Posted on 07/01/2012 6:17:03 PM PDT by upchuck
An alarming number of people are reporting that the new e-mail address Facebook forced on users this week is changing their address books while intercepting and losing unknown amounts of e-mail.
Facebook users say contacts' e-mail addresses on phones and personal devices have been altered without their consent -- and their e-mail communication is being redirected elsewhere, and lost.
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When Facebook forced its hundreds of millions of users into an @facebook account, commenters across the Internet talked about alterations that had begun in their contacts and address books outside Facebook -- valid e-mail addresses were being changed for @Facebook without people's awareness or consent on their phones and computers.
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We now also see that the interception of people's e-mail communication with Facebook's new change is deeply problematic and potentially grave.
We've reached out to Facebook for comment and have no response at this time; we'll update this post should new information from Facebook come in.
This is bad news for users that have expectations around e-mail communication by changing their e-mail addresses, intercepting and redirecting their communication elsewhere.
If you have any software or apps that sync your contacts or address books with Facebook (think home computer, devices, phones, iOS 6) check your settings. Now.
You don’t need to request a facebook email. They give you one whether you want it or not. When I read about this change, I went and checked my account, and sure enough there was a facebook email address set up and marked as the default address.
“And the truth is an email account @facebook.com is something you must sign up for”
Nope. Not true. I found out about this about a week ago. When I went digging in my settings and profile, there it was. A new email account from Facebook. I signed up for nothing at all. It’s all being done by Facebook. Now.
All Ur Facebook Are Belong To Us.
Sir, nobody gives you an email account that you did not sign up for. If your name is John Doe it would be unfair for one john doe to be chosen to have johndoe @ facebook.com when he did not want it but someone else named John Doe does.
You somehow signed up for it if you have it. I put as much if not more time on Facebook as I do FR and have done so daily since 2009. Tell me exactly where to go in the settings to see my facebook email and I’ll tell you if it’s there. I went looking and found none.
I noticed the reported problem myself this week. FB has created a @facebook.com email address for me and made it my default email. This is viewable under "Account Settings | Email | Edit", with a note that "Your Facebook email is based on your public username. Email sent to this address goes to Facebook Messages."
Here’s what I found... https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=224049364288051
“Your address on Facebook is the same as your public username or your public user ID. This is how people can:
Send you email — username @ facebook. com
Get to your timeline — facebook.com/username
Remember: You can always edit who can see your contact info. “
I do not have a user name because I chose not to opt in to have a vanity name. Instead my username is a group of numbers ie facebook . com /488383229001
Because I chose not to have a vanity username I have no email at facebook.
i simply refuse to sign up on Facebook .My real friends can contact me in other ways.
But in order for somebody to know your Facebook email address they would have to know your facebook username used at the end of the facebook URL but in order for them to know that they would have to go to your facebook profile (which is only visible if you allow your security settings to let them see your profile). And if they are able to view your profile to get your username to send you an email that goes to your facebook messages why would they not just click the "Send Message" button which has been on your profile just under the URL since the birth of Facebook given that it goes to the same place?
And that's your right. Here's something I find more disturbing. If you Google "buy emails" (such as lists of people's email addresses) NewsMax is number two with an ad. This is why I never give NewsMax any info. I love the content of the website but you would think they could find better ways to make that same amount of money they make selling our info.
It's amazing. I've seen FB posts for music services. I'd think one would automatically disable those features rather than have every musical selection appear as "So and so listened to "The Hokey Pokey" on IHeartRadio" or something like that.
I like the old app called “Phonebook” it has all my friends numbers in it, and I can call them up and meet them to do real stuff instead of swapping videos and B.S.
Bump!
FB is also an Eighth Commandment free cesspool predominated by codependent voyeurs and narcissists.
“Sir, nobody gives you an email account that you did not sign up for. “
Well. You would be wrong again! Perhaps you had better look again because it is ALL OVER THE INTERNET.
“Facebook recently started rolling out @facebook.com email address to users who had not previously signed up for the service. Facebook email address have been available for more than a year but, until recently, it was not obligatory to have one. Now it is.
Pushing change on users now seems to be standard modus operandi for Facebook: announce a feature, allow users to opt in for a while, and then force the feature on all remaining users many months later. It’s precisely what happened with Facebook Timeline.
The problem, as most of us know, is if you haven’t opted into the new feature, service, or change, it blindsides you when it arrives. You haven’t had time to read up on what it means or how it will change your Facebook account. You don’t know what’s private and what’s exposed.
If you unexpectedly have a new Facebook email address, here’s what you need to know about what it is and how to change it.”
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406325,00.asp
I'm not saying it makes any sense, just that FB made the change without asking. My wife was quick to point out that this opens another avenue of spam attacks - spammers don't need to know your user name, they just need to make a bunch of variations of user names and blast them to ######@facebook.com addresses.
I understand. I resisted for a long time, but finally gave in when my daughter left for college. It has been a great tool for keeping-up with her activities, and a neat method for sharing ideas and interests with her. I am, however, fairly cautious about giving away too much about myself, although I might have gotten a little more obvious lately in my disdain for the direction America is heading ;-)
That's the problem with Facebook. Even if they know most of its users (customers) don't like something they go ahead with it anyways. ie "The Timeline. In fact I posted the following on my FB profile and got a bunch who agreed:
"The Timeline: Why did Facebook do so badly with its stocks? Would you buy the stocks of a company who shoves change down your throat even after they know its customers don't want it?"
That does make sense. Now that I think of it. I have a FB business page. I had over 1200 fans. I've been wanting to change the name of the page but put it off for over a year because of the fact that FB does not allow you to change the name of a page if you have over 100 (now 200) fans.
I saved the profiles of the fans and 2 weeks ago deleted all but 199 of them. Perhaps that would be a tool I could use to send them a message about the new name and ask them to "re-like" the page.
“FB is also an Eighth Commandment free cesspool predominated by codependent voyeurs and narcissists.
“None of whom have any access to you if you know how to use it. The people on my Friends’ list are Friends and family and no one else sees anything. You seem to be mistaking it for Myspace which was much more accessible to those types. Facebook made Social Media much safer than it was previously.
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