What is Digg?165 Comments
- CharlesSaint, on 12/02/2007, -19/+178I'm ready to bail on a website because I like to publicly whine and cry about privacy, so instead of just doing it, I think I'll further make my inner thoughts and feelings public by writing about it on my PUBLIC blog that has my first and last name on it (since I'm so concerned with my privacy). Never mind that a simple google search comes up with pretty much everything about me (not from facebook), where I live and what I do, Facebook is evil!
/sarcasm - leighj, on 12/02/2007, -1/+35Why be on digg? Don't they get their advertising from MS?
- darkphan, on 12/02/2007, -4/+35If people want privacy, they should not sign up for a SOCIAL network.
- mojaam, on 12/02/2007, -7/+29It's trendy to be hatin on Mircosoft now a day, some have valid reasons some just go with the crowd.
- shadowblade989, on 12/02/2007, -1/+22Am I the only facebook user who has never actually seen anything to do with beacon? Every time I see one of these articles I have no idea what people are talking about.
- inactive, on 12/02/2007, -12/+31What's so bad about Microsoft? Seriously.
- cal0140, on 12/02/2007, -1/+19Like comparing apples and shoelaces...
- Flashman, on 12/02/2007, -1/+18Point taken Charles, but the problem is that Beacon removes control over your privacy. I have a blog with my first and last name on it, but I have control of how much I reveal through that blog... Beacon can collect, track and reveal my private purchasing habits without my consent. That's the real problem.
- sinnix, on 12/02/2007, -12/+28hold on...
you stupid ***** are just now realizing that publishing every detail of you personal life is a bed idea???
that this corporate entity would begin advertising to you?
that all your personal details would be shared with every possible US gov't entity?
sheeesh..... i though that you people were dumb, but every day you manage to impress me!!!!!
consume on, sheeple!!! - SLYK, on 12/02/2007, -1/+16but he's right. People are ***** goofy.
- Gabberwok, on 12/02/2007, -0/+14You want Facebook to stop doing this really fast? Just let them and their partners know that you will boycott any company that takes part in this new feature. I'm certainly never going to Fandango again...
- etsa, on 12/02/2007, -5/+19good read. facebook sure got some wacky ideas about privacy.
- maiku00, on 12/02/2007, -5/+17Ready to bail? How about, I was never ***** retarded enough to sign up for Facebook in the first place.
- rugby4ward, on 12/02/2007, -4/+16It amazes me all the silly morons who put all their personally identifiable information on the web in places like Facebook and MySpace then bitch about their "privacy".
Stupid people... - inactive, on 12/02/2007, -0/+12Ads on Digg, I had no idea :)
- inactive, on 12/02/2007, -0/+11I stopped using a while back ago. I never saw the point. If I want to talk to my friends I will just phone them or write them an email.
- S201, on 12/02/2007, -3/+14Looks like it's about to go down so just in case...
I’m Ready to Bail on Facebook - the New Face of Evil
FacebookI’ve been increasingly irritated with the noise-to-signal ration Facebook creates in my life. I definitely had the “I just threw up in the back of my mouth a little” feeling during the Web 2.0 Summit Zuckerberg love-fest. And now there’s increasing evidence that Facebook Beacon, their ill-considered advertising engine (or is it their privacy invasion engine?) is potentially a new vector for so-called affiliate marketers, spammers, scammers, and other vermin to gain access to unsuspecting users. Worse, it turns out that protecting yourself from this new attack by trying to leave Facebook is no easy task.
Henry Blodgett reports that Facebook is in deep doo-doo with both the New York Times and Coca-Cola over their misrepresentations about the opt-in/opt-out nature of Beacon:
The “Beacon” fallout continues. The New York Times’ Louise Story essentially accuses Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg of lying to her about Beacon’s being “opt-in.” Coca-Cola got a similar impression from the company – and, having learned the truth, is holding off on using the program. Meanwhile, Facebook’s spokesman attempts to explain to the NYT’s Louise Story what Zuckerberg really meant – and makes matters worse.
And Dare Obasanjo blows the lid on why Beacon is totally broken and almost certainly unfixable:
Anyway, back to the title of this blog post (Facebook Beacon is Unfixable). The problem with Facebook Beacon is that it is designed in a way that makes it easy for Facebook Beacon affiliates to integrate into their sites at the cost of user’s privacy. From Jay Goldman’s excellent post where he Deconstructed the Facebook Beacon Javascript we learn
Beacon from 10,000 Feet
That basically wraps up our tour of how Beacon does what it does. It’s a fairly long explanation, so here’s a quick summary:
1. The partner site page includes the beacon.js file, sets a tag with a name, and then calls Facebook.publish_action.
2. Facebook.publish_action builds a query_params object and then passes it to Facebook._send_request.
3. Facebook._send_request dynamically generates an which loads the URL http://www.facebook.com/beacon/auth_iframe.php and passes the query_params. At this point, Facebook now knows about the news feed item whether you choose to publish it or not.
