Big Brother Facebook: Does Anyone Care?

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1. lawrence
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

   lol - TC would rather write about the smell of FB’s farts…as opposed to covering(more) new startups

   but hey, follow the big money - i don’t blame that

2. Mike D
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:05 pm

   Facebook has 50 million members and is hoping to quadruple that. The number of members who care enough about this issue to actually stop using Facebook is insignificant when compared to those numbers.

3. Duncan Riley
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:06 pm

   lawrence
   it’s an topical debate, but by all means, send me some startups to look at that are new and exciting and I’ll write about them

4. Dan Schawbel
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

   Yea that position will be history soon. Why do you think millions of people would be using Facebook, if they were concerned about data sharing?

5. Jesse
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

   Facebook should concentrate on developing innovative features while focusing on putting users first instead of trying to think of ways to monetize their user base. They come off as greedy and reckless with the launching of Beacon. Though I don’t necessarily blame them for trying to take advantage of their popularity; I can’t say I know what else they have in store for us. I just know that I would think more highly of them if they weren’t so blatantly selling their users out.

6. ScruffyDan
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

   At the end of the day Facebook can do as it pleases, but so can its users. If enough people complain (or threaten to leave) Facebook is likely to change its policy.

7. 113.com
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:16 pm

   Hung’s article just tells a bloody fact..

   Compare that to the live-documents.com pr stunts — do you think Microsoft really cares? [other than perhaps their corporate lawyers simply doing their routine job to send a C&D notice if anybody would feel somebody litigious..]

8. Sipboy
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

   I saw this dilemma when facebook first announced their new ad platform. I started my blog for this very reason. If they don’t share the wealth with the users, they will eventually falter. People don’t like being treated unfairly and that’s exactly what facebook is doing. I wanted to start a revolution, but it seems the revolution has already begun. The users need to take a stand and demand fair treatment. I like facebook, but I think they should either share the wealth or allow users to restrict advertisers if they choose to do so.

9. Hashim Warren
   

   November 25th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

   Even worse than Google, your ISP has even more complete data on you.

   And guess what? They actively sell your clickstream data to marketing and analytic companies like Quantcast.

   So, where’s the press or outcry for that?

10. Chris Saad
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Michael, perhaps you can put the topical debate and big company news in the context of start ups and grass-roots initiatives that deal with the issues at hand?

    For example there is a initiative that we are involved with that is getting quite a bit of traction recently that is attempting to deal with these concerns of user data and control - Duncan and I spoke about on his last podcast. You can see it at http://www.dataportability.org

11. Chris Saad
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Or Duncan - whichever hehe

12. Andrew
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    is it me or did Techcrunch discover they could add polls to their stories?

13. Don Wilson
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

    I concur with Andrew, haha.

    But on a serious note, it seems that TechCrunch doesn’t really cover any startup unless they’re financially backed or started from a “famous” internet person.

14. Gustav
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    Don’t put any private information on Facebook. End of story. If you don’t want it stared, don’t post it. This includes you address, phone number, schedule etc. Facebook needs to get smart about this, but so do the users.

15. Angela Hayden
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

    Does point number 9. have valid info?

    “Even worse than Google, your ISP has even more complete data on you.

    And guess what? They actively sell your clickstream data to marketing and analytic companies like Quantcast.

    So, where’s the press or outcry for that?”

    Has there ever really been such a thing as privacy? I think as long as we have large institutions, data will always be displaced and some lucky few slip through. Or do you computer people believe a data entry person will accurately enter in every detail of your life into the matrix? correctly?

    sincerely,
    ms. tipsy.

16. rick
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:56 pm

    heh, I -just- finished a presentation on the overuse of Orwellian terms by butthurt drama queens, freaky

17. Pam Scott
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    With that in mind, a new report cites social network attacks among the top security threats for 2008:

    http://www.baselinemag.com/art.....461,00.asp

18. Rob
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    Your argument might have made sense before Facebook decided to sign with Amazon to sell the user information in light of better ad targeting and revenue growth. Now we all know that they’re after the money at the expense of users’ privacy.

    If they really cared about the users’ privacy they should have a big banner right inside their news feed (right next to their social ads) that reads “All your personal data will be shared with our affiliates in an effort to make us richer”. Lets see how many people will stick around.

