Facebook Says Your Email Is @Facebook 346
beaverdownunder writes "Facebook has been silently changing users' default e-mail addresses to their @facebook.com address in a move that Facebook claims was 'to protect users' and to create 'consistency,' but has been blasted by many bloggers and news outlets as 'Facebook's Lame Attempt To Force Its E-Mail Service On You,' and even characterised the move as a Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack on users' private correspondence. From the article: 'Many articles characterized the change as a ham-fisted way for Facebook to push its email system, which it first announced in late 2010. At that time the company said its goal was to integrate conversations across multiple channels of communication — text messages, Facebook chat, email, etc. Facebook seemed surprised by the reaction. 'We basically defaulted to show your Facebook address as we rolled this out, just to keep it consistent for everyone,' said Meredith Chin, Facebook's manager of product communications. 'I'm seeing this whole meme around the idea that it's us pushing for people only to use facebook.com addresses,' Chin said. "That was not our intention. We want people to use whatever's easier for them.''"
There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just went into my profile to try to remove / disable this POS and you are not even given the option to do so...
I am so close to closing my Facebook account it is not even funny anymore.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Informative)
Nobody sees it but everybody knows that given an url https://www.facebook.com/you there is an address at you@facebook.com
The help reads that mail received by that address goes into facebook's messages. That would be good for spammers. I tried sending a mail to myself, still waiting for it to arrive or bounce.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm starting to agree on the "leaving" part (or at least stop using). Sure it's fun to reconnect with old classmates, but changing my default address from yahoo.com or gmail.com to facebook's service totally blows.
What ALSO blows is making me identify pictures when I log-in from non-home computers. How on earth am I supposed to identify which of my 1000 friends is tagged on a Calvin&Hobbes cartoon? For that matter, some of my friends have grown old and changed appearance. I barely recognize them anymore. Basically: I can't login because I keep guessing wrong on the photos. Bullshit facebook. (My username and password should be enough to let me in.)
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Informative)
My special hate:
Now I see status updates of pages liked by my friends, and the only way to get rid of them is to unsubscribe from the friend. I've taken to reporting every damn one of these updates that appear on my feed as spam.
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I'm fine with it telling me they liked something.
I have a problem with a friend liking Wal-mart 6 months ago, and now suddenly I'm seeing new photos that Wal-mart has uploaded.
So, yea, either get rid of that or get rid of companies. After all, nobody is friends with a company, so they have no justification for being included.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Interesting)
It's makes little difference for spammers because Facebooks approach to spam filtering is, to put it mildly, "nuke it from space". Mail sent to you that isn't from a friend goes into the "other" section and generates no notifications at all. The only way to even know you have received such a message is to make a habit of going into Messages and manually polling the "other" section to see if there are messages there.
This is insane. The reason people fought so hard to build strong spam filters that let strangers could mail each other is that the internet is about connecting people, even people who may not already be friends. I am not the type to have histrionics over changes Facebook makes, in fact I don't remember the last time I got really annoyed about a change they made. Far more of my friends care about the forced transition to Timeline than this. But Facebook fucked up email totally, which is why I don't use my @facebook.com address. I'm sure the average Facebook user never corresponds outside their circle of friends, but I have projects and interests that often mean wanting to contact people who don't know me (and vice versa). So it actually matters to me that people can find my email address and use it. Silently changing my settings like this pisses me off, and the absolute bullshit their PR flaks spouted about it just rubs salt in the wound. "Making addresses more consistent" - since when is consistency of domain name a factor in anything? What possible benefit does that have for anyone except them? Ugh. Google+ gets this right, incidentally.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:4, Insightful)
ANOTHER annoying thing is facebook keeps redirecting my Tablet to their mobile site. If I type www.facebook.com then THAT'S where I want to go, not m.facebook.
Facebook's actions are equivalent to when I tell a taxi driver "I want to see Baltimore," and he takes me to smalltown Annapolis instead. The taxi driver should Never take his customer someplace different than what was requested, and neither should a webpage programmer. (But given they are changing our emails from name@yahoo to name@facebook, I guess facebook doesn't care about netiquette.)