When you read this you realize just how insidious the problem actually is. Facebook isn’t simply learning about every action taken by Facebook users on affiliate sites, it is learning about every action taken by every user of these affiliate sites regardless of whether they are Facebook users or not.
At first I assumed that the affiliates sites would call some sort of IsFacebookUser() API and then decide whether to send the action or not. Of course, this is still broken since the affiliate site has told Facebook that you are a user of the site, and depending on the return value of the hypothetical function the affiliate in turn learns that you are a Facebook user.
But no, it is actually worse than that. The affiliate sites are pretty much dumping their entire customer database into Facebook’s lap, FOR FREE and without their customers permission. What. The. F*ck.
Game over. This is more than enough to convince me that Facebook has more downside than upside for me. Look, I freely admit I am not the core demographic for Facebook. I’m a 50-year-old guy who’s been happily married for 25 years (and so doesn’t want to find a date or a new “special friend”), doesn’t play games, could care less about drinking games, zombie bites, and other frippery, and initially believed in the potential this framework offered.
Chatting with Tris Hussey and Sam Sethi on Twitter just now, I learn that jumping ship might not be as easy as I thought.
On Twitter, Sam Sethi says: “… just try and leave. You need to unsubscribe from every group and jump through a few more hoops,” and points here.
Facebook does allow people to ‘deactivate’ their accounts. This means that most of their information becomes invisible to other viewers, but it remains on Facebook’s servers - indefinitely.
This is handy for anyone who changes their mind and wants to rejoin. They can just type their old user name and password in, and they’ll pop straight back up on the site - it will be like they never left.
But not everyone will want to grant Facebook the right to keep all their data indefinitely when they aren’t using it for any obvious purpose. If they do want to delete it permanently, they need to go round the site and delete everything they’ve ever done.
That includes every wall post, every picture, and every group membership. For a heavy Facebook user, that could take hours. Even days. And it could violate the UK’s Data Protection Act.
Summary - leaving Facebook has been made almost impossible and proportionately harder the more you’ve participated. Sorry. That sounds pretty much like my definition of EVIL. When will these people learn that this sh*t doesn’t fly? I agree with Open Garden who says:
and thats why opensocial is a step in the right direction ..
Here’s the final proof I’m right and it’s time to nuke any trace of my casual flirtation with Facebook. Fake Steve Jobs says so (and of course he’s always right… about everything:
See this story on CNET which refers to this story from some Harvard publication. Gist is that the Harvard publication dug up some documents involved in a lawsuit against Facebook. Facebook claims it’s an invasion of Zuckerberg’s privacy and went to court trying to have the documents yanked. As CNET points out this is a little bit odd considering that in recent weeks Facebook has been bagged for publishing info about its users’ online purchases and has defended itself, claiming it has every right to share private info about its users. Oh, the Harvard article also suggested Zuckerberg is kind of a sh*tbag. No idea where they got that idea. - ph3rny, on 12/02/2007, -0/+11You win the award for the worst attempt at trolling in recorded history.
- elnerdo, on 12/02/2007, -1/+10Ehh, Beacon's pretty terrible. You can only turn it off for individual sites, and you can only do it once you've already experienced it at least once.
- das7282, on 12/02/2007, -2/+11Why is he an *****? He's just pointing out the obvious truth.
- BossX, on 12/02/2007, -0/+8Took me 14 emails back and forth with them to get my account deleted
- voodoochild461, on 12/02/2007, -0/+8The Applications ruined it. Some of the apps are really neat and should be there, like the Last.fm one (shows what music you recently listened to).
Then you get the people who accept every invitation they receive and their page is just unpleasant to look at, especially for 56k users.
I wont leave until I see ads telling me to shave the sumo wrestlers ass faster then the other guy so I can win a chance to get a $3262547657671 prize.
Have faith - loopyloopy, on 12/02/2007, -0/+7dont you have to agree for someone to add you as a friend?
- mlopes, on 12/02/2007, -1/+8Me and a couple of friends have already left Facebook (as in, stopped updating the profile or adding new information).
For those comparing blogs to Facebook, there's a HUGE difference between those. The Joe user doesn't typically expose himself on blogs. He usually writes poems or recipes. That's what my sister does (and so does most of her friends). On the other hand, she exposes a lot of personal information on her social website (which is not Facebook but I'll skip publicity).
You know, for those who remember the movie "The Public Enemy" with Will Smith, they have portrayed the future pretty well.
I want my privacy back! - bitcloud, on 12/02/2007, -1/+8apples > shoelaces
- rockstar1o9, on 12/02/2007, -0/+7I'm sure all 3 of your friends will miss you.
- Compserd, on 12/02/2007, -2/+8I don't like Facebook, and cannot understand its appeal. Beacon might end up being the straw that broke the camels back.
