9.23.2011

Facebook Goes a Step Too Far?

For years, users have been concerned about privacy issues when dealing with Facebook. Everything from anyone who has "friended" you being able to see your info whether you accepted the friendship request or not, to Facebook deliberately making it difficult to understand exactly what your security and privacy options are, to Facebook violating their own policies themselves.

Now we are seeing the face of Facebook's newest evolution. More invasive and manipulative than ever. Now they will dictate to you what you are interested in, use peer pressure to solicit you on behalf of their sponsors, and more. All of these features are being billed as making it easier to use Facebook and to have a more fulfilling experience.

I can tell you personally that I have found the newest features annoying at best, and have seen a number of people close their accounts already for that reason alone. Has Facebook moved a bridge too far now, trying to reinvent the wheel, that they will now see their users jump ship in favor of Twitter, Google Plus, or other social media platforms?

I for one, am on the verge of closing my own account as well. Not only because I find the new interface clumsy, presumptuous, and about as uncomfortable as wet underwear, but because I see something much more insidious going on here. In the past, when I have voiced concerns about privacy and of "Big Brother" using Facebook as a massive datamine to keep tabs on as many people as possible, I have generally been laughed at and labeled as a paranoid Conspiracy Theorist. Clearly this information is being gathered, and is being shared with Facebook partners, so there is nothing that I have said which is un-true. All sort of information is in fact being collected on you and is being shared with their "partners" whether it be advertising companies, or law enforcement, and no doubt other organizations behind the scenes.

The real debate at this point seems to come with the whether or not privacy is even necessary. I had one friend actually un-friend me over the debate, when I tried to warn her of the perils of sharing too much info on Facebook. And I wasn't talking about what Facebook might use the info for either, but what other people like scam artists or burglars might glean from a person's status updates and so forth. How many of you folks out there use your baby's date of birth as a internet banking password, for example? How many of you tell all your most shady friends on Facebook, that you are not home, but miles away at the mall with an automatic location update sent through your phone that even tells who you are at the mall with? Yet my former "friend" saw no need for privacy and willingly shared all sorts of information openly on Facebook. Yet most of my friends who have jumped ship so far, have not done so out of privacy concerns, but simply out of the clumsiness of the new interface. Facebook is getting more information from you, while making it more difficult for you to access information other than what they shove in your face.

The "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" mindset has been a favorite philosophy of law-enforcement for years, particularly in the post-9/11 era, as the Orwellian police state comes into clear focus around us. And now, we have media, social, and direct peer pressure trying to convince us that privacy is not necessary, and even dangerous to society. My friends, that is downright Communist to give up your rights and your privacy for the benefit of the collective. It is also downright dangerous to the security of anything you own, to your freedom, even to your actual life itself. Okay, okay, maybe I am being paranoid. Read this though, and then tell me what you think...

1. You’re going to get a Timeline — a scrapbook of your life. In a complete overhaul of its ever-evolving profile page, Facebook is introducing Timeline. This is a stream of information about you — the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited on a world map — that scrolls all the way back to your birth. It encourages you to post more stuff about your past, such as baby pictures, using Facebook as a scrapbook.

The further back in Timeline you go, the more Facebook will compress the information so that you’re only seeing the most interesting parts of your history. You can customize this by clicking on a star next to a status, say, or enlarging a picture.

Awww, isn't that cute? At the push of a button, someone will be able to know your entire life history, with the most important factors already sorted for them. Oh, but privacy really isn't all that important right? What could they possibly use that information for? If I have nothing to hide, I have nothing to fear? Okay, well let's try this one on for size, and see what the "upshot" is...

5. You can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and read news with your friends — all within Facebook. Starting today, thanks to a whole bunch of partnerships, there are a lot more things you can do without ever having to leave Facebook. You can watch a show on Hulu, listen to a song on Spotify, or check out a story on Yahoo News (or Mashable, via the Washington Post‘s Social Read app). The ticker will tell you what your friends are watching, listening to or reading, allowing you to share the experience with them by clicking on a link.

The upshot: a brand-new kind of media-based peer pressure. On stage, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — a launch partner — revealed that he had only just decided to watch Breaking Bad because Facebook’s Ticker told him a colleague was watching it. Netflix’s own algorithm had been recommending the show to him for years, but that was never reason enough for Hastings.

Now let that all sink in here for a minute. Information being collected on you, is being shared with Netflix. So what is to stop Facebook from sharing information with your insurance company, or a potential employer? Nothing to hide nothing to fear, right? Well also notice too that the information is being analyzed and coded into algorithms. Analyzing data about you that you don't even know about yourself. Sure that can be used to predict a movie you might be interested in, but it can also be used to predict if you might be a problem employee, or a risky driver, or a potential terrorist even if you don't know it yet. After all, the final punch in that paragraph was not what data they are collecting or who they are sharing it with, but how they may be using it to effectively brainwash you into doing exactly what they want you to do. In that case, through peer pressure. Is it really so much of a jump to think that they might use some other algorithms to find out exactly what buttons to push in you that might just make you a bona fide Manchurian Candidate, or to keep you home from that important vote, to convince you that this article I have written here is nothing but the ramblings of a lunatic?

This isn't imaginary, this isn't paranoia, this is what they are flat out telling us they are doing.The only question is, will this new move backfire?


The quotes in this article were taken from the piece posted at the following link, where much more info about the changes is available:

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-changes-roundup/

If you have an opinion or comment that you would like to share, please come on over to the Echo Studio discussion forums:






PLEASE KEEP THIS TRUCK MOVING AND SHOW OUR DISLIKE!!!
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TO ALL THOSE WHO HATE THIS NEW FACE BOOK...PLEASE REPOST

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