Category: Advice

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Why do I dislike Facebook (Fb)? [Addendum – Jan 21st]

I was challenged with this question last Thursday when I told my family about the intended changes to the WhatsApp Terms and Conditions of Use. I didn’t reply to my IT-savvy son until this morning when I was first asked to agree to these new Ts&Cs. This is what I wrote …

“It starts with trust, and then you work away from that. It’s what a company does with information and whether you can then trust them to handle it properly. Google+ was a closed system that you opened up; Fb is an open system that even though it has Privacy Controls – which you need a degree to work out how to set them – essentially allows them to do anything with what appears on their platform.

You take a photo – you don’t retain copyright, you assign that right to them when you publish to the platform. You have to struggle to find a way to opt out of adverts (understandably – that’s how they make their money) – you are conned into thinking that in allowing them, you will get a better experience.

For whom? For you – no, they’re just an annoyance to me, but for others they just drive people to buy stuff they might not want/need. For them – yes, that’s how they drive income and more.

So it’s the more that’s more interesting and insidious because what they do with that information leads to targeting people with posts, hence my reference to Brexit and Trump. [I had said in my brief first reply – Cambridge Analytica, Brext and Trump.] The algorithms behind the scenes work the data and susceptible people get targeted with posts as well, not just adverts. I could go on, but as I said – it’s all about Trust, and Fb as a company is one that I just don’t trust. [Addendum: Fb would say that it’s not them that uses the data; but we now have plentiful evidence that Fb Service Users have found ways of manipulating the data they have access to as Fb Business Users.]

Getting data from WhatsApp was something they committed at take-over they wouldn’t do. Now they are starting to do just that. Next step targeted adverts on a platform which is advert free; then “posts from others you might be interested in” – not the encrypted ones, but ones from Public Figures. Then “oh! dear” we have to drop encryption because of new privacy laws in the US. [Aside: is it a coincidence that Google, Twitter and Fb appear to be more privacy focussed since the Republicans lost control of the Senate and they just might want to be on the right side of the argument that’s going to come in the US in the next four years ].

So I always logout of Fb to stop them tracking me; I suspect that WhatsApp will have a mechanism that prevents a user from being disconnected so Fb with these new Ts&Cs will be tracking as well as getting the other personal info from users. [However, see the addendum below which has caused me to change my views on that.]

Please feel free to comment either on the post, or in the Topic I’ve created to discuss the subject in the Privacy and the Internet Forum.

Addendum: After posting this article, a former colleague provided a link to a page on Facebook’s website. That article is included in the many posts to Flipboard I’ve added in the past three weeks. However, it’s worth looking at, particularly as it affects the advice I’ve given many times to Logout of your Fb account. It would appear that Fb’s reach is wider than I thought, and so I can only now recommend that you logout. Some salient passages from the article …

When does Facebook get data about people from other websites and apps?
Many websites and apps use Facebook services to make their content and ads more engaging and relevant. These services include:

Social plugins, such as our Like and Share buttons, which make other sites more social and help you share content on Facebook;

Facebook Login, which lets you use your Facebook account to log into another website or app;

Facebook Analytics, which helps websites and apps better understand how people use their services; and

Facebook ads and measurement tools, which enable websites and apps to show ads from Facebook advertisers, to run their own ads on Facebook or elsewhere, and to understand the effectiveness of their ads.

When you visit a site or app that uses our services, we receive information even if you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook account. This is because other apps and sites don’t know who is using Facebook.

I’ve added the emboldening to the last paragraph. So it means that if you do any of the above things on a site that uses Fb Services (ie pays to advertise on the Fb platform) personal information will be transferred to Fb.

Finally, if you’re just a bit more curious about Facebook’s Data Policy, take a read of this and be just a little gobsmacked at what’s going on behind the scenes and just consider it might be worthwhile reviewing your security settings. In particular look at the last section which explains how your information will be shared and especially look at the last part where they describe what they do with third-party partners (eg Cambridge Analytica ???).

Facebook have attempted to respond to the uproar about privacy with the announcement, and release of a Clear History Tool – and you should take a look at this page which explains What off-Facebook Activity means and describes how Fb’s third-party partners and business service providers may be interacting with Fb, and you.

Now you might realise why I dislike Facebook – they’ve lost my trust, and it’s just too much effort to make sure I’ve closed all the doors to protecting the personal information they hold on me.

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So you want a new laptop? [from Which?]

How to buy the best laptop

Five crucial questions you need to ask to find the perfect laptop.

With hundreds of models to choose from, you’ll want to a laptop that ticks the boxes and will last the test of time. One of the biggest decisions will be how much you want to spend – what many don’t realise is that if you’re after a good all-rounder for day-to-day tasks, it doesn’t have to be a lot.

We award Best Buys to our top-performing laptops, and our cheapest Best Buys costs less than £500. Plus if you’re willing to compromise you can find good models for as little as £150.

Top five questions to ask before buying a laptop

Before you start shopping for a laptop, it will help to know the answers to the following five key questions.

