Nearly a Third of Tech Workers Are Ready To #DeleteFacebook (betanews.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BetaNews: A survey conducted in the wake of the #DeleteFacebook campaign that followed revelations about the data breach and the logging of Android users' calls and texts, found that a surprising number of tech workers were ready to delete their Facebook accounts. 31 percent backed the #DeleteFacebook campaign, including 50 percent of Microsoft workers, and 38 percent of Google workers. The survey -- conducted using the anonymous app Blind -- found that nearly a third of those questioned were planning to delete their Facebook accounts. In all, over 2,600 people were surveyed between March 20, 2018 and March 24, 2018, so it neatly took in the peak of the controversy. Broken down by company, the numbers make for interesting reading:

-50 percent of Microsoft employees said they will delete Facebook.
-46 percent of Snapchat employees said they would delete Facebook.
-40 percent of Uber employees said they would delete Facebook.
-38 percent of Google employees said they would delete Facebook.
-34 percent of Amazon employees said they would delete Facebook.
-2 percent of Facebook employees said they would delete Facebook.

Comments

If you work in tech

[nehumanuscrede]

and you haven't deleted Facebook already, you're behind the curve I'm afraid.

You KNOW what they're doing. Why are you still there ?

Re:If you work in tech

[jfdavis668]

I downloaded what they have on me. Nothing I didn't post there in the first place. I know enough about tech to stop them from getting anything else.

Re:If you work in tech

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh please. I knew what they were doing when I joined. It's a trade off. Get over yourself.

Re: If you work in tech

[slazzy]

Same here, the only reason I have a Facebook account is to show potential employers I'm not too anti-social, I have cute dogs and some friends. Login once a year and like a few things. So far, I've gotten the jobs that I wanted to so I assume it works.

Re: If you work in tech

[Anonymous Coward]

I work in tech and am not on Facebook - for the sort of jobs I go for it's important to demonstrate to potential employers that I'm not stupid enough to be on Facebook.

Re:If you work in tech

[Anonymous Coward]

I downloaded what they have on me. Nothing I didn't post there in the first place.

And you trust that? Facebook decided what was available to "download", remember? Did you have unlimited query access to their data stores? How can you know what they have or don't have on you, short of an independent forensic audit?

I know enough about tech to stop them from getting anything else.

Did you know that your profile on Facebook and the data associated with it consists of more than simply what you gave them first hand? How can you work in tech and not have at least an inkling of that? Ever heard of data brokering? Yeah, it's a whole industry that knows just about everything about you despite the fact that you probably mostly never gave them any of it first hand. Please tell us you're not this naive.

Re: If you work in tech

[Anonymous Coward]

Where do you work that facebook friends counts as proof of social aptitude, a prison library?

Re:If you work in tech

[Excelcia]

And look at the wording "...would delete facebook...". Who is going to go through the trouble? What will really happen is they will stay off it for a few weeks, Facebook will ramp up their "we miss you" emails. You know, the ones like "So and so has messaged you ten times and you haven't responded. Click here to see their messages", and "Hey look at the ten single girls who would probably respond to a friend request, click here to see them". After a few of those they'll go back on and it will be business as usual.

I will be more impressed when I see "nearly a third of tech workers HAVE deleted Facebook". Then I'll think the movement is working.

Re: If you work in tech

[TheGratefulNet]

I've been quite desparate for jobs in the past (I'm over 50...) - but I'd never create a fb account JUST to 'show them' ... ANYTHING.

any job that you would not get BECAUSE of a lack of fb is no job worth having. and I'm saying that as someone who has been nearly broke from unemployment more times than I care to count.

I think you are lying to yourself, though. no job insists on having fb next to your name. you assume too much.

Re:If you work in tech

[Anonymous Coward]

You know that even if you don't have a profile on FB they still have a dark profile on you, from a combination of friends uploading their contacts

I don't have any friends.

Checkmate, Facebook.

Re: If you work in tech

[dgatwood]

I'd be less likely to hire someone who would be less likely to hire someone who had a Facebook account, because it implies that:

• When friends move away, you never bother to keep in touch with them.
• You were so cliquish in high school that you never want to hear from anybody back there ever again.
• You were equally cliquish in college.
• You still didn't learn to get along, and now hate everyone at every previous employer.
• You only keep people around when those people help you, and as soon as you no longer need them, you throw them away.
• You tend to make broad, sweeping assumptions based on the assumption that everyone must think the way you do, or else they must be stupid.

In short, it is a strong indication that you're precisely the opposite of the sort of person that I would want to work with. In fact, in a bit of dramatic irony, your post exhibits some of the classic symptoms of the very narcissism you're claiming that all Facebook users exhibit. Hilarious.

I put pretty much the entire "Delete Facebook" noise into the same mental bucket as your post. Facebook only gets what you and others give them. Don't want them to have information? Say less and click less frequently. Deleting Facebook won't keep other people from saying things about you, though it will prevent you from correcting hurtful untruths. Either way, on the whole, the only thing you can really control is what you do or say on Facebook, which means the best thing to do is to keep Facebook, but use it less.

Re: If you work in tech

[Anonymous Coward]

Friends come and go. They are supposed to. People who desperately try to hang on to everyone they ever knew are insecure losers who aren't good at meeting new people.

Re:If you work in tech

[darth.hunterix]

To poison their well. If you don't have an account they just shadow profile you and have only truthful data about you. If do have an account, you can create a lot of noise, which hides your genuine activities. Better yet, log from VM set up for that specific purpose to make tracking harder.

Remember:
1. The only way to hide is to blend in.
2. The best disinformation is too much information.
3. Offence is the best defence.

But will they do it?

[quonset]

Saying you'll delete your Facebook account is one thing. Doing it is another. Especially in the tech industry where if you're not on at least half a dozen anti-social media sites, people will think there's something wrong with you.

Until these people actually delete their accounts, it's all talk.

Frogs on a log.

[Mistlefoot]

There is an old proverb:
There are 5 frogs on a log.
2 of them decide to jump into the water.
How many frogs remain on the log?

The answer is 5. As deciding to do something is not the same as doing something.

31% are ready to do it. But that 31% hasn't yet. What is holding them back?

Re:Frogs on a log.

[mark-t]

More likely what is holding them back is the lack of any widely used alternative that does everything that people would have expected from Facebook without having to use multiple services.

Re:Frogs on a log.

[Subm]

> 31% are ready to do it. But that 31% hasn't yet. What is holding them back?

They're procrastinating on Slashdot.

Cry me a river

[ArchieBunker]

What is the big outrage here? Did everyone not see that screen when you installed the app asking for permission to access every single area of your phone? Why did you think it needed access to the microphone or your contacts? You 100% gave permission for this.

"Ready too"

[kamapuaa]

You either delete it or you don't. This is like people who are going to start going to the gym "next week."

Re:"Ready too"

[PPH]

people who are going to start going to the gym

Same people by the looks of them.

You insenstive clod!

[PPH]

How can I delete something I never had?

Deceiving Ourselves

[Bruce Perens]

If most people who understand tech are like me, you never thought commercial social networks were a good idea, you joined them only reluctantly because lots of other people were on them and you needed them for business purposes, and you still have really mixed feelings about them.

However, the average person is eager to give away their privacy and can't be bothered to assure their own security.

So, aren't we kidding ourselves to think that anyone but us is going to delete Facebook?

Holier than thou

[radarskiy]

Deleting your facebook account is easy for people with no friends.

I've tried

[burtosis]

I tried to delete Facebook, but I'm having trouble hacking in and remote wiping the whole deal. Any ideas?