19. Bryan Brannigan
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

    It would be one thing if they were just selling my information to advertisers, but when they start sharing my online purchasing habits with my friends while barely giving me the option to opt-out, I think that is crossing the line.

    A quote in an AP article (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jktmzai0_n_sMBgH_jfy6QXNS_6gD8T299HG0) makes the point pretty clear… “What if you bought a book on Amazon called ‘Coping with AIDS’ and that got published to every single one of your friends?”

20. Alex
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    Facebook is ONLY good for college students who have no money to spend, but are rich on “free time”.

    Now that TC is using voting option, ask your readers if you (TC) are infatuated with Facebook and should refrain from posting any Facebook story for at least two weeks.

21. Amy
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    I think you’re missing a big point here - the one that users are irritated by. Making public personal information to my friends and colleagues is what concerns people. I have given up caring what Google does on the back end with my shopping/search habits because they take it more as an aggregrate for data, and perhaps even indivdually to enhance my online (mostly: search, shopping) experiences.

    But tapping my outside-the-network behaviour and sharing that with my colleagues is not OK with me. I do not want people in my social networks to have my tacit endorsement of fandango movies or stuff I buy at Overstock. Now both of those are, as I’ve said in other posts, rather innocuous stores, but what about my book reading habits at amazon or my feminine hygeine products at target, other equally innocuous stores whom facebook could see as potential viable, non-embarassing partners.

22. Rob
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:26 pm

    Think fire sale:

    Step 1: Come across as a naive entrepreneur who just wants to be different (Developer Platform) and win over the internet dev community. Offer incentives like grants and free hosting.

    Step 2: Turn cold shoulder on the dev community and sell private user data to affiliates.

    Step 3: Take over the world

    Yippie-kayee motherf***er

23. David Mackey
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:28 pm

    Not concerned.

24. Rob
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:32 pm

    Not concerned either… Hey! Something bit me! (Forest Gump impersonation)

    Love, stay free

25. John
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

    Bryan (#19), I’m with you. A friend emailed me the other day to ask how “Beowolf” was (answer: it sucks), and told me he knew I’d seen it because Fandango posted it to my mini feed, without my permission. After hunting around deep in my preferences, I found Fandango had been given full access to everything in my account, though I hadn’t made that choice or been notified.

    I was livid, and won’t be buying tickets through Fandango again. And the Facebook app I’m working on? It’s an OpenSocial app now.

    We do have choices, and if Facebook keeps pissing off users, it could still turn itself into the next Friendster.

26. Rob
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    #20, I actually like Facebook posts. The other day my mother in law gave me a call asking me what the deal is what the whole Facebook thing. I think America is discovering Facebook in a whole different light than what few of us may make of it. TC helps me stay in touch with what is in.

27. tess
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:46 pm

    You are missing the point over the outcry over Beacon.

    The data that Facebook is grabbing and publishing is not something I posted on their site or purposely made public. They are invading MY privacy. Just because they have my email doesn’t mean they have the right to poke their noses into my shopping habits.

    So now, I’ve removed my main email from my Facebook account. Their attitude sucks and their service is going down the tube.

28. Mike D
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

    @John

    Facebook notifies you about additions twice, once at the point of action through a popup and a second on the Facebook homepage.

    Also, Beacon works using an iframe and some javascript, the sites involved aren’t given access to anything about you.

29. Bryan Brannigan
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:52 pm

    @Mike D

    From what I understand, the popup at the point of action disappears after 20 seconds and the notification on Facebook itself is easily missed. I also understand that there is no way to totally opt-out of Beacon, you have to opt-out on a site-by-site basis.

    I’m less worried about the sites having access to information about me than I am about my network of friend/colleagues knowing what I’m buying. But, I’m not a Facebook user, so I guess I don’t need to worry too much.

30. lawrence
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:59 pm

    @13
    your second sentence is right on the money

31. Alex
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

    @26 Rob,

    If your mother in law did not ask about MySpace too, then I’d think you work for Facebook or she is extremely worried about you spending to much time on FB and not enough time with her daughter (aka your wife):)

32. NI
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    Hmmm, a classically Republican/Libertarian issue being aggressively pursued by way left moveon.

