Social media becomes more problematic for me to use by the day. Liberals can say whatever the hell they want with absolutely no fear of censorship. Conservatives can't tell the truth without Facebook or Twitter slapping some half-assed "fact checking" claim that is usually a pathetic joke of biased interpretation passed off as truth by a lazy press corps. Politics cannot be avoided, but only half the conversation is being allowed. I've always used Facebook and liked the interface until I began to realize how intrusive their data mining has become. For example, somehow Mark Zuckerberg found out that I took a business trip to Ireland in 1998. Facebook wasn't launched until six years later, so I could not have posted photos of my trip or published my travel itinerary, not that I would be stupid enough to advertise to burglars when I'm not around to protect my home. I am 99.9999+ percent certain that I have never mentioned that little tidbit of information on Facebook. So, the question is, how did Facebook find out about my trip and mention it as one of the fun facts about me that others can learn without my intentional consent. Ah, but there's the rub, isn't it? To what have I consented, when I clicked "Agree" to their book-length terms of service agreement? I understood that the social media application was going to use information learned about me from my use of Facebook and the internet itself to help advertisers market products to me while I'm using their product. Again, information about my travel to Ireland can't even be on my own computer, because my laptop … [Read more...]