Under Construction 
Statistics | Problems | Legal Problems | Beginnings at Harvard
I originally wrote this in 2009, when I started using facebook and found all kinds of devious means they used to promote growth.
Facebook made a few token improvements in privacy along the line, but in 2018 the shit hit the fan.
In March 2018 the shit really hit the fan, when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, used data obtained from 50 million Facebook users - mostly in the U.S. - to target people for adds and support Donald Trump in the 2016 election. In early May the number was raised to 87 million. Statistics: 
Note: Numbers vary according to yhe source. Stats from facebook are at
Company Info | Facebook NewsroomAt the end of 2017 there were 2 billion users worldwide that logged on every month. That's over 1/4 of the worlds population of 7.6 billion. That's a 15% annual growth since 2012. In 2017 there were 203 million U.S. monthly facebook users, 62% of the population of 326 million per statista That's 5% annual growth since 2012. There was no growth in the 4Q 2017 according to statista. There are 239 monthly active monthly users (66%) and 184 million daily users (51%) in North American in 3Q 2017 according to TheVerge. Numbers from different sources don't necessarily match. 72% of North Americans used facebook in July, 2017 according to InternetWorldStats.
Dec: 2017: 1.4 billion daily active users; 2.13 billion monthly active users.
66% of Internet users in North America use facebook. Problems: As far as I am concerned Facebook Zucks. I originally wrote this in 2009, when I started using facebook and found all kinds of devious means they used to promote growth. In 2011 the FTC responded to complaints about 3rd partys getting information about them. It turns out 3rd party apps and games like FarmVille could gather all kinds of information about a user when they played the game. In 2017 Facebook came under fire when it turned out Russia had covertly used fake accounts and ads to influence the 2016 presidential election.
In 2018 it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica a British political consulting firm used data obtained from Facebook to target people for adds and support Donald Trump in the 2016 election. This resulted in the #DeleteFacebook hashtag which is trending on twitter. In March 2018 Zuckerberg said they were putting procedures in place to stop this in the future.
2016 update.
Just one example of a recent problem. I updated my picture. A week later I get a text from a friend about the picture with a link to the picture and a question. I followed her link and found out a bunch of people had commented and others had questions. I spent about 30 minutes trying to navigate from my facebook account to that page and never could find it.
2013 Notes:
Some of the comments below are old (I originally put this page up around 2009) and some problems have been fixed, but they continue to introduce new ones. E.g. a 2014 comment on profile images at ustandout.com says, Updating your profile picture should be simple. What is it with them? Many of my most trusted IT colleagues don't use facebook, because of the many problems.
The bad user interface may actually be a tactic to promote the last goal. By making delete and change commands hard to find and use or non-existant, they get you to leave information you put up on the spur of the moment that you'd like to change later. Even if you mark entries as public, other people have to join facebook, but not necessarily be your friend to see them. Other social networking sites treat public as public, you don't have to join them to see public information.
How it works (or worked in 2009): I was in the IT business for almost 40 years and still am maintaining this site. It was standard procedure for most of that time when you created some information you had an Add/Edit/Delete function associated with it. Facebook (and some of the other new apps) seem to think that people only want to add things, edit and delete are very hard to find. Maybe that's why there is so much junk on the web.
Problems with Facebook: I have some real problems with Facebook and can't understand it's popularity. Maybe I'm just behind the times since I retired 5 years ago. I have been developing web sites since 1995; When I developed a similar internal corporate site were people could post professional background information and notes on the projects they were working on. It became the most popular part of our corporate web. If I was smarter I'd be rich now.
In addition to trying to get access to your email account and address book there are many other issues. When I get a friend request email and don't recognize the name and click on it, I am sent to a friend suggestions page not the page for the persion who made the friend request. Friend requests are at the end of the list. Any high school kid knows this is a stupid user interface unless you are trying to trick people into building more links than they need. When I went to add a photo to an album is showed me a small version of one face which was too small to identify and asked me to identify it. I couldn't just post the photo to my album. Legal Problems: Below are just a few of the many complaints against Facebook. In 2006 the Students Against Facebook News Feed group, with over 740,000 members, got Facebook to add new privacy features. See recommended privacy settings below.
A 2010 Wall Street Journal article stated, "Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information - in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names - to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies." Facebook's 2010 privacy policy is longer than that of other social networks, even exceeding the U.S. Constitution. See NY Times Article. In 2011 the FTC responded to complaints about 3rd partys getting information about them. It turns out 3rd party apps like FarmVille could gather all kinds of information about a user when they played the game.
In November 2011 Facebook agreed to a Federal Trade Commission order that bars Facebook from deceiving consumers about its privacy practices and requires it to submit to monitoring for 20 years. The sanction stems from privacy setting changes that Facebook made in December 2009, without asking users' permission. In May 2011 emails were sent to journalists and bloggers making critical allegations about Google's privacy policies; however it was later discovered that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant Burson-Marsteller, was paid for by Facebook in what CNN referred to as "a new level skullduggery" and which Daily Beast called a "clumsy smear."
In August 2011 the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) started an investigation after receiving 16 complaints by europe-v-facebook.org which was founded by a group of Austrian students.
A June 2012 NY Times article, explains how you give Facebook permission to use your name in ads when you "Like" a product.
"Facebook users agree to participate in the ads halfway through the site's 4,000-word terms of service, which they consent to when they sign up. In Facebook parlance, it is a 'sponsored story' according to the article. "Sponsored stories resulted in what initially seemed like a potentially damaging class-action lawsuit in California, though last month the company announced its intention to settle out of court."
Problems from the use of Facebook in the 2016 US Presidential Election: Beginnings: It started as an system Zuckerberg started while a student at Harvard to rate women. That says something about his thinking. According to The Register, "An 2004 instant messenger exchange Mark had with a college friend shortly after Mark launched The Facebook in his dorm room, went as follows:"
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Just ask.
I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS†
[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
I don't know why.
They "trust me"
Dumb *ucks.
† SNS - Sorry-not Sorry ?
Some Harvard classmates won a suit claiming Zuckerberg stole the facebook idea from them. With a $64M settlement.
See:
Some useful tips: (These may be obsolete since they keep changing their interface) Notes: Post stuff about yourself: Profile > Status 420 character Profile > Note unlimited Edit Edit picture caption. Profile > click on picture > click on the pencilTo link into the facebook page for an organization you may belong to you can go to their facebook page and click "Like" at the top of the page. Facebook doesn't notify people when you don't acknowledge friend requests or remove tags Recommended Privacy (as of March 2011): Accounts > Privacy Settings Custom: Minimum friends only Create blocked list of friends you don't want to see everything you do Posts by me: friends only, except blocked list Post stuff about yourself: Profile > Status 420 character Profile > Note unlimited Create a list of friends for messages, Custom privacy settings... Accounts > Edit Friends >All Friends > +Create a list Account > Privacy Settings > Custom > preview my profile Profile > Edit Profile > Featured People - Identify relationships family To remove a friend: Go to their page and click unfriend Profiles > Photos - See photos of you tagged Account > Privacy Settings > "Apps and Websites" > Public Search Account Settings > Notifications - Can get email with certain posts on your site Can click box to right of post on news page to block things like all posts, games, .. (It's enabled by default)Links: In The Problem With Facebook - YouTube, Veritasium creator, Derek Muller, compares the YouTube model where income flows back to creators to Facebook where income flows the other way and why Facebook makes it difficult in many cases to find posts.
7 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook - MensJournal.com Links: Mark Zuckerberg: Give Up Facebook Control - Corporate Governance
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