Generally I don’t mind the effects of having my (limited) personal info on social media. If you are my friend on Facebook, you can know my phone number and email. And my birthday and anniversary. I don’t see this as a problem. I use Google Now. I have let it scan my email and calendar. I have even signed up for Google Opinion Rewards trading my ‘privacy’ for pennies. I am ok with it because I explicitly know what I am sharing, and it’s consequence.
I am against the social media using information that I don’t willingly publish. I take every step possible to prevent Facebook reading my contacts, do not use Facebook login, use Ghostery and uBlock Origin to absolutely prevent it, don’t grant access to LinkedIn to scan my contacts to find my friends etc.
I think I have been successful in what I want with social media and I am pretty comfortable with it. I know my Facebook timeline is an ‘algorithimic’ feed and not chronological1. I know Facebook picks and chooses what I see and whose posts I see, based on what it thinks I like, and based on what makes it the most money. I regularly visit the chronological feed for updates I missed.
Facebook’s manipulations have not bothered me. Till today.
I have this friend, we tend to have at least some similar tastes. We lived in the same city for a few years. We were roommates but Facebook does not know that. So I like many of his posts. So Facebook thinks he is a pretty good friend. He is, but for this context what Facebook thinks is important. Till last week I had this constant notification of his upcoming birthday on the page where Facebook reminds you of birthdays. And this large banner showing ‘Help so-and-so celebrate their birthday’. I ignored it. But I knew May 29 was his birthday.
Today that post is gone. Not just the ‘Help celebrate’ reminder. The entire birthday reminder. I have birthdays till May 28. Then it is May 30.
This is probably a feedback mechanism for Facebook’s algorithm to correct the weight it has for my ‘friendship’ with him2. I would have done something similar if I had written a similar algorithm. I understand the technical need to do this. But in spite of being a technical person this is not a technical issue for me. This is (slightly) emotional. I feel uncomfortable in this manipulation. A little bit, not a lot. But this is the first time I am feeling uncomfortable with something like this.
1Algorithmic or algorithmic + human decided. I understand it can be either way.
2Friendship in quotes because here it is friendship as Facebook perceives it.
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Nivas' 