As longtime readers know, I am not a fan of Facebook for numerous reasons including their frequent lies pertaining to privacy and other dubious business practices. I deleted (although there are reasons to believe Facebook deletes nothing) my page a year and a half ago. I was hoping the government would through the book at Facebook considering it admitted violating sanctions imposed against the company for previous violations.  Unfortunately, they received a slap on the wrist. I believe Zuckerberg should have been personally fined or even received stronger sanctions. As for legal reasons why, here is a piece from a professor of law at UCLA.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is well known for his cynicism. He takes it up a notch here . As Stephen Green wrote separately this morning: “They will advocate some institutionalized changes in the way social media should work. Every change will involve compliance costs. Facebook will make sure that it can comply…and that its competitors cannot without great expense. That will give them a distinct advantage in the marketplace, make it more difficult for startups to compete, and guarantee this platform a leading place by law. This is why Mark readily agreed to be regulated. Regulations always work to the advantage of the largest market players.” I dropped Facebook more than a year ago and haven't missed them. Even worse, if that's possible, is Google. Any company that adopts a motto of "Don't Be Evil" is one that should be closely watched. Every time you use Google to search or use their maps, etc., you are supporting this nonsense. I've switch to t...

This is the fourth story of this nature this week. From the Wall Street Journal:

I keep reading about the passenger screening 2+ hour delays because of a minority of TSA officials not coming to work during the federal shutdown. Now, Delta is unhappy about the money they are losing. Bottom line: This is Delta's fault (good luck getting an airline executive to take responsibility for their actions)! You see, before September 11, the airlines paid for their own security. After, they were happy to unload that cost onto the government. But, that is now coming back to bite them. They didn't have to do it. See the map below? It is a map of airports that have private sector screening rather than the TSA. They are not experiencing shutdown-related delays. Atlanta, Delta's #1 hub, could have been one of them. The headline below is what brought all of this to mind. That story is here . Related story here . This is likely the faustian bargain of all faustian bargains. If you think Facebook is 'donating' money to local news out of the goodness ...

Renowned tech columnist Walt Mossberg has announced he will quit Facebook by the end of the year, after realising his own values now differ to those put in place by the social media giant. Mossberg, a former writer with the Wall Street Journal and current board member with the News Literacy Project, took to Twitter today to confirm his resignation to the world. “I am doing this – after being on Facebook for nearly 12 years – because my own values and the policies and actions of Facebook have diverged to the point where I’m no longer comfortable there,” he said. When he was at the Wall Street Journal  I eagerly awaited his weekly column because I believed he was honest and straightforward. So, I am not surprised he came to the decision to dump Facebook.  His entire announcement is here . The only way these tech companies are going to reform is if they lose customers and money and, even then, it may be too late. Increasingly, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc., are cancer...

I was surprised to see the following tag on my Twitter feed this morning. So, knowing this was Twitter, I clicked "view." Below, you will see the 'sensitive' material. Meanwhile, over at Facebook: Conclusion? Social media isn't very sociable.

Over my dead body... Heck, they can't keep their existing promises . 

Not only banking information , Facebook has been accused of sending employees disguised as physicians into hospitals to obtain confidential information about Facebook's customers. I no longer wanted to be associated with such sleaze.

Speaking of Steve Martin (see posting below), as I was searching for a clip of "King Tut" I came across a new Johnny Carson Facebook page that has high quality clips from the King of Late Night. Here are Johnny and Steve .