Facebook is in the news. This is not surprising. Neither is the “breaking news.” But… maybe it is. Do you understand what Facebook is and what it does?
What is a Facebook?
A room of Facebook servers.
A Facebook office where servers are stored.
An employee holding a Facebook server.
Facebook is a server. A server is defined as “any computerized process that shares a resource to one or more clients.” An example is a mail server, which lets you email back and forth. Facebook will not release the exact number of servers it has, but the estimate in 2012 was “somewhere around 200,000.” If the term “server” is throwing you off, just think of yourself owning 200,000 computers that are connected, so that if you upload a picture on one of them, it can be accessed on all 200,000 of them. This is how information is shared.
What does Facebook do?
Facebook collects information about you. It stores this as data on its servers.
What does Facebook do after it receives and stores data?
One
A familiar face.
Once your data (pictures, posts, information, etc) is shared on Facebook, it is owned by Facebook. Since the CEO of Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg owns the content. He is free to do as he pleases since he is owner.
Two
Mark Zuckerberg’s house is bigger than yours.
What he chooses to do is the same old story we’ve heard a thousand times: he turns something intangible (data) into something tangible (money). He sells data (remember, this means your posts, pictures, messages, etc) to companies looking to make more money and waste less time advertising to people who aren’t going to buy their products. So, they ask Mark for access to “women in the 20-25 age range who own dogs.” He connects them to you if you fit this description. He does this via an advertisement. Or an app. Or a game. These companies can then access other information about you depending on what you do, whether you like the company’s page, or allow the game or app additional permissions, etc, etc… it all snowballs from there. MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY and more MONEY.
Because knowledge is power!
The information above was just a brief run through, but here are some essentials you should now understand.
One
Facebook is not just a website you log in and out of. If you don’t understand this, go back to the top of this page.
Two
Facebook exists for Mark Zuckerberg and his “affiliated companies” to make money off of you. Nothing is free… just because the physical act of pushing “post” is free, doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with a price…
Three
This isn’t privacy!!!!!!
Four
You should read this. All of it, not just the propaganda parts. It is a contract between you and Mark Zuckerberg (et al.) and it changes often.
Five
You should know better than to “check in.”
Six
This is not news. This is Facebook.
If you could please share this on your Facebook, that would be hilarious. Thank you.
Jami Write 