The Sense & Nonsense Behind ‘Bye Bye Facebook’ Project

Facebook

Bye bye, Facebook! Since the call to remove your Facebook account, there has been a debate in Europe about this subject. I have seen a lot of sense and nonsense pass by in the last few days. Time for an explanation. Because what is it really like?

The Sense & Nonsense Behind 'Bye Bye Facebook' Project -

WhatsApp (and Snapchat)

Before I talk about Facebook, I want to discuss WhatsApp first. In the discussion on social media, I see that people think WhatsApp shares information with its parent company Facebook. They also think that WhatsApp reads your messages.
What does WhatsApp do well?

WhatsApp does more to protect your privacy than you might think. Since April 2016, WhatsApp has encrypted your messages. For this, it uses end-to-end encryption. This means that your messages are converted into a kind of code. Should a malicious person intercepts your app, they will see a knit of characters that cannot be tied to a rope.

However, WhatsApp does more. It increases security by using SSL / TLS and protection against MITM attacks. These abbreviations might not mean much to you, but WhatsApp is a lot safer than, for example, Snapchat. Snapchat hardly meets these standards. Moreover, that is quite striking, especially when considering how popular Snapchat is among young people.

Then perhaps the most wonderful news to conclude. WhatsApp recently promised that it would not share the personal data of EU citizens with Facebook until the company can comply with the new, somewhat strict European privacy legislation (GDPR / AVG). This will be maintained from May 25, so WhatsApp will undoubtedly endeavor to comply with the rules in Europe.
What could be better?

So far the good news. However, there are also concerns. For example, the encryption technology of WhatsApp is not open source. We can therefore not check whether the encryption has weaknesses. At this point, we should only believe WhatsApp at its word.

Also, WhatsApp only encrypts the content of your messages; your behavioral data is not. So the messaging service cannot read along with you, but it keeps track of which phone numbers communicate with each other, where they do it and when. Oh, and WhatsApp downloads your contact list.

In short, WhatsApp does not read your messages but does have all kinds of other information. All those pieces of information together can tell you a lot about the nature and content of your communication.

Is there an alternative?

You may wonder whether there are also alternatives to WhatsApp. They are sure. Especially the Signal app is often mentioned. The bad news? Signal feels like a deserted pub for a user on a drizzly Monday night. There are just too few people who use it.

Facebook

So far WhatsApp. Now let’s look at Facebook. Last month, the American company announced that it would anticipate the new European privacy regulations (GDPR / AVG). They had to.

What does Facebook do well?

The company of CEO Mark Zuckerberg is busy making his privacy tools more accessible, under pressure from Europe. All privacy options are neatly on one page. Previously, Facebook had spread this information in a slightly opaque way over about 20 pages.

You can take various actions on the privacy page. For example, you can remove the apps that are linked to your Facebook page. You can also exercise (limited) control over the advertisements you see. Finally, you can ask Facebook to download a download of everything that Facebook says about you.

What could be better?

Regarding transparency, it’s not wrong. However, what if you want Facebook to permanently delete your data permanently? Alternatively, if you want to know exactly what Facebook does with it? Facebook does not want to go that far.

Facebook is rather aggressive in collecting data. Moreover, as Sunday With Lubach also tried to clarify, the company follows you everywhere, even outside of Facebook itself. You can see this very clearly in the advertisements that Facebook offers you. This is often a striking reflection of your surfing behavior on the worldwide web.

‘Facebook pixel is absolutely illegal.’

Another misunderstanding: Facebook also follows you if you do not have a Facebook account. Via Facebook pixels, the company tracks your IP address on websites that use it. Incidentally, the Facebook pixel from May 25 is ‘absolutely illegal,’ ICT lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet says. Unless you ask permission. Remember that a visitor who refuses the pixel is still entitled to a properly working website.

Anyway, so here is the revenue model for Facebook. The company earns its living by trading in your data. The sun goes up for nothing, you can say. Alternatively, “If something is free, then you are the product.”

However, why does Facebook not offer us the choice to buy her espionage? I think that many have a small monthly amount for this. Unfortunately, Zuckerberg seems eager to keep the data collection of Facebook as extensive as possible.

If something is free, then you are the product.

The influence of Facebook on our democracy

How far does Facebook go in its hunger for personal data?

Mainly because the company is fuzzy about this. Last month Android users discovered that Facebook keeps track of who they are talking to. There are also rumors that Facebook is listening in via your own microphone, although this is systematically denied.

Perhaps the evilest thing is that Facebook has the power and ability to show us certain messages and other messages. For this, Facebook has developed an algorithm of which hardly anyone knows the operation. Each of us ends up in a ‘filter bubble‘ that narrows and steers our view of the world.

However, the algorithm does something remarkable. In recent years, Facebook has increasingly restricted the reach of companies. A company that wants to reach its audience is forced to buy ads from Facebook. As a result, Niche media are under pressure. They do not have the budget.

Consequence?

The screams of the big boys silence their journalistic sound.

All worrying developments have a direct and indirect influence on our democratic process.

I have nothing to hide!

Maybe you will shrug your shoulders now. Because it is really nice to see messages and advertisements on your screen that match your personal interests? Moreover, what do you have to hide? I have often seen this last argument over the past few days. However, is that right? Do we have nothing to hide?

For example, let’s look at one of the first questions that Facebook asks new users: “Are you interested in men or women?” This seems like an innocent question until you realize that homosexuality is punishable in almost half of the world. In some countries, even the death penalty is imposed. Then you understand how vulnerable this kind of seemingly futile information is.

That is where part of the problem lies. Can we trust that our information on Facebook is now and always in good hands?

‘Everybody lies.’