33. UberInvestor.com
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    I think it is agood idea to offer users an ability to Opt Out. If nothing else, it will make facebook look cooler.

34. Rob
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:17 pm

    @31, Alex,
    The Myspace question came 2 years late which would put it just around 2005. Now considering Facebook has been around for just about 2 years, I think she’s right on time.

    On the other hand, my mother in law writes compilers so she may not be the best indicator of trends.

35. Alex
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

    @34 Rob:

    Fair enough….Happy Holidays,Cheers

36. Robin
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    Hi,
    Rather than about privacy, the issue is about the freedom to choose.. I want to choose what somebody does with my private data.. Even giving it as a option that people could change(which 99.99% would not mind to change) would change the public perception of the issue..

37. Adrian Thurston
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:36 pm

    In my opinion facebook has goon too far with beacon. Consider the casual facebook user’s new problem. While they are happily buying christmas gifts facebook is displaying all their activity to their friends, until they log in to discover what is going on.

    I deleted all my facebook account data, deactivated my account, and deleted all my facebook cookies because of this new scheme. It has irked me big time.

    I’m okay with google knowing so much about me because for the most part it is not machine readable like facebook’s data is. Facebook can mine their database, which has been populated by the users. Google on the other hand has more free form data that requires parsing. For example Parsing my email is no easy task.

    @tess: facebook uses cookies to link your purchases to your profile, not your email. To prevent it log out of facebook and delete the facebook cookies. Or get a blocker addon that can block http://*facebook.com/beacon*.

38. Alex
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:02 pm

    @37 Adrian

    After reading your post and your blog (via your name link) I think your perspective clearly weighs the pros and cons…… Nice job!

39. Rob
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:16 pm

    Adrian,
    I think you really got to the gist of it. Google collects user data but it publicly admits its only readable by the machines and not accessible to humans (or fbi, cia, nsa). Facebook on the other hand has 1/2 of the social network world and yet chooses to pass it around for a mil or two. (Zuck/Dustin how much really )

40. EH
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:17 pm

    Duncan@#3: So you’re saying that you are not aware of any exciting startups right now?

    And of course FB is going too far with Beacon. It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission, so we’ll likely see them making a play for good-guy status by dialing a lot of this back, possibly with a PR push to highlight how badly other social networks treat privacy, such as a “Look how evil we aren’t (anymore)” strategy. But they’ll milk it until then, lots of PowerPoint will be generated, but no other social network will step up to the plate. Heck, if I was gunning for a piece of the SN pie I’d be clamoring up a storm against FB.

    That said, I think Amy and tess have the right idea, especially if the only way to opt out is to change your email address. You think FB has experimented with XSS for Beacon purposes? I bet they’d love it if it were kosher.

    In conclusion, I have no reason to believe that FB is any different than their fanboys who rationalize every opportunistic thing they’ve done as “easy” or “best for business,” so perhaps the Microsoft is a better fit than was initially apparent.

41. bhc3
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:31 pm

    I’m not a Facebook member, nor was I ever on MySpace. Two questions though:

    (1) What is driving the young ‘uns from MySpace to Facebook in droves?

    (2) Will Beacon’s use of members’ data drive people away from Facebook to the next “social graph” site that promises “not to be evil”?

42. Poor
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

    You see nasty group of people creating evolution germ warfare.
    For example, someone checks school profile and DNA blood. a student get flu shot… Got sick about year. Blood is alter…
    a student start shooting in school.

    In socialist, communist, maoist, commonwealth countries and even in france you don’t see school shoot outs. They secretly monitor and jail evolution conspirators.

    evolution people don’t believe in God. They use christians as remote control toy.

    in order to protect yourselves all you have to do believe in darkhorse, rapture, and black fire. You can vandal evolution theory. But It’s hard to find them.

43. success and dead end
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

    Facebook user Advice. Put your profile:

    Real name: Rectum of anus
    nickname: Colonscope
    Birthday: 1/1/1910
    Blood type: X-Men

    Remember to upload “boogers on table” jpg.

44. Markus
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:57 pm

    Should we care? Yes.

    Will anyone do anything about it? Doubtful.

