Facebook’s Like Button Is Not the End of Privacy
All right… here we go. I am tired of how people latch on to one piece of misinformation and freak out. YOUR PRIVACY IS NOT BEING INVADED. You know how pissed I was about Google Buzz. This is an ENTIRELY different concept. That is not what the OpenGraph API is about.
I have already implemented several of the new widgets on the dinner blog. Go and look. You’ll see the new Facebook like button in the upper right hand corner. And you’ll see several other people like the page (and I hope you’ll take the time to like it too). But you only see the name and photos of people you’re already friends with on Facebook.
In my case, I see all but one, because so far only one person I am not friends with on Facebook has “liked” the blog. But, I CAN get info on her because I am the admin of teh page, but not directly thru the blog. That’s a feature for web administrators to keep in touch with people who are interested in their site. The info I get about Likers is their name and face, and access to send messages to their Facebook streams, like I already do/can with the dinnerblog Facebook page. It’s no real change, other than an extension of the venue- it’s still Facebook folks who choose to express their Liking.
Nevertheless, your information is NOT being handed out willy nilly. This is just a method of personalizing your experience as you go to other sites so you can share with people you trust, to your friends you have already made on Facebook. To strangers i.e. everyone else on the web, you are listed as just “a person” and no other information is given out about you beyond that.
Let me say this again: Your name and personal info is only revealed to people you are friends with already. That’s why I don’t have a problem with this, I actually, um, like it. I think it’s a good thing, it makes for a better social experience because it’s transparent and allows for easy feedback from people you know.
Facebook may not be the bestest solution out there, but they’re the one that most of us have chosen, democratically. Unlike Google Buzz, you opted-in by becoming a member of Facebook. If you have privacy concerns, you should by all means delete your Facebook account immediately, not just turn off this one button.
But if you’re like me, and most people, you have your Facebook account for public consumption. The things you post to it and the data you include in your profile are for public consumption as well. You may have tenuous “friend” connections, but Facebook is not a place where you are friends with your stalker ex-boyfriend or abusive former boss. You don’t post about the great sex you had the night before, because you’re Facebook Friends with your Mom.
What people seem to be missing is that this personal-data-that-you-gave-up-willingly is not floating out there randomly. When you opt to go to a website AND you are a Facebook member, AND that site has implemented the OpenGraph API tools that are now available, YES, that site will know information about you UNLESS you have gone and clicked the box on your profile and prevented it from happening. They will only know information relevant to you, however- a message like you and your friend So-and-so and 160 other people liked this page. Again, it’s not random data spewing around the internet.
Really, is this really such a bad thing? Are you really opposed to CNN knowing what kind of news you’re interested in reading before you get there? Or Pandora knowing your music tastes? Or finding a new site and realizing that a couple of your friends found it before you and thought it was pretty cool too, so you’ll stick around and read it and give it a chance?
I think that’s an added value to being a Facebook member, instead of having to re-enter the exact same information every time I visit a new site. On the whole, I prefer a social web to staying in a cave and banging rocks together by myself. I think people are a-feared of what they don’t fully understand. Facebook is a social networking site, not an isolate ourselves in a cave and be a hermit site. We live in the information age now, for better or for worse. It may take some getting used to, but try and embrace the good bits. This is actually one of them, really.
April 24th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Remember, it’s public data. On a social networking site. It’s not your ATM PIN code. It’s not your email address suddenly thinking it’s Twitter. It’s not your contacts being shared with your ex-girlfriend or your boss. It’s just data you willingly put into Facebook made available to other sites to enhance your web experience- the social web we’ve been hearing about.
An example- if you’ve never been to Pandora, and don’t have an account there, but you’ve taken the time to put in what music you like in your Facebook profile, now when you go to Pandora for the first time, it will connect to your FB profile, and recognize what music you like and suggest music based on that. Is that so evil? Or is that possibly why you filled out your music tastes in your FB profile in the first place?
I agree, FB should have warned people in advance and repeatedly like Twitter is doing right now with their switch to OAuth, but this is not Google Buzz and not A Bad Thing. Yes, I agree, the timing is sucky, and people have every right to be jumpy, but this isn’t one of the bad ones for once. This will actually make things better and more social for web users and developers alike.
Facebook is now the de facto hub of the web, for better or worse, that’s how competition works… something better may displace them someday, but for now, at least they’re actually coming up with something of actual value for your and my daily use.
Sites need to learn to inform and ask their users not tell and plop, I agree 100%. But give this new technology a chance and figure it out for what it is, instead of falling prey to all this Chicken Little BS that is going on right now.