1. How much should I spend on a laptop?

  • Less than £200 – Intel Celeron or Atom processors, 2GB of Ram and 32GB of storage. Won’t be particularly fast, but fine for note taking and browsing the internet.
  • Less than £400 – Intel Pentium, Core i3, AMD Ryzen 3 and 4GB Ram. Fast enough for web browsing and research work. Aim for a Full HD screen and an SSD if you can.
  • Less than £600 – Intel Core i5, i7, AMD Ryzen 5, 7 and 8GB of Ram. Should be ideal for photo editing and some light video work. Look for a thin and light design, a Full HD screen and an SSD.
  • Less than £800 – As above, but in increasingly high-end designs. Look for great battery life on premium ultrabooks.
  • More than £800 – Some stunning designs, great screens and good speakers. High-end laptops will suit more intensive tasks, such as video editing or playing games. You can buy Apple MacBooks from £950 and above.

2. Operating system – what type of laptop do I need?

There are three major players when it comes to the software (operating system) your computer runs on. Windows, MacOS, and ChromeOS.

Buy a Windows 10 laptop if…

  • You prefer the familiarity of Windows
  • Have specialist software you can’t live without
  • Want a big variety of laptops to choose from

Buy a MacBook if…

  • You have a budget of at least £950
  • Value longevity and build quality
  • Use other Apple products, or are happy to learn a new operating system

Buy a Chromebook if…

  • You’re on a budget
  • Value simplicity
  • Don’t mind working in web-based applications

3. How powerful does my laptop need to be?

In short: If you need a laptop for light use and note taking, look for Intel Pentium or Intel Core i3 and at least 4GB of Ram for a great experience. Go for Intel Core i5 and i7 and AMD Ryzen 5 and 7 and at least 8GB of Ram if you’re a heavy user. Look for dedicated graphics from Nvidia and AMD if you want to game.

Processing power really matters if you’re planning on using a laptop for photo or video editing, or are otherwise a very heavy user, opening lots of programs and browser tabs.

When looking at laptop processors, you’ll see two main specifications beyond the product name: clock speed (measured in Gigahertz or GHz and number of cores) and Ram. Think of clock speed as the speed limit on a road and the number of cores as the number of lanes. As on a road, depending on traffic conditions – the tasks being done on your computer – a road might see a greater benefit from more lanes or a higher speed limit.

In the simplest way possible, more of both is better, and all of our reviews describe what sort of tasks a laptop is good for.

Think of Ram (Random Access Memory) like a desk and your hard drive like a filing cabinet. You pull files out of the cabinet and it takes a while, but once they’re on your desk, you can reach for them instantly. The same is true of Ram; once you have loaded a file from the hard drive, it’s now in the Ram and can be accessed almost instantaneously.

The bigger the desk you have, the more items you can access more quickly, and the same goes for Ram. Most mid-range laptops come with at least 4GB of Ram, and we’d tend to recommend 8GB for people who are heavy web users or usually have lots of documents and pictures open.

You can manage with less, but you’ll have to rein in your use. If you fill up your Ram, some of the things you’re working on will be moved back to the hard drive, making things feel a lot slower.

Some cheap computers come with 2GB – this is usually fine on a cheap Chromebook, but some Windows 10 laptops will struggle.

When you close a program or file, it is removed from the Ram and makes room for other things to be accessed immediately. This is part of the reason why closing programs you aren’t using can make your computer faster.

4. Screen – what size and resolution of laptop display do I need? 

In short: Unless you have a very low budget, don’t settle for less than Full HD, no matter the size.

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A laptop’s screen is one case where bigger isn’t always better. If you want a longer-lasting battery and a more portable device, you may want to go for an 11, 12 or 13-inch display; most of these will weigh between 1kg and 1.5kg.

The largest you’re likely to see is 15 or 17 inches, with weight increasing to around 2kg to 3kg.

Most machines on the shelves now have a Full-HD 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution display, and high-end models can have even sharper screens with even more pixels up to and beyond 4K Ultra HD. Generally, the higher the resolution, the sharper the picture.

Only cheaper laptops should have a lower screen resolution of 1,366×768. This is fine for most people, but if you like to have lots of items on screen at once you’ll prefer a higher-resolution display.

5. How much laptop storage do I really need?

In short: Go for an SSD unless you really, really need more storage at all times. Storage capacity, measured in the size of the hard disk drive (HDD) in gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB, equal to 1,000GB), determines how many things your PC can hold.

Documents, photos, music, movies, programs – they all take up space. Bigger is usually better, although solid-state drives (SSDs) are often more expensive for considerably less space. This is because they load much quicker and are completely silent.

We’re also seeing a lot of cheaper laptops (including Chromebooks) carrying eMMC (embedded Multi-Media Controller) flash storage, which is slower than SSDs and gives you very little storage space.

If you cleared out all the stuff on your computer you don’t actually need, how much space do you think you’d have? How much do you have now? Check ‘My Computer’ if you’re using Windows to gauge how big your next laptop’s storage needs to be.

Laptop battery life: manufacturer claims vs reality

In short: Manufacturer battery claims aren’t useful unless you’re only comparing models from the same brand. Use our reviews to get the full picture. Manufacturers often make heady claims about how long their laptops’ batteries last. Our tests ignore the manufacturer claims and involve multiple battery rundowns while simulating web browsing and watching videos.

If you’re buying a portable laptop that you intend to use when travelling or on your commute, make sure the battery life is at least six hours based on our reviews. We’ve tested some models that last for more than 10 hours before they need recharging.

But we’ve also found companies claiming 10 hours of battery life on average, while our own tests found 6.3 hours was closer to the mark.

Battery stamina on large, desktop-replacement models won’t be as crucial, as they’ll almost always be near a power socket, but we still mark them down if they run out of juice in under four hours.