    I’m not seeing protests in the streets about the US government’s invasion of its citizen’s privacy so I hardly think you’ll hit a tipping point when it comes to a corporation.

45. file2fone
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:02 pm

    I think in true sense most of social networking doing that not facebook alone. If you don’t like data sharing just don’t join any SN site.

46. Rajeev
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

    Users permission should be taken and they should be served advt’s for the products they intend to buy in near future or evince their interest in.

    http://tekno-world.blogspot.com

47. Andy Schweig
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

    who cares? this is about choice - if you don’t like it, delete your Facebook account, it’s that simple, … stupid. (my guess is that none of the knuckleheads complaining about it on here will).

    I personally think the whole Beacon thing is quite brilliant. And like all new product features will probably evolve over time. The real statement here is Facebook’s willingness to take big risks and keep innovating. A page out of Google’s textbook.

48. Clever Joe
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:11 pm

    One good thing about Beacon is that Facebook will never figure out the pattern to my ass wiping. I tend to do 2-3-1 which is wipe twice, pull three, wipe once. As you can see… I win you sucker! Dan stay away, you’re not giving this one away!

49. Zuckenburg
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

    Guys, please calm down. The CIA will not release your information to your mothers.

50. Tony Hung
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:22 pm

    @Andy — think that its so easy to delete your Facebook account?

    Oh, you can inactivate it — but they still have your data. If you want to delete every relationship you’ve made, via friends and groups, you have delete that all by hand.

    In fact, the fact its so hard to delete your own data has brought it to the attention of the information commissioner in the UK, as it may be a violation of the Data Protection Act.

    http://www.deepjiveinterests.c.....-continue/

    Cheers
    t @ dji

51. Daniel
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:31 pm

    Bloody hell. Is there nothing that Facebook can do that will get their user base to drop the site? It’s amazing. They have the audacity to publish stories about people’s activities off of the site and their users are so hooked to the site that masses don’t disable their account in protest. This reminds me of the mini feed fiasco all over again.

    How does a site with 50 million users not realize that users will go up in arms at such violations of their privacy? Do they do no user testing?

    Come on Zuck! Give people the ability to opt out of the program. wtf.

52. Andy Schweig
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    @Tony - uhh, ok. Then don’t delete your account. How about something even more revolutionary — stop using your account and change any personal information to nonsense.

    In any event, I doubt anyone in the “Big Brother Mafia” will care that you’re 44, single, and like spending your free time posting nonsense on Techcrunch.

    C’mon guys - let’s lighten up here.

53. Maria
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

    The line between good and bad use of our data is more than a bit blurred. We’re all perfectly happy for companies to improve their customer service but we cringe when we realise they are doing it by using our data. Amazon.com uses our data and makes a good lot of money from it! I’ve recently created what I believe is the first computer-generated blog (in the digital scrapbooking domain) which analyses the content of over a thousand other blogs and presents a “summary” of free digital items offered by other people in their blogs. So my blog wouldn’t exist if I couldn’t do this. But I have approx 4000 visitors daily, so obviously people find it useful.

    I work in language technology and for some time resisted googlemail etc. But then I just thought, oh what the heck. We will never solve the problem of long-range dependencies anyway!

54. Mezeri
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:02 pm

    Stop for a second.

    You seriously didn’t know this when you signed up for an account..De-De-Dee!

55. LivePaola
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:17 pm

    Yesterday, I had Wagamama-style chicken noodles for lunch. And I had Tuscan bean soup for dinner. I could have put that information in Facebook. Yet, I chose not to: I guess my friends don’t care what I eat, while advertisers might. On a more general level, you decide what to tell Facebook. (Your friends might load a few unflattering pictures of you, but you can kindly ask them to remove them). So, privacy protection is part policy and legislation, and part just plain common sense: give yourself a few simple rules.
    http://livepaola.wordpress.com.....-facebook/

56. Entrecard
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:21 pm

    I quit facebook because I do not trust their data ethics.

    But did you know that you CAN NOT delete your account? Your account is on facebook forever.

57. Fred
    

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:42 pm

    Yes, you have a “choice”. If you’re a college kid, you can choose between being a social outcast or hand over your personal data to facebook to do whatever they like with. Probably not an easy decision even for the privacy nut.

