Evil Facebook

In the early part of 2008 I wrote about how I found Facebook to be a glorified MySpace (another service that has since become the trash of the web). These days I grow more concerned about how Facebook tries to get as much personal information out of you in order to use it for its own personal gain. Most people still don’t understand this and are great risk to themselves, their family, and their friends. Ignorance is NOT bliss - it’ll catch up to you in the long run. You don’t need to take my word for it, however, just read/listen to the following articles/podcasts to get a clearer picture (thanks to Roo for the first couple of excellent links):

• A Visual History of Facebook Privacy Settings
• Facebook’s Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline
• TWiG 39: Facebook Über Alles
• TWiG 40: Palm Lives
• TWiG 41: Blinking 12:00
• These New Zuckerberg IMs Won’t Help Facebook’s Privacy Problems

My suggestion is to control as much of your information as possible, keep it public, and keep it professional. If you like technology, you can always host your own web server (ideal situation). However, not everyone can do this and so I would recommend using Twitter instead. It is public by default - unlike the confusing terms of service that Facebook employs. Other solutions would be Tumbler, SquareSpace, etc. Whatever service you use, be mindful of its policies, the information you are sharing, and definitely don’t support services that are harmful to you and the open web.

Tags: Facebook

Facebook Deactivated

I created a Facebook account partially due to an invite from a friend and partially from curiosity. After playing with Facebook for a while I came to the conclusion that it is nothing more than a glorified MySpace that also suffers from some of the same reasons that caused me to leave LinkedIn.

I simply am not fond of the walled garden Facebook creates. Instead, I am more interested in sharing information in the open. Besides, if you have something that is truly private then why would you put it online where there is always the potential for it to be exposed?

With that said, I’ll be moving on:

For those of you who sent me Facebook invites, sorry. I suggest you subscribe to this site instead.

Tags: Facebook