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Isn't there an app for your tablet?
If not, isn't there a "use non-mobile site" (something like that) link, usually near the bottom of the screen?
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Consider the intent of Facebook's email service: To remove people's need or desire to use Google services (Gmail, in this case). The big picture goal is that Facebook effectively becomes the Internet for people, the way AOL used to be.
For the spammer, the value of Facebook email is not clear, but Google's spam filtering isn't doing spammers any favors. It's possible that Facebook's spam filters will be as effective (or more? who knows) as Google's.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's possible that Facebook's spam filters will be as effective ... as Google's.
Yes certainly! Facebook will block 100% of spam that hasnt paid a fee to Facebook. Hey, Zuck's gotta justify that 90 trillion dollar IPO somehow.
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Well they could start by making their mail interface not completely suck. I'm already annoyed enough that people send me messages from within Facebook instead of e-mailing me, because I just hate dealing with their messaging system so much.
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Interesting point. Maybe if FB wants to play the email game, they should offer a real email service, i.e. IMAP (secure).
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Funny)
You can't get rid of the address, but you can make it so that no one sees it. You can also display to whomever you like whatever address you like. The settings updates you have to make are pretty straightforward.
Sally's Facebook Wall, sometime in 2013
It's a Boy! David Zuckerberg Stevens joined our family this morning at 6:45 a.m. 7lbs 3oz
---
Sally: OMG! I totally didn't type Zuckerberg! His middle name is Anthony! WTF FaceBook?!
Judy: Relax! You can't get rid of the Zuckerberg, but you can just not use it in front of others and no one will know, except when you scold, "David Zuckerberg! Take your hand out of that cookie jar this instant!"
Sally: Who are you?
Judy: I'm your closest friend. We met when you called Facebook to close your account, and I talked you out of it. And remember when I talked you out of that abortion 8 months ago?
Sally: Wait, are you FB customer service?
Judy: We don't like to think of it that way.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
The settings updates you have to make are pretty straightforward.
Provided you know that you have to make the updates to begin with, what with the lack of any announcement and all...
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just went into my profile to try to remove / disable this POS and you are not even given the option to do so...
I am so close to closing my Facebook account it is not even funny anymore.
Join the rest of us that left several months ago because of the increasing number of times that fb thought their views on privacy/settings/defaults was better than yours. At this point I only have a fb id so that I can be invited to events by others. Hopefully some sort of good event system will show up in one of the other social network sites.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Informative)
At this point I only have a fb id so that I can be invited to events by others.
Some old-timers once told me of a time when you could have friends and get invited to things without needing the services of a corporation that makes its money by knowing and selling every detail of your life, but I can't imagine how it was ever done.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:4, Insightful)
It was different back then, because all your friends lived in the same little town as you. Now, with people moving thousands of miles every time they change jobs (which happens every 2-3 years), it's not so easy. Before the internet, we tried to keep in contact with telephones, but that didn't work so well; how do you find someone you lost contact with? If you couldn't contact a mutual friend, or didn't know which city they lived in to look them up in the white pages (or they were unlisted), then you were out of luck. With the internet, a few things got easier, but finding people still wasn't too easy; email replaced telephone calls and snail-mail letters, but again if you didn't already know their email address you were out of luck. Facebook made reconnecting easy since it was basically like a giant internet-wide phone book.
Unfortunately, they've gone from just being a way of allowing people to reconnect and interact, to being a bunch of control freaks that make Apple look like they're not control freaks.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Facebook and similar sites have their place, but to be honest, I think we overuse and misuse them.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:4, Interesting)
I frankly do not care about being left out by people who forget about me just because I am not on Facebook. With "friends" like those. . .
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
I make people who say that they are my friends call me, text me, send me an email. Heck. Sometimes they even stop by to say hello.
