Which is precisely why I don't have a Facebook account. Five years ago, I did sign up, providing ONLY my email address, no other ID info at all, and I did not provide my address list. Within an hour, I had over 100 friend requests! A few were from people I know, but most of them were from friends of people I know. How, I wondered? Found out, to my horror, that I did not have to provide ANYTHING in the way of ID info. FB trolled its vast database of users who had provided their address lists, located the ones with my email address on them, and sent them the news that I had a FB account! Terrifying. I immediately "deleted" my account and have never looked back, although there really isn't any way to completely delete an account. Periodically, I receive a notification that my account has been "reinstated" which I have NEVER requested, and I have to jump through another set of hoops to take it down again. It's true, NSA has nothing on Facebook. Insidious and dangerous, but nobody cares. I've encountered many businesses, etc. with whom you can only communicate through their FB page. I am obviously not their target demographic.
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Which is precisely why I don't have a Facebook account. Five years ago, I did sign up, providing ONLY my email address, no other ID info at all, and I did not provide my address list. Within an hour, I had over 100 friend requests! A few were from people I know, but most of them were from friends of people I know. How, I wondered? Found out, to my horror, that I did not have to provide ANYTHING in the way of ID info. FB trolled its vast database of users who had provided their address lists, located the ones with my email address on them, and sent them the news that I had a FB account! Terrifying. I immediately "deleted" my account and have never looked back, although there really isn't any way to completely delete an account. Periodically, I receive a notification that my account has been "reinstated" which I have NEVER requested, and I have to jump through another set of hoops to take it down again. It's true, NSA has nothing on Facebook. Insidious and dangerous, but nobody cares. I've encountered many businesses, etc. with whom you can only communicate through their FB page. I am obviously not their target demographic.
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