[iDC] [PMX:#] Re: Replacing Facebook (Geert Lovink)

Sun May 30 19:15:18 UTC 2010

This is the same idea behind the track-me-not plugin by Daniel Howe and
Helen Nissenbaum:

http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/

Floods google searches with other, random searches.

I've heard from some CS people who study this sort of thing for a living
that the tactic is not as good as it seems, as too few people are doing
such things for it to be effective.  (It's the same argument as with
crypto; since so few people use it, other forms of traffic and data
analysis can be used to build a profile based only on your use of the
technique.  The flood facebook idea is only so good insofar it does not
mark you as an outlier.)  Not to say that I don't like the idea(s) or I
don't think they can be efficacious; rather that they can't be relied
upon by themselves.

nick

Paolo Ruffino wrote:
> Finally, someone had to say that!
> 
> In the last years I've been joining a random group for every one I was
> actually 'interested' about, I've uploaded random family pictures from
> Google with my own personal photos.
> I'm part of the group 'English teachers in South Korea' and  I
> actively participate in the discussions of the '5th Battallion 13th
> Marines' group. No need to say I've never been linked to any of those
> groups.
> 
> The idea that the content we upload on Facebook can unveil something
> of our inner personality, and make it possible to violate our privacy,
> is based on the assumption that we are coherent, sensible beings. If
> we were, then it would be possible to 'catch' our private sphere and
> sell it to the best offer. In fact, and luckily enough, we are not
> coherent. We should just force a little the randomness of our thoughts
> and overload Facebook with noise.
> 
> I now receive advertisement from South Korean brands and military
> movements (among very useful information about how to enlarge my
> penis). I can now say I can freely use Facebook, with no fear, and
> have fun in uploading Mbs of garbage on its servers.
> 
> I like to do it while screaming and waving a hat in the air, more or
> less like this:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcW_Ygs6hm0&feature=related
> 
> 
> --
> paolo -IOCOSE
> http://iocose.org
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 8:44 PM, Sean Dockray <sean at e-rat.org> wrote:
>> i'm not sure if I'm doing this (sending a message to the list in
>> response to Geert) right, but here goes nothing.
>> there's a few too many question marks and exclamation points and
>> strident claims, but the form got the better of me.
>> sean
>>
>> --
>> FACEBOOK SUICIDE (BOMB) MANIFESTO
>>
>> Everyone now wants to know how to remove themselves from social
>> networks. It has become absolutely clear that our relationships to
>> others are mere points in the aggregation of marketing data. Political
>> campaigns, the sale of commodities, the promotion of entertainment –
>> this is the outcome of our expression of likes and affinities. And at
>> what cost? The reward is obvious: we no longer have to tolerate
>> advertisements for things for which we have no interest. Instead our
>> social relations are saturated with public relations. But at least it
>> is all *interesting*!
>>
>> Unlike the old days, when we could invent online identities daily, our
>> social networks today require fidelity between our physical self and
>> our online self. The situation is unbearable.
>>
>> The frightening consequence of it all is that we believe in the value
>> of these networks. We understand perfectly well that our privacy is
>> being renegotiated without our consent; the rules are changing in
>> plain view; but we still participate! It is like a new form of money,
>> something we realize is a myth, but we act like it is real and that is
>> its power. We can’t leave because everyone else is there! Or because
>> we are invested in the myth ourselves.
>>
>> The question is how do we extract ourselves from this predicament?
>>
>> Recently, some programmers figured out how to computationally do
>> exactly this. By entering in your username and password, the software
>> would delete as much information as possible, ultimately removing the
>> account itself. It was a radical enough idea to attract the legal
>> attention of Facebook.
>>
>> This software did not go far enough!
>>
>> When someone disappears from Facebook, does anyone notice? Does this
>> software retroactively invalidate all of the marketing data that has
>> been collected from the account? Has this person de-dividuated
>> themselves? No, silence has not disrupted the system in the slightest!
>>
>> Social networks need a social suicide. In the same way that 99.99999%
>> of users on Facebook don’t exist within the cloistered world of one’s
>> home page, an invisible user – one who has committed suicide – is
>> simply a non-factor in the constant and regular computational logic of
>> the thing. The answer isn’t silence, but noise!
>>
>> Suicide on a social network is a matter of introducing noise into the
>> system. It spreads viruses and misinformation. It makes things less
>> interesting for others. It disrupts the finely calibrated advertising
>> algorithms on which suggestions are made – for friends, groups,
>> institutions, ideas, and so on. Social networking captures,
>> quantifies, and capitalizes on positive feedback. It records and
>> reproduces similarity. Oh yes, everyone is not watching one of three
>> mass-produced choices; but beneath all of the possibilities there is
>> only one choice! The one for you!
>>
>> A roadmap for an effective Facebook suicide should do some of the
>> following: catching as many viruses as possible; click on as many
>> “Like” buttons as possible; join as many groups as possible; request
>> as many friends as possible. Wherever there is the possibility for
>> action, take it, and take it without any thought whatsoever. Become a
>> machine for clicking! Every click dissolves the virtual double that
>> Facebook has created for you. It disperses you into the digital lives
>> of others you hadn’t thought of communicating with. It confuses your
>> friends. It pulls all those parts of the world that your social
>> network refuses to engage with back into focus, makes it present again.
>>
>> Invisibility comes in many forms, and on social networks it is the
>> form of a radical overload of information – a maximum participation.
>> No more thought, because every considered click adds to the
>> collaborative filtering algorithms that makes sure everyone continues
>> to like what they like, but in slightly modified form. Click
>> everywhere, click often, and don’t stop until you have disappeared
>> beneath a flood of meaninglessness.
>>
>> This is a call for suicide, for the abandonment of seriousness and
>> belief. It is a call to reclaim ourselves from the sad version of
>> ourselves that lives in that bloodless village. Don’t become nothing,
>> the singular point defined by an absence, become everything, with
>> everyone else. Drown the system in data and make a new world in the
>> ruins that remain!
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