Beacon Privacy Solution: STOP USING FACEBOOK!
My how the Mark Zuckerberg tables have turned!
Since the unveiling of F8, I have been a consistent, but lone, voice analyzing the privacy implications of the Facebook “business model,” often to the chagrin of ardent Facebook fans, such as “whale” Robert Scoble.
The Scobleizer even “dedicated” one of his home-grown Facebook video lessons to me: “The eight ways you can be my friend online.”
(In my rebuttal to Scoble’s Facebook friending is good video, I signaled, once again, the privacy dangers of Facebook, SEE: Scoble is Right on Facebook: Zuckerberg Stalks All Your Friends)
Has Scoble been but a fair weather Facebook friend, though? He apparently sees Zuckerberg things differently now, and so does ex-Facebook royalty fan, CNET vice president, Dan Farber, as I recount in “Facebook: Bloggers Kick Zuckerberg Off Throne, What Were They ‘Smoking’?”
How could the likes of Robert Scoble and Dan Farber been so taken in by Facebook PR speak? In other words, how was Mark Zuckerberg able to make men (of all ages) swoon?
SEE: David Kirkpatrick to Mark Zuckerberg: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
While the media world was counting 15 billions ways to love Facebook, I have been counting all the ways Facebook-centric privacy policies, developer terms of service and PR spiels hurt Facebook users and partners.
NEWS FLASH, FOLKS: BEACON IS NO SURPRISE!
Upon Facebook’s bestowal of F8 to the world, while media fell over itself to shower Zuckerberg with Godly honors, I analyzed the newly minted F8 Facebook privacy policy and determined that “Facebook is scarier than Google,” way back in May.
YES, Facebook flaunted its user privacy intrusions, way back then. As per Facebook:
USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED BY FACEBOOK
Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.
Facebook may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you Facebook. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they’re more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don’t tell the movie company who you are.
We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile (e.g., removing photo tag links).
WHY FACEBOOK IS SCARIER THAN GOOGLE, I CONCLUDED, IN MAY:
Each Facebook user knowingly and willingly provides an interested corporation with the intimate details of their daily personal and professional lives to enable persistent data records for the unique data mining profit advantage of the corporation.
Because Facebook as “Big Brother” is consensual, there is no redress.
THERE IS REDRESS NOW, THOUGH: STOP FEEDING THE FACEBOOK DATA (AD SALES) MACHINE!
Facebook is a free, optional, opt-in consumer service. Life was good before Facebook and may even be better without it!
CARE ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY? STOP USING FACEBOOK!
UPDATE: Facebook is ‘Sorry’? Savvy Users Will Forget, NOT Forgive, Mark Zuckerberg AND Dear Facebook, Beacon Tracking STILL Evil: Will Zuckerberg Partners Repent?
MORE: Facebook: Harvard Dropout Tricks NYT? Zuckerberg is Coca-Cola Scapegoat and MoveOn’s Facebook Crusade: eBay, IAC, CBS, NYTimes Get Beacon Privacy Pass and Zuckerberg Flash: Facebook FREE VPN Is Advertising Supported and MoveOn.org Facebook Petition: What 501(c)(4) Civic Action?
ALSO: Google Beware: Facebook Takes Local Advertising Gloves Off, ILM REPORT and Deal Maker on LinkedIn: ‘What Do I Do With It?’