among many other websites and services), but if you don't configure it there's no connection made to Facebook and it doesn't add an entry to your menu in any case.

[stavpup]

The real question is "what is a good alternative to facebook".

[lmuserx4849]

What do you mean lmuserx4849? Linux Mint does not install any Facebook or other social media entries in your menu.

Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon does come with Online Accounts settings and that has the option to configure a Facebook account (among many other websites and services), but if you don't configure it there's no connection made to Facebook and it doesn't add an entry to your menu in any case.

If I do a locate:

===> locate facebook|wc -l
112

Select a few files at random:

===> dpkg -S /usr/share/icons/Mint-Y/apps/16/facebook.png
mint-y-icons

===> dpkg -S unity-webapps-facebookmessenger:FacebookMessengerfacebookcom.desktop
app-install-data

===> dpkg -S /usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/16/goa-account-facebook.png
mint-x-icons

On LM17.3/KDE:

===> locate facebook|wc -l
81

It just seems like more apps have menu lists like the image below.

If I never saw facebook, I'd be as happy as a clam I suppose a lot of this is coming from applications and there is no control, but if there is, make it optional to even install would be greatly appreciated.

[Moem]

The real question is "what is a good alternative to facebook".

Good question for a new thread, in the Open Chat section.

[xenopeek]

If I do a locate:

===> locate facebook|wc -l
112

I have only 101 files here. 98 of them are icons.

There's 1 xml file for Pix which looks to be for when you've set up a Facebook account you can export from Pix to Facebook.

Then there are 2 files in app-install-data which is a package with APT install data. These 2 are components for Unity.

None of these files have any link to Facebook whatsoever.

On LM17.3/KDE

That's all KDE 4. I've not used KDE 4 for a long while so can't place the screenshot. Is this the context menu of the file manager or screenshot tool possibly? I can't find anything similar on KDE 5 on Linux Mint 18.3 KDE.