    A similar argument can be done for google, you can opt not to use their services, but given that they are such a heavyweight with many of the most popular web services, the “cost” of opting out is also significant.

    In the end, I think it is necessary to put some pressure on the big players if we want a web where it is possible to participate without surrendering your privacy completely.

58. Rodney Rumford
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am

    Duncan,
    It is a catch 22 with Facebook on this issue. They (and every other startup) almost always default you into the desired behavior.

    This is nothing new. They give you privacy controls and options. They are drawing attention because what they are doing is a disruptive marketing model and they have the spotlight on them almost incessantly.

    I am not concerned with the privacy issues here. If I want to opt out; I opt out. If I feel that it is creepy and don’t want the association, I can leave facebook.

    No one has a gun to anyones head here. It is about freedom of choice. Or do we think people need to be protected from their own inability to opt out of these sorts of things??

    All these people crying about privacy need to get a life (or take 5 minutes and simply opt out), or just leave facebook.

    One final note here: Moveon.org is raising a holy stink on this issue… I have an idea for them… Move On to The Next Battle: Educate Users.

    Cheers!

    Rodney Rumford
    Publisher: http://www.Facereviews.com

59. Giordano
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 1:02 am

    I completely agree with comments @42 and @43. Actually, I think everyone should comment like that on TC

60. Tom
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 1:39 am

    The main difference between Facebook and Google is that Facebook encourages users to post personal information about themselves. No, this isn’t a requirement and yes, people should be smart about what they post online. The fact that they have full rights to anything posted to do whatever they wish with it, to me, is a little overboard considering the nature of content.

    Google does have all this information due to the nature of it’s business. Web spiders compile everything they come across. Google isn’t offering up this information to the highest bidder. I don’t believe Google has rights to all the content it absorbs, either. Those rights belong to the sites and/or users that post that content (Depending on the ToS of said site.)

    Am I worried about it? Not really. I don’t post every event of my life online. But others do. If people were truly worried about this, they’d take their profiles elsewhere, or they wouldn’t let the world know every aspect of their private life in the first place. Facebook should be a little more discrete about their practice, though.

61. Chris
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 4:05 am

    The British government has just lost a couple of discs containing the personal and financial records of 25 million British citizens. Tie that up with facebook profile data and you have just about eveything you need for the biggest fraud in history.

    Wake up and smell the coffee everybody. The information you submit online will only ever have increasingly profound effects on your future. Whether it be in terms of employment, insurance premiums, medical insurance etc or more sinister purpuses….

    It’s just plain dumb for people to stick their head’s in the sand and hope for the best.

62. yahoo
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 4:28 am

    Firstly I agree that more startups need to be covered rather than all these big companies.

    As to facebook I think facebook will be like myspace in a year or so after all the hype has died down ( it will still have its registered members ) but the majority of those members will stop visiting the site. Most people get annoyed at the widgets that facebook now incorporates and will soon depart facebook.

63. john
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:11 am

    If you care that much, quit using Facebook….they are offering a service that you are not committed to use…so as long as Facebook notes makes the details around the data sharing obvious in their TOS, they have ever right to do what they are doing.

64. Steve Ballmer
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:31 am

    We do this for you own good! People care about that.

65. dc crowley
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:13 am

    I don’t want my privacy my way. Google is not annoying me with their tactics, cause they are not putting my face on an ad! I’ll endorse nothing for you voluntarily Zuckerberg.

66. Mike
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:21 am

    Nah, of course they don’t. The whole concept of open data, standards, accessibility or even MAKING A SITE LOOK NICE probably don’t matter a **** as long as people get to talk to their mates. MySpace for example looks like an enormous and painful car crash involving about 200 pizza lorries on a busy motorway, but the fact that it looks like sh*t didn’t stop it being the next big thing.

    Anyone who does this stuff and cares about what is going on under the hood finds this disconcerting, but it’s true. Ultimately it shouldn’t change us geektypes banging the drum because we all know that it is important for bigger reasons - interoperability and data protection when done well enable a horizon which is far beyond what a “standard” user would ever care about. I sound patronising but being an IT professional is about knowing best, right?

67. Tony
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:36 am

    Also, why do we care about facebook.com privacy issues? When Microsoft does the following:

    Microsoft Corp. began concentrating harder on locking software down through a program it calls its Genuine Software Initiative.