Anyone in my circle of friends that insists that I need a Facebook account to be their friend is not a friend.
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there's so much extra privacy if you do NOT have an fb acct.
strange way to think of it, but its at the point where people just assume you 1) carry a smartphone and 2) have an fb account
I do neither. 2 less things to be searched and judged by!
employer: open your fb account for us
me: don't got one
customs: open your fb account for us
me: get bent, don't got one
it seems that the best way to play is not to play at all. anymore.
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Could you suggest a similar site where I can upload unlimited 2000x2000 photos, tag my friends so that they get notified of them and let me share baby photos with even the most inept of family members?
Until then facebook it is.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Interesting)
I am so close to closing my Facebook account it is not even funny anymore.
Just do it.
I deleted mine over a year ago and haven't missed it for a second.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:4, Insightful)
With social networks, you are not the customer, you are the product they market to their customers.
Don't make the mistake that your details are private. These companies make money selling your information to third parties; That's all they exist for.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:4, Informative)
Yes there is: Click "About" on your profile and scroll down to your email address. Click "Edit" to change them. Click on the circle next to your Facebook email address and change its setting to "Hidden From Timeline". Click on the circle next to your other email addresses and change their settings to "Shown On Timeline". Click the Save button at the bottom of the Edit popup (Don't forget this step).
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
from the BBC's article: [bbc.co.uk]
Users wishing to undo the change can do so by clicking on the "about" link in their profile and then clicking the "edit" button next to their contact information.
They then need to click make their Facebook email address "hidden from timeline" and then - if they wish - make one or more of their other preferred addresses visible.
I think that's pretty obvious... by facebook standards.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Funny)
I am so close to closing my Facebook account it is not even funny anymore.
No you aren't you sheep, stop fantasizing. You are a slave.
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Don't just walk from Facebook... [youtube.com]
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Well they have to find a way to make you move to timeline, obviously.
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not on timeline and I just edited my settings to not show the @facebook email address.
Point 1: I didn't sign up for a facebook email address. Did you?
Point 2: Facebook didn't bother telling me that they had created one for me that I needed to worry about. Did they tell you?
Point 3: THEY WON'T LET ME DELETE IT.
Point 4: The don't tell you how to delete it. They list both your initial address and the ficticious @facebook one with a checkbox next to each, and a link for "remove" hanging out in space. I checked the box next to the facebook address and clicked remove. It kept the address but drew a line through it. I tried to save that change and was told that I had to select a default address. WTF? If there is only ONE address, that's the default, you morons.
Point 5: Not showing it to your friends is not the same as deleting it, or it not existing. What it means is that they can spam that address, and other can spam that address. It's a simple number. How long before the 1 .. 99999999@ spambots start up?
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Interesting)
Excuse me? Personally I'd be angry as fuck if someone changed some way of contacting me without informing me.
I don't want to imagine what shitstorm was going on if MS pushed an update that "accidentally" changed your default browser to IE. Aside of the antitrust suit that slams them before the day is over. And, bluntly, I don't see how this should be different.
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Mine actually exists for the sole purpose that nobody can set up one in my name and put crap on it.
I'm actually waiting for something like this to happen to people who refuse to use it...
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FAQ "What do I have to do to permanently eliminate my account?" [facebook.com]
Before doing so, you might want to do the following, just to be safe:
Re:There is not even a way to remove it! (Score:5, Insightful)
The user interface got worse and worse, each time the users accepted the new shitty UI and accepted it but it's getting to the point it's virtually abuse now.
To be fair, it's not just Facebook where the user interface is getting worse and worse, it's EVERYTHING computer-related. I can't think of a single place where the user interface is actually getting better; they're all becoming horrible and dumbed-down and ugly. Windows 8 Metro: ugly, dumbed-down. Gnome 3: dumbed-down. Unity: dumbed-down. Gmail: ugly.
Worsening user interfaces seems to be the big trend these days. I guess everyone's run out of genuinely useful things to do with their time (like actually improve their products), so now they're focusing on UIs to make their shit look "new", and in the process fucking it all up.
