Forced to join Facebook

November 10, 2024 7:52 AM

I have to use Facebook messenger for work. How do I join Facebook and keep my privacy?
posted by Mr. Yuck to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Just don't enter anything on your profile. I assume you'll need to use your real name, but a name is all that is required to start an account. If they ask for a birthday or anything, just lie.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:00 AM on November 10, 2024

Join using your work email, don't give it your phone number (there's tips here for doing so), don't friend anyone, don't post a photo of yourself as your profile, don't follow or respond to any groups or pages, never post anything, if your employer is OK with you not using your real name in your profile that'll defeat people being able to search Facebook for you, along with these tips on being as hidden as possible.

If you behave like this you might even trick Facebook into thinking your a bot and blacklisting your account from doing things anyways. On the other end, it will try its best to get you to interact with others, especially if you click a Facebook link from somewhere else on the internet.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:03 AM on November 10, 2024 [1 favorite]

I had to set up an anonymous FB account for my work (long story). I was told to use a general work email, to make up a name and not use a real photo. I just picked some generic image from a Google search. FB picked up on it almost immediately and banned my IP from creating accounts, which has been a real pain in the ass, but other colleagues who have done the same thing have managed to get through. It seems to be a bit of a luck of the draw thing. So just be aware that if you make yourself look like a faceless nothing account, FB might assume you're a bot and you won't be able to use it at all.

Just stick to the absolute bare minimum you're comfortable with. If it's too much, you might need to tell your employer that it's not possible and they'll have to figure it out.
posted by fight or flight at 8:21 AM on November 10, 2024

If you have to use it for work, I would add a picture. Just the blandest possible picture of you; if you already have one from your corporate directory, I'd use that same one. Or, you could use a company logo if that's appropriate.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:31 AM on November 10, 2024

I've never used Facebook or Messenger, so this may not be helpful:

Firefox browser has "Container tabs" which restrict the website you're connecting to from tracking you, and help prevent data leaks.

Also, if you're considering installing a Facebook app on an Android phone, the Android OS has a way to keep work and personal profiles separate, so put FB in the work app by itself then it cannot reach your personal data.

(edit: 'tracking', not 'racking', though the latter may be appropriate)
posted by anadem at 9:11 AM on November 10, 2024 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I access Facebook via Firefox Focus which containerizes and kills your session everytime you close it. You can use messenger with it if you switch to the desktop site.

Because it doesn't preserve state you have to login each time but it also prevents accidently associating your web use with your login.
posted by Mitheral at 9:45 AM on November 10, 2024 [4 favorites]

Are you being asked to use your own phone and install Messenger on that?

Because you should NOT do that. If the company needs you on Facebook for work purposes, it should be on their equipment with their email address. They need to buy you a phone.

You create a completely new profile and never ever browse to your personal social media sites or those belonging to any of your friends and family. Facebook sees all of this and builds connections behind your back.

Then you leave that phone at work. If you need to be "on-call", read up on your local labor laws about extra pay during those times. If you are hourly you are usually entitled to something.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:11 AM on November 10, 2024 [10 favorites]

If it's only Messenger you need and not Facebook as a whole, you can make an account from the Messenger app itself without every downloading the Facebook app. It'll help a little to reduce the annoyances that try to get you to share more info than you're willing to.

But really... your workplace seriously needs to move into the 2020s.
posted by stormyteal at 1:49 PM on November 10, 2024 [3 favorites]

Seconding fight or flight, when I tried to set up a totally bland fb account for work purposes with no friends, it was immediately suspended.

I managed to get an alternate version of my work email address set up and tried again - this time adding a real profile pic and befriending half a dozen of my actual friends, who I'd teed up in advance to accept. Made a post, had them comment on it, generally just got a bit of activity happening. That was enough to persuade fb it was real and it wasn't deleted. So I assume the first ban wasn't for my IP address, it was just for the first email address I used.
posted by penguin pie at 2:07 PM on November 10, 2024

The biggest problem is that your coworkers have your phone number and secondary e-mail and stuff like that in their contact list, and you will have to friend them to work with them and message them directly. Your co-worker may then share their contact list with facebook, and facebook will like your profile to all the data they got from your coworker. Worse yet, facebook probably already has you in their data base because your Aunt Linda gave them access to her contact list, and when you log on with the same phone number they'll connect your new profile and know where you fit in their nexus right away.

So be aware that even if you use a burner phone to make the account, if your coworkers or anyone else knows your real phone number, facebook will get that data.

Also keep in mind that facebook is a hotbed of fraud right now, so the reason facebook is banning anyone whose new profile doesn't look like a gormless boomer preparing to share all their personal data, is because they are utterly beset by cloned profiles and fraudsters and they are trying to block the bad guys. It's the same reason your bank makes you do triple factor authentication to check your bank balance.
posted by Jane the Brown at 2:49 PM on November 10, 2024 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If the company needs you on Facebook for work purposes, it should be on their equipment with their email address. They need to buy you a phone

Ah ha ha ha ha ha sob. Sigh. Sob again. Ah yes. That would be the way it should be.

Look, I can't even get a college in the communist worker's paradise of OREGON to buy me a phone even though I am expected to use my phone daily, install Outlook and Teams on it and etc., etc. The new reality is if you won't use your own phone for work, they will find someone who will. This is unfortunate but, especially now, extremely unlikely to change. As a workaround, I'd do pretty much what everyone else is advising and create the most barebones, low info profile you possibly can. You've got some good advice for that. Then I would access facebook only through the web browser even when on my phone. This is going to make Messenger a big giant PITA to use but it will keep it contained a bit.

The other thing I might advise is talking your boss/company out of this and suggesting some other form of communication. Why messenger? Are they using their Facebook page as their website? (argh.) Do they want customers to reach out via messenger to individual employees? That's not a great idea on any level. The best workaround for that would be creating a dummy shared account or even two or three. Then everyone who needs to respond to things can log in to that account and access Messenger that way. That's how we did it at several places I worked. Removes the possibility of a customer doing a deep dive into someone's facebook and finding the pictures that they don't actually want - or shouldn't want - to share.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:00 PM on November 12, 2024 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone!
posted by Mr. Yuck at 4:35 PM on November 13, 2024