    The technology has provoked some hostility, because it enables Microsoft to remotely examine user computers. After analyzing such information as the computer’s manufacturer, hard drive serial number and Windows product identification, Microsoft can block access to certain software functions if it suspects the product was illegally copied.

    I guess no one cares that Microsoft examines your personal hard ware.

    How do we know that Microsoft doesn’t scan for music and movie files and reports there findings?

68. Kyle Else
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 8:34 am

    Check out Yahoo Shortcuts for a scary picture of privacy concerns - I first noticed this when reading my email from inside the Yahoo Mail client. Keywords inside the body of my private emails were underlined by the Yahoo Shortcuts technology.

69. Antje Wilsch
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 9:01 am

    @Tony - they probably do, but they’re not emailing my friends telling them what I’ve recently purchsed. I think google and all software companies collect data and I think most are beyond caring about that. It’s the sharing part within the social network that people don’t like or appreciate.

70. augustus
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 9:32 am

    My view is simply that Facebook and Myspace will never become useful for mainstream because of the privacy concerns.

    I use Facebook and Myspace sparingly and dont use my real name.

    As far as Google, I never use Google when I am signed in so the data they have on my search strings - I don’t really care.

    Augustus

71. Liza
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 10:11 am

    Amy I agree with you 100%. What I object to is the opt-out policy of sharing information with the network. Facebook makes me very reluctant to share any information that I would happily give them to use for targeting, because given all the various sharing applications they have, I’m never entirely sure about what is going to be broadcast. It would be a much better experience if for every personal update you provide (contact info, whatever) they prompt you for how you want to use it. The features that are no brainers for the college crowd are definitely major concerns for grown-ups with jobs, as well as newbies - and that’s where the growth is coming from.

72. Big Bopper
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 10:51 am

    Social networks greed invariably pushes them to do things they know deep down are wrong. Eventually, this greed will bite them on the tushy.

    Beacon’s laughable privacy position of opt-out-if-you-happen-to-see-this-notification-box-we’re-really-trying-to-hide-from-you, is going to stack bad customer experience stories from here to the sun and back before this Christmas. Once enough people see their “surprise” gifts published to their friends and families news feeds, the backlash will be Oprah-level. Mark my words, there will be feature stories on primetime TV during the holiday break on this showing you how to turn off the sharing of any private information on Facebook. Oh, and probably quite a few people who pledge never again to shop at online vendors who participate in this ridiculous scheme.

73. BikerSeek
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 12:47 pm

    Folks will start singing a different tune, once Christmas gifts start getting outted to their boy-/girl-friends via those stupid feed announcements…

    “X just bought an engagement ring at Zales.com!”

    Ya…great idea to broadcast that without permission…

    Then, watch all Hell break loose.

74. Richard Holloway
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 1:11 pm

    You need to add another option to the voting list:

    Does Facebook’s Privacy and Data Policies Worry You?

    “No, because I’m clever enough to use Firefox’s Adblock Plus”

    Blocks all this Beacon nonsense. It’s amazing what a little hunting around can do.

75. sauce
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5855804562

76. Peter Griffyn
    

    November 26th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    There is a saying I once heard…

    ‘Do not complain about anything you do not have to subject yourself too.’

77. jonas
    

    November 27th, 2007 at 3:19 am

    its funny that people worry so much about this, whilst not thinking at all about the vast amount of data that all of those “customer programs” collect on you..

78. Jenna
    

    December 4th, 2007 at 1:31 am

    I recently wrote and article about Britney Spears and facebook swiped it from my site.

    http://www.howinsane.com/?p=720

79. D.E.
    

    December 5th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    I will never use Social Networking in general. I put the buttons on my sites/blogs but why should I use it myself ?

    Waste of time IMHO and maybe all the (self-)advertising people do on it … that’s the tax they have to pay for being … unremarkable.

    FB is a closed network they tell me ( I do get invitations ) … it’s not hard to install a blog and have a “members only” area to share with a limited audience and … you might learn something creating it …. yourself.

    BIG difference = you keep c o n t r o l and I like to control what I create.

    Facebook can kiss my derrière …

    But as TC put’s it : who cares anyway.