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That's because more and more dumb-asses are using computers and gizmos, and the industry needs to placate to the lower IQ's, leaving us smart tech people squirming with contempt.. And since dumb-asses don't want to learn anything, (it's against their morals) software and hardware makers must sink to their level.
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Not exactly, IMO. I think it's a little more complex than this.
For one thing, Windows has been catering to dumbasses for ages, yet even so, XP, with its Fisher-Price designed UI, isn't nearly as dumbed-down as Win8/Metro.
Secondly, two of the UIs I mentioned are the top two UIs on Linux, which most people still seem to consider a "hacker's OS", not an OS for dumbasses. Yet, they're going all out on dumbing things down there. (KDE has done a lot better in this regard, by maintaining separate UIs for differ
Bullpoop (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever's easier for them is to use the e-mail address that they set up as their default before Facebook screwed with their settings. Changing users' settings without their consent is a great way to lose users. I should know, I dumped my Hotmail account for that very reason.
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Re:Bullpoop (Score:5, Interesting)
Also I think facebook really helped reduce chain emails (and forwarded jokes) since all the stupid people just go to facebook and share and leave me alone.
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cb radio was like that to ham radio, 30 or more years ago. the idiots who could not pass a ham radio code+theory test were left to rot on the cb (citizens band) freq's while the rest of us (yes, I was a ham radio guy a long time ago) were enjoying our band-space, clear of most idiots and 'lids'.
cb morons pretty much stayed there. and we stayed in our area. and life was good ;)
fb, myspace and crap like that are magnets for morons (hey, is that a new catch-phrase?). whoever ends up on those services, well
Re:Bullpoop (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bullpoop (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd say people are becoming forced to in some ways.
For example authentication. A number of websites are using FB for their authentication mechanism, with no way to just create an account outside of that. This seems to be increasing because it seems to be easy to implement.
Right now, if a site demands FB authentication, they are avoidable. For example, Spotify. Easy change -- drop them, pick up Rdio which has a better selection anyway. However, I dread a time where if one wants to pay a phone bill online, order a pizza, or log onto a MMO, one must cough up a FB ID or else go elsewhere.
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Re:Bullpoop (Score:4, Insightful)
Even more ominous, it gives FB a lot of control over things it should have no business with.
Disclaimer: This is theory.
1: FB could in theory allow others access to that account, and thus allow people who had the cash to have access to any FB-derived authentication.
2: Someone compromising FB wouldn't just have that site, but a lot of others as well. Part of security is packing your own parachute. OpenID is good because it is distributed.
3: Relying on FB which has -zero- SLAs is about as bright as relying on using a high school student's cast off iBook on his Internet connection as the company critical E-mail server.
4: FB gains a lot of power. They boot someone, that person not just loses access to FB and the games on there, but Spotify and many other places. If push came to shove, people who FB chose to toss out could find themselves losing a lot of access to services.
It's hard to hide not caring.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's hard to hide not caring.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny how people are always surprised by the reaction they get when they forget to consider others when making decisions
Funny how people are always surprised by the actions others take, when you give others the rights to make your decisions for you.
Facebook logic (Score:5, Interesting)
So we made @facebook easiest.
To some degree I understand it though. Facebook hacks/bots becoming more and more common place. For 99% of normal users, they don't just have friends as "friends" ... and every one of those potential hack victims can see your email address and potentially harvest it.
Facebook should be aware by now that users don't like Facebook (the system) forcing some changes onto them, or changing their preferences to something "that is good for you". (See privacy settings, Timeline)
Re:Facebook logic (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook should be aware by now that users don't like Facebook (the system) forcing some changes onto them, or changing their preferences to something "that is good for you". (See privacy settings, Timeline)
I'd say experience has taught them the exact opposite.
