Outside Innovation

The Dangers of Facebook's Non-Optional Timeline

"OMG, I've been Timelined!" is becoming a common lament among Facebook users these days. Facebook is making a sweeping user interface change that:

1. Is mandatory for both business and consumer pages

2. Entices consumers into capturing and sharing life events for easier data mining and target marketing

3. Encourages users to adopt applications that log their actions in the virtual and physical worlds

4. Is promulgating a de facto standard API for defining actions and objects on the Internet

5. Seduces Facebook users into violating their friends' privacy without their consent

Giving Up Your Privacy: 28 Years Late, but Is 1984 Finally Happening?

By Ronni Marshak

I am not a conspiracy theorist, I don’t view the world pessimistically, and I’m not particularly paranoid, but after reading Patty Seybold’s article this week on Facebook privacy and her earlier article on Google’s privacy policies, I’m starting to look over my (virtual) shoulder.

For years, I have been dismayed at the abandon with which people (primarily teens to young adults) have posted very personal and oft embarrassing things on MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube for the whole world to see. I worry that the nasty posts to ex-boyfriends/girlfriends will come back to bite them in the butts. Putting up that photo of yourself carousing with a bunch of drunken friends in Caligula-like costumes will be referenced at the most inappropriate times, like a job interview or a presidential campaign.

What Questions Do We Want in the Google Privacy Disclosure Quiz?

USING GOOGLE SEARCH, EMAIL, AND OTHER APPS WHEN LOGGED INTO A FREE GOOGLE ACCOUNT. If I were to design a Google Privacy Disclosure Quiz, