Please HELP ME! Why I should quit Facebook, but can't

Facebook plans to start tracking all user's movements starting in March. It will initiate this "service" without your permission, because users have already given permission for Facebook to do so. The service will be always on, even if the app is off, and will share your location data with Facebook, enabling them to serve you ads for nearby businesses.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Facebook should terrify you. Despite its increasingly Big Brother characteristics, most Americans continue to use it quite merrily as it fuels their curiosity and narcissistic impulses. Facebook is everybody's friend, despite the fact that it does some pretty creepy things.

Users should already know that every post you make to Facebook is saved on their servers, even if you later go back and delete it. Facebook also has full usage rights to your photos, and it does not have to compensate you for their use.

Facebook knows where you go, who you like, if you're single or married. It can tell if you're a racist, or if you secretly like Nickelback or Justin Bieber songs. Facebook even knows if you're having an affair with a coworker. Facebook is a stalker and it sells your information every day to drive up its share price and finance new endeavors into your privacy. Worst of all, you can't stop them, nor do you want to.

Millions of Americans are exposing themselves more intimately to Facebook than they do their partners in marriage. It's a dangerous precedent and it's becoming more intrusive with each "upgrade."

The current new offering will track your location and serve you ads related to nearby businesses. Facebook says the data will be deleted, only to be replaced with newer data, but do we ever believe anyone who promises to delete something we don't want them to have anymore?

The technology that Facebook is employing isn't new, and in some cases users may find it useful. After all, it will be nice to log into Facebook to know where the closest sushi bar is in the city I'm visiting. Despite the value however, I do not want Facebook to know that I sneak off for ice cream with my daughter on Wednesday afternoons or that I skipped Mass one Sunday to visit some friends in another city.

Such things are between myself and God, and those I choose to interact with. My privacy should not be treated as a nut to crack within which there is gold to be had for someone else.

This is why I deactivated my Facebook account (again) yesterday. Unfortunately, there's a good chance it will soon be reactivated. Why? Because my natural narcissism and curiosity tend to kick in.

Hopefully, I will have the strength to tell Big Brother that I do not love him anymore and that I won't be coming back, even if it constitutes as serious thought crime to think so.

Give the Gift of Free Catholic Education This Christmas

Let's hope by then Facebook hasn't built its Ministry of Love to correct the error of my thinking.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'