A forced changes causes a vocal minority to be vocal. A fraction of a percent of the user base might close their accounts, but more likely they just talk about how they're really close to doing it [slashdot.org]. The noise dies down, the vast majority of their active users accept the changes and move on (if they're even aware of them). Facebook wins. A couple months later, rinse and repeat.
Facebook lies about it's actions..., again (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Facebook lies about it's actions..., again (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess the amazing part is that they expect their lies to be believed.
I don't think they expect you to believe it...Just tollerate it. Facebook basically assumes that if they piss you off in small enough increments, that only like 10% of people are actively considering quitting at any given time, they can be successful, because the 90% provide enough gravity to pull you back in. But there's a tipping point, and studies show that there really is a disproportionate amount of gravity around "cool kids", the most social people in your family, and other social people who act like "hubs". When these people move, they tend to pull others with them.
The point of this is that FB is not a stock to have in your portfolio. Because they rely on being cool in order to continue to make money. But making more money than they currently make requires doing increasingly uncool things.
Give up the "coolness" argument. (Score:4, Insightful)
So sayeth the Slashdot demographic as they stand in the cold and stare hungrily at the "cool kids" through the window.
But it's bullshit. Facebook stopped being about cool years ago, and it continues to pull huge traffic and hold onto enormous numbers of users. Why? Because it's not about being cool - it's about being useful, and they've pretty much mastered that.
The New Evil Empire (Score:2)
How long before FB is hated and flamed as much as MS and Apple on /.?
Re:The New Evil Empire (Score:5, Insightful)
How long before FB is hated and flamed as much as MS and Apple on /.?
Probably not before it slips away into the obscure forgotten Internet shoe-box along with Myspace and Friendster.
Yay , bring on the spam (Score:5, Interesting)
"Your Facebook email is based on your public username. Email sent to this address goes to Facebook messages."
http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=224049364288051 [facebook.com]
So if I didn't want a public email address on my FB profile then why would I want one now?
Re:Yay , bring on the spam (Score:5, Insightful)
Your Facebook email is based on your public username.
What this also means is that if you have someone's "public username", you don't need to see their profile to learn their email address. You can get the public username from any search or friend list, concatenate "@facebook.com" to it and start spamming.
Re:Yay , bring on the spam (Score:4, Interesting)
Your Facebook email is based on your public username.
What this also means is that if you have someone's "public username", you don't need to see their profile to learn their email address. You can get the public username from any search or friend list, concatenate "@facebook.com" to it and start spamming.
Exactly, so, bring on not only the spam, but also fakemails / spear phishing
Why? (Score:3)
My primary email is hidden, and a junk dump address anyway
If anyone sends mail to my @facebook address it be ignored ... I have no idea how to even look at this!
Facebook has posting, direct messages, and chat why would I want an email?
Why show everybody you use facebook? (Score:2)
Seriously
A facebook email address says one thing about you , you use facebook. So when your boss see's it and sticks in a friend request how do you tactfully say never in a million years.
There has to be a good number of people that you don't really want accessing your facebook page for one reason or another at least you can deny being on facebook if your privacy settings are set secure enough.
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Seriously A facebook email address says one thing about you , you use facebook. So when your boss see's it and sticks in a friend request how do you tactfully say never in a million years.
Personally, I would do it by declining the request. It isn't hard. If that isn't option because he's a scumbag, accept and add him to a group with the same privileges as non-friends.
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Yes, just like whenever people see my GMail address I get tons of requests for Google+.
How many people will quit (Score:3, Insightful)
slashdot (Score:2)
slashdot should have email aliases.
I imagine anonymous.coward@slashdot.org would be a pretty popular registration at paywalls. Maybe it already is.
Deleted (Score:5, Insightful)
Now that I've been off Facebook for a long time, whenever I see friends we actually have something to talk about, because I have no clue as to what's been going on with them. It's brilliant!
Try it! :)
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Facebook is actually an anti-social network.
Likes = Adverts (Score:5, Informative)
I hadn't noticed this but in the last week or so I've noticed the appearance of ads masquerading as 'likes'. I'm getting all sorts of shit in my newsfeed on a regular (i.e. daily basis.) FaceBitch is definitely going out of its way to piss off users. Thank goodness for Social Fixer.
