If you are a user, I guess chances are you take the service for granted: it's free, easy to use and a good way of keeping in touch with people.
But, some people are starting to question the service:
- There are worries about user privacy. Recently, Facebook's Beacon advertising service caused a storm when (mainly USA based) users found that, without real warning, their profile and news feed started to display details of goods purchased from unrelated stores (e.g. recent movies rented or CDs bought). Beacon has now been changed so that people have to opt-in, rather than opt-out, but does this suggest that Facebook are playing fast-and-loose with their users' privacy?
- There are concerns over who owns the data on Facebook. Social networking guru Robert Scoble was at the centre of a massive debate on tech blogs a few weeks back when Facebook banned him from the service for trying to export the contact details of his Facebook friends. Facebook said the data was theirs, not his, even though they were his friends. Does this seem right?
- Which links with concerns about access to the service. There are some reports of people being banned from the service for little reason. If you can't export your friends' contact details, yet Facebook can ban you at any moment, is it prudent to use the service as key way of staying in touch with people?
- And, on top of all this, it seems that spammers and fraudsters are increasingly attracted to the service. Is it not just too risky to be place so much personal information in the public domain?
So, can Facebook be trusted? If you've some thoughts, leave them in the comments section below or feel free to start your own post.
2 comments:
I liked this article in Forbes about Facebook:
(http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/05/facebook-beacon-opt-tech-internet-cx_ag_1205techfacebook.html)
It points out that 1) facebook gives the option to adapt privacy settings on personal preferences and 2) the formal opposition to facebook on the grounds of privacy represent only 0.2% of the user base anyway.
Im not sure whether most users are aware of all the potential privacy risks that being on facebook entail, but I suspect they know atleast a part of it. If Facebook is transparent about what data it shares, then users decide for themselves whether or not to sign up based on their sensitivity to privacy issues. Long story short: If its a well informed choice by consumers, its not evil.
I have read elsewhere that Facebook are more than willing to give out universal accounts to businesses who wish to look up prospective employees.
This article http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2238961,00.html
Also shows how a Cambridge University admissions tutor had been looking up would-be students on facebook.
Scary stuff
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