I hate Facebook.

I hate Facebook. Not just the Big Brother aspect, but the fact that FB tries to control everything I do. I would pay for a FB subscription if I could do away with ads, configure the screen the way I want, and have full control over my account. I don't know whether there's a movement to establish paid FB accounts but there should be. That was the way it was done in the early days of the Internet - and the way it is now on tablets and smartphones - you can have an app for free but you see ads or you can buy the app and the ads go away. Why doesn't FB do this?

• Nancy Ward Dock You're right Rich. What possible motive would FB have for collecting huge databases on the posts and comments of its users?

   

  Rich Conti There's an apocryphal story about Zuckerberg that when he conceived of FB he just wanted a way for his college friends to keep in touch. I tend to believe he was following the famous dictum, "There's a sucker born every minute." He knew that if he made something free people would flock to it and give him terabytes of personal info which he could then monetize and sell. I think he should be in jail for stealing this information from us. He's definitely NOT a hero. I refused to see his movie. So there!

Happy July 4th!

7/4/2013

This whole NSA spying scandal seems to get sillier every day. People are ‘shocked’ when they learn they are being spied upon, as if they didn’t already know this. (If they didn’t then they are incredible naïve, or stupid.) Senators and Congress people are appalled – yet they all knew and just kept it quiet. Now US allies are whining, “But we’re your friends…” It’s so pathetic. They knew. They have intelligence services, too. If those intelligence services didn’t already tell them about the spying, then their spies were not doing their jobs and should be fired! It’s like that scene in Casablanca when the Claude Rains policeman says to Rick: “I’m shocked to learn that there has been gambling going on in here.” And Rick says something like, “I’ll look into it. Here are your winnings.” Wake up, people – it’s not ‘1984’ but it might be ‘1983’ and a half! (If you get my meaning.) No matter what people do, how much they protest, how much they decry this betrayal of the 4^th Amendment, it’s not gonna stop. It’s never gonna stop. It just changes form. That’s what it has been doing at least since the end of World War 2. It’s a fact of life. Get over it. Happy July 4^th!