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And what-do-you-know, it's PUBLIC. (Score:5, Informative)
I just checked my own Facebook info page and discovered that while my gmail address was still "Friends/not shown on timeline," my new Facebook address is "Friends/shown on timeline." Depending on exactly is meant by that last bit, it could explain why I'm suddenly getting about double the spam in my Gmail account that I was getting a month ago. (I get email notifications from Facebook sent to me Gmail account, as I suspect most people do.) Thank goodness for good spam filters...
There's a good reason why I ratchet-down my email address' availability on web pages, and apparently Facebook isn't nearly so concerned (which, of course, comes as no great surprise). I'd be curious to know if someone whose normal address is set to "hidden" now has a non-hidden Facebook address.
Also, the line, "We want people to use whatever's easier for them" has a somewhat different meaning when you're actively making it easier for those looking at a user's info page to see the @facebook address, rather than the one the user intentionally put there. Either the staff is oblivious, or they're being dishonest about their intentions. (Not sure, given their track record with privacy and such...)
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This raises the question, which people do they want to make it easier for?
Yes, quite.
I don't have a problem with this (Score:2)
I'd rather have the FB crap go to a spambox rather than my real email.
I have a question (Score:2)
I don't have a Facebook acct and don't intend to get one. However it seems that these days the only way to send feedback to TV shows, politicians and other celebrities is to "Like" them on Facebook (and follow them on Twitter).
How can I send an ordinary email to these people?
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Look up their page on Google? Seriously, everyone who is interested in your feedback has an email address. If they are only asking you for "Likes" and feedback on their Facebook profile page, and follow them on Twitter, they are asking you to be a co-marketer for them and nothing else.
I don't know why your wrapped around the axle about not having a FB page for communication if you should need it. You're here on slashdot which, in the words of John Bender, is "sorta social, demented and sad, but social." Go
I have not returned to facebook in years (Score:2)
So perhaps when then fb think im a bit dumb since i dont use there site (four years) they will tell me how to rejoin on there email thing (that i dont have access to) rather than to the email i use. I'm good with that foolery.
Facebook falls on its face.. again! (Score:3, Interesting)
Facebook has shown, however, that they have no respect for basic privacy. There are many people that should never have a way to contact us. I wonder how long this will last now that sexual predators will have a way to contact children using this email address without even having to show up on their friends list first.
Facebook is the new AOL (Score:4, Insightful)
they are essentially reverting the internet back to what it was in the mid-90's.
Re:Facebook is the new AOL (Score:4, Insightful)
Everything computer-related has been going backwards since the mid/late 2000s. That was the golden age of openness, apparently.
bullshit-o-meter is in the red (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:bullshit-o-meter is in the red (Score:4, Informative)
Ironic, considering Mark Z is all about openness.
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don't know why.
Zuck: They "trust me"
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
E-mail (Score:2)
I'm surprised Facebook still requires an email to sign up. Seems like they really want to replace all open and closed internet communications protocols (except VoiP and games). I give it about two years before most consumers no longer have e-mail addresses. I don't really like it, but SMTP seems like a perfect target for the likes of Facebook and Google to replace, because it's so open, valuable and a bit clumsy/anachronistic.
"We want people to use what's best for them" (Score:2)
Facebook is shocked at the response, REALLY? (Score:5, Insightful)
The entire purpose around user settings is to allow users to display what they want and to see what they want. So that means DON'T FUCK WITH MY SETTINGS. That means with every update don't check boxes that I didn't have checked before, don't force me to accept a change that gives me no way to say "No Thank You"
And the fact that Facebook was not prepared for the reaction it received is a bold-faced lie. If they didn't expect this reaction, it would not have be implemented so quietly. Facebook knew there would be controversy, again, thus the hush-hush.
