Comments on: Facebook doesn’t give a shit if you don’t trust them

By: What’s good for Google should be good for Facebook

What’s good for Google should be good for Facebook — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:52:54 +0000

[...] whole bunch of questions then they should be doing the same to Facebook, because in my opinion what Facebook is doing is far more insidious and manipulative of user privacy than any thing that Google has done to this [...]

By: Just as Facebook doesn’t care about out privacy it appears we don’t care either

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:38:48 +0000

[...] I pointed out in a post over on my home blog the other day Facebook doesn’t care about the reaction from a very small minority of tech [...]

By: Logical Extremes

Logical Extremes — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:57:34 +0000

Yes, I do think they are very calculated. There are lots of smart people working at these companies, and I’d be more surprised if they weren’t gaming the potential outcomes. That’s why I use the term desperation… it’s a calculated risk to push the bounds of business advantage while simultaneously pushing the bounds of what (most) users will be too lazy/apathetic to rebel against.

Facebook’s December changes were asserted to be, in part, an answer to the legal objections of Canada’s privacy commissioner and rumblings in US and other government agencies, but of course Facebook just made the privacy situation worse while babbling a lot of marketing doublespeak. The law is slow (especially compared to tech), but we can only hope that at some point it will have some teeth.

By: Steven Hodson

Steven Hodson — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:30:20 +0000

the only thing I would question LE is … were these really blunders or were they actually calculated move used to gauge just how far they could go?

By: Steven Hodson

Steven Hodson — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:28:57 +0000

You got it exactly right AJ .. Facebook is counting on the general population apathy regarding this kind of thing and anyone who doesn’t think this apathy exists is an idiot. Just look to England or even the US and Canada in regards to ACTA ( taking bets on exactly how many people actually know what that is).

Apathy rules and it will make Facebook a very rich company.

By: Steven Hodson

Steven Hodson — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:26:04 +0000

Holden the question has to be asked – why do they need to push the privacy boundaries? What is wrong with what few boundaries we have left? Who is benefiting from this chipping away at our privacy boundaries.

In the end it all boils down the fact that Facebook can’t make money as long as we try to hold on to our belief in privacy – of any kind.

By: Logical Extremes

Logical Extremes — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:10:58 +0000

Each of Facebook’s privacy blunders over the years smack of desperation… for valuation, if not a business model. Now that it has the user base, it doesn’t mind abusing it to further its goals.

Facebook as an organization is socially immature, kind of like a four-year-old. Facebook doen’t respect the range of its users’ wants. It would be so easy to provide proper defaults and controls, but Facebook *chooses* to force everyone into what it thinks is its profit-maximizing model, fully knowing that most people don’t understand the ramifications. But backlash is waiting in the wings. It may come from users, or it may come from regulators.

Even Google, who is often portrayed as the ubiquitous all-seeing eye, provides users with meaningful defaults and options, and is also responsive to privacy issues that arise (e.g., Buzz).

I’d suggest that anyone who cavalierly brushes aside desires for privacy in the social context to read at least the following articles, with an open mind:

http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/2010/SXSW2010.html
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2006/05/70886

By: Facebook's Plan For World Domination | Regular Geek

Facebook's Plan For World Domination | Regular Geek — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:07:44 +0000

[...] Published in March 28th, 2010 Posted by Rob Diana in Internet, Social Media People have been complaining about Facebook and their privacy changes for what seems like an eternity. Recent developments have shown that this is all part of [...]

By: AJ Kohn

AJ Kohn — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:45:45 +0000

Facebook doesn’t care about trust or privacy but the problem is that most of the people who use Facebook don’t either.

In some ways Facebook is just a mirror to our own apathy around privacy. I wish it weren’t the case but … Facebook gets away with it because we let them.

Just like we give our social security number out without thinking about it, or hand over a form of ID to verify a credit card purchase, even though we don’t have to. Nor are we at all concerned with how those credit agencies share our information.

No, there’s often a lot of noise around privacy but when push comes to shove there’s often little action … and Facebook knows it.
.-= AJ Kohn´s last blog ..Display Advertising and SEO =-.

By: Holden Page

Holden Page — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:53:48 +0000

I personally think the reason they are continuing to grow is because they are pushing the privacy boundaries. This debate was going on when Facebook encouraged people to use their real names, a foreign (and scary) concept at the time. There is a reason (yes, beyond Farmville) that Facebook is growing like a weed in a field of stale corn, it is because they are willing to continue push the boundaries.

But, your point mentioning that Facebook is too big to care, that is very true as well. They can get away with murder at this point, but I do not think that is what they are doing, nor do I think they are abusing peoples privacy.

My tweet last night sums up my thoughts:

Facebook will never please the bloggers. FB is the company pushing the boundaries that we will expect as norm by noon and great ideas tmrrw
.-= Holden Page´s last blog ..Seesmic, The Perfect Broken Pieces of a Mirror =-.