- blaired, on 12/02/2007, -0/+6Can't remember where it was, but when this Beacon crap first showed up, I saw on another site somewhere about how to block it...sorry I can't give credit....but it was easy. Install the Firefox add-on "Blocksite" then add "http://www.facebook.com/beacon/*"
For those unbeknowingsted of internettings, the * means "anything" so you don't have to worry about blocking every single site that would come after the "/beacon/", blocking any sort of request towards your browser from Beacon. - dxgg, on 02/05/2008, -1/+7Right...just like all of us "sheep" who use Digg, or any other web site that seems to provide a service that fills a need. *rolls eyes*
- shawnanigans, on 12/02/2007, -0/+6Well 56k users are unpleasant.
- AlienFromBeyond, on 12/02/2007, -0/+6I don't get any e-mail spam from Facebook. I don't get e-mails at all from Facebook in fact.
- GMProspect, on 12/02/2007, -0/+6I just exiled GameSpot, I can only handle one exodus today.
- CharlesSaint, on 12/02/2007, -0/+6180?
- mediaphile, on 12/02/2007, -0/+5You don't see a problem with being promised that your private data (necessary to register with the service) will remain private to everyone, and then that company completely going back on its words six months down the road? I don't allow any of my private info to be displayed publicly, but this totally circumvents any of my efforts to keep things that way. The only option now is to completely close my account, which they have made difficult to do. These are not proper business ethics.
- t3714, on 12/02/2007, -0/+5Am I the only one ready to bail on facebook because of all the applications? The zombie bites... they just keep coming.
- Stryder81, on 12/02/2007, -1/+6I don't get what the big deal is. You don't have your credit card stored there, no SS no Drivers License ID #, nothing where your identity can be manipulated. You are joining a " Social " site but expect privacy? Maybe I'm slow on this one but wtf is there to cry about?
- adndgamer, on 12/02/2007, -3/+8Facebook was good when it was kept only to college students. I don't want creepy non-college-aged weirdos stalking us.
- mrmacky, on 12/02/2007, -0/+5We all know, smart people put their personally identifiable information on websites and then don't bitch about it :)
- Sogui, on 12/02/2007, -3/+8Thanks to Digg, I've satiated my lifelong desire to know what it's like to live in paranoia everlasting. If Digg didn't have a new evil to uncover, a new candidate to expose, and a reference to Ron Paul, Neocons, or evil corporations... it would be dead within 24 hrs.
- inactive, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4Don't you mean "Enemy of the State"?
http://imdb.com/title/tt0120660/
Good film. - Cenobite, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4I bet you had a "no girls allowed" sign outside your fort when you were a kid.
Seriously, what's so special about college kids that would make us worth being stalked by people who have jobs, lives and social value? - likwidfuzion, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4That's cause it's happening on the backend, where you can't see it in action.
- Flashman, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4I have certain private data that I choose to reveal in public. Beacon removes some of my ability to pick and choose what details of my personal life are published online.
- Cenobite, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4Asking you to click one button to ignore a friend request (or turn off "add you as a friend" in the privace settings: 2 clicks) doesn't even begin to make Facebook as bad as Myspace. You're pretty much expecting Facebook to know who your friends are before you've even added them. Either that or you're just unhappy about the fact that people other than your oh-so cool college-age friends are even using Facebook - which, you know, makes you just a little bit of a douche.
- wphj, on 12/02/2007, -3/+7Yeah, but you can turn most of it off. Am I the only one who actually really likes facebook?
- MScrip, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4> "I think the only useful thing about Facebook is the fact that you can get your friends phone #, e-mail, and send them a message."
And that's all I use it for. I ignore apps and group invitations. I just send messages, share photos and see what's up with my friends. Is that so bad? I would never send an e-mail to a friend that says "call me sometime" but it's perfectly fine to leave that same comment on the Facebook Wall.
Facebook does fill a need... it combines messaging, photos and status updates on one website. Instead of sending e-mail, posting photos to Flickr and using Twitter... Facebook does it all. And everyone else uses it too! That's the key.
The nice thing about Facebook is that I'll see a news feed about a friend that I haven't talked to in a while. So, I send a quick message and catch up. That wouldn't have happened unless I saw it on Facebook. I don't have anyone's email address... and it would be pretty silly to send dozens of e-mails to friends saying "what's up." - mochant, on 12/02/2007, -7/+11Charles: all snark aside - it's one thing to be public and another to have your data sold or handed to spammers and scammers without notification or permission. Sure you can find out a lot about me - one individual - if you care to. This is in no way the same thing. No whining or crying intended BTW - maybe a bit of indignation and disgust though.
And of course I mean "evil" in the Google sense of "don't be". - fnkydonuts, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4just disable emails for apps =p
- RobotKing, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4Yes. Make real friends, socialize with them and talk to them on the phone.
- PhilMoskowitz, on 12/02/2007, -1/+5I can understand preteens and teens getting suckered into these sites but for christ sake, does it really take a rocket scientist to realize these sites jeopardize your privacy and identity?
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