On the other hand, Facebook is free to use, so it is in Facebook's interest to change the email address extension. If you were paying for your Facebook account do you really think there would be as many people on the site? Nope. So sadly, you're getting what your pay for, no fees, no freedom no privacy.
If you don't like the TOS, leave Facebook.
Re:Facebook is shocked at the response, REALLY? (Score:5, Funny)
And the fact that Facebook was not prepared for the reaction it received is a bold-faced lie.
At least it wasn't Comic Sans. That would be a real slap in the face!
My Facebook friends suck anyway (Score:3, Insightful)
Facebook has put me face-to-face with the fact that my online "friends" all suck. Almost all of my network turns out to be people I knew in high school and haven't talked to in 20 years, half of them are religious or political nuts, and none of them are really my "friends". My real friends don't use Facebook.
Facebook is a fad. It's going to be a very long-lived fad, which is fine. But it's hard to see them as anything other than a clearinghouse for data that isn't worth distributing any other way. I do not care about what happened to you today in MobWars.
Bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
'I'm seeing this whole meme around the idea that it's us pushing for people only to use facebook.com addresses,' Chin said, 'That was not our intention.'
Ahem;
Bullshit.
That is all.
It's easy to spoof (Score:5, Interesting)
I didn't have any email addresses under my "About". Facebook didn't change my email addresses, it added the @facebook.com one to my About page. I was able to hide it, but you won't be able to get rid of it.
You can easily spoof FB messages to people using an unsecured SMTP server. I tried sending myself a message from my wife (not knowing my wife's FB or email passwords), and it worked; it looked as though the message were from her! Since there's no email headers to evaluate, you can't tell where it really came from. There is a little icon indicating that it is "Unable to confirm X as the sender." But it still shows up with her FB profile picture and full name (which I didn't provide in the email).
Re: (Score:3)
Email has never been secure. It is very similar to postal mail; you can write whatever return address on the envelop that you want.
Yes, there have been some suggestions lately to improve this. The postal equivalent of comparing the return address's zipcode and the originating post fffice's zipcode, and marking that ones that don't match as "likely spam". It's not ubiquitous, and it's just extra points in the spam scoring.
The (anti) Social Network (Score:3)
I know that was "only a movie" and "facts were changed" make it more dramatic, but why do I get the sinking feeling that between the constant changes to privacy settings, the shady, over-valued IPO that the basic leitmotif of the movie -- that Zuckerberg is a morally deficient opportunist -- is the basic leitmotif of the entire operation?
There seems to be nothing about Facebook and the way it is run that is honest or straightforward. I read the article on the NY Times this morning and the naked, unapologetic dishonesty on display was fairly breathtaking although totally and completely expected.
I can't say I will stop using the site, but I've always been reluctant to put much "serious" information in my profile. Most of it is silly (Religion: "I believe I'll have another") and I regularly check my privacy settings to see what has been unset.
Although lately it seems that people use it less for even meaningful textual communication -- it's just reposting dumb jpeg humor and I find myself using it less and less. More changes like this and I might just decide to jettison it completely.
I don't see what the big deal is (Score:4, Insightful)
annoying as this was a data source for my phone (Score:5, Interesting)
I noticed this the other day. I sync my phone with facebook for many of my contacts. Now I have an address book full of bogus email addresses where they were correct before.
Good. Easier to ignore their spam... (Score:3)
Now every time they turn email notifications back on that I don't want, it won't go to one of the email addresses I ever check... (It was already linked to my 'spam attractor' email that I only check once a week.)
Re: (Score:3)
E-mail addresses are surprisingly long-lasting. There are still many vans on German roads
The local US equivalent of your German story is people still paying for AOL to keep their aol screenname / aol email address because they really like it, or its all over their stationary so it would be expensive to change, etc. I would guess your t-online.de is vaguely equivalent in concept to AOL?
Re: (Score:2)
Integration, conformity, and consistency just feels like a bad sci fi movie.. a la Orwell...
On the other hand, Myspace.
Re: (Score:2)