Just another example. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz worked as a data scientist for Google for a year and a half. Last year published a book about the search behavior of Americans on the Internet the aptly titled Everybody Lies (Economist Book of the Year). He scrutinized a gigantic dataset of Google searches and discovered our deepest secrets.

The book beautifully shows the paradox of big data: it delivers unprecedented learning science at a price we pay with our privacy. I give an example.

Seth sees as many as 7 million searches a year with the racist word ‘nigger’ in it. According to him, hidden racism is a much bigger problem than expected. It is only one of his many remarkable observations. Seth’s conclusion is as follows: the side of ourselves that we do not dare to show in anonymous surveys, we do trust Google. Moreover, therefore probably also to Facebook.

Is there an alternative?

Almost 10 million Dutch users are on Facebook. That probably gives you the feeling that you will miss a lot when you leave. Still, Facebook has less business relevance compared to, for example, LinkedIn. More and more people are saving themselves well with telephone, e-mail, SMS, and social media from less questionable sources.

However, if we all lift Facebook, are we there? Of course not. As mentioned, Google and many other companies are also guilty of it. Moreover, Facebook with Instagram has an equally questionable alternative. If Facebook can not increase its data collection via Facebook, it will focus its arrows more and more on Instagram.

Role of the government

In that respect, you should see the cancelation of your account as a symbolic act. Facebook is one of many companies that has grown in neo-liberal times. Slowly but surely we discover that this system has many disadvantages. Those who do not want to get rid of Facebook do well to delve into tools that disable trackers and other measures. (See also: whatthehack.eu)

My hope is that Sunday’s action with Lubach inspires the government to keep thinking about our data security. A ban on the use of Facebook advertising by companies goes far, but should not be immediately excluded as an option. It would ensure fairer competition among publishers. Moreover, it forces companies to use their budgets for excellent content primarily.

Now ‘sponsoring’ companies with their ads a little transparent company in America that acts in our personal and behavioral data. I do not think that is entirely pure. Moreover, we must not forget that social media in construction is primarily intended to connect people with people. For companies, it should be sufficient to speak to those people when they have questions and occasionally post an organic message.

Happy with EU

However, let us also count our blessings for this moment. Because what makes this whole discussion clear is that we should be happy that we live in the EU. The EU has already achieved some great victories over the big boys regarding our digital security. The new privacy law that goes into effect in May is absolutely an example of this. It is still very questionable whether Zuckerberg will implement the adaptations he is forced by Europe elsewhere in the world.

Using Facebook’s Page Tab Applications for campaigns has been on the decline for a long time. Most brands don’t bother with them anymore. Instead, people are publishing campaigns in places that are easier to reach. Outside the Page Tab Apps, ShortStack allows you to publish campaigns:

  • As stand-alone landing pages;
    By embedding it on your website;
    Using a custom domain of your own.

Plus, you can run contests on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook that don’t require you to publish campaigns with any of our feeds and comments importer features.

In this post, I’ll clarify why Facebook Page Tab Apps are not the best choice for your company and the advantages of our other publishing choices. You’ll also read more about the use of feeds and our comment importer.


Why don’t you need to post to Facebook?

The Facebook Page Tab Apps took a moment. Truth be told, we’ve been working on keeping people away from publishing directly to Facebook for a long time. Why? Why? There are a couple of explanations. Over the years, Page Tab apps have fallen out of favor due to improvements in how people access Facebook, Facebook algorithm updates, and the popularity of social networking sites other than Facebook.

Facebook does not view Page Tab Apps on mobile devices; however, most people access Facebook through mobile devices. Reports differ, but 65 to 90 percent of people use Facebook on their mobile devices, compared to 25 to 37 % of Facebook users using Facebook on desktop computers. This means that most users viewing your Facebook page will not be able to see the Page Tab Apps. Because of this, you need to use a URL that shows a mobile version of your Web Tab app outside of Facebook, and you need to post this URL to a location where mobile users can access it (often in a status update on your Facebook page). This defeats the use of the Page Tab App.

Most users visiting your Facebook page will not be able to see the Page Tab Apps.

Facebook has also changed how users connect to Facebook Pages and see your posts. For example, in past pages, the content could be Like-Gate, but a few years ago, they removed the ability of pages to prevent people from seeing content until they Like the Page. Facebook’s Newsfeed algorithm has been modified a number of times over the years, leaving advertisers guessing whether or not users will consume page content.

Changes in Facebook’s success relative to other social networking platforms have decreased. According to one report, U.S. Facebook users have dropped by 15 million since 2017. This may result in users losing confidence in Facebook due to security breaches or users finding content more engaging elsewhere. Instead, people are switching to sites like Instagram, which saw a 9 percent rise in users from 2016 to 2019. These improvements make all-channel promotions more appealing.

U.S. Facebook users have dropped by 15 million since 2017.

For all of the campaigns released last year by ShortStack users, just 0.2 percent of the views received by those campaigns were on the Facebook Page Tab Apps. That’s right, —0.2% of it. Today, several brands are searching for alternatives to publishing ad campaigns directly to Facebook as Page Tab applications.
Better Publishing Opportunities

If you don’t post a campaign on Facebook, where do you publish it? ShortStack focuses on all-channel publishing approaches. Instead of Facebook, most of our customers embed campaigns on their websites and publish campaigns as stand-alone landing pages. Likewise, the introduction of our custom domain choice has opened new doors for people looking for white-label campaigns and SEO benefits.

Landing Page

The best way to publish a ShortStack campaign is via the landing page. Each landing page has a unique Campaign URL assigned to ShortStack. Landing pages are as follows:

  • Simple to make public;
    Mobile responsiveness;
    Available for all ShortStack plans.

However, the landing pages do not have the following publishing methods’ brand recognition and SEO advantages.

It looks like Bye Bye Facebook’s teen meme project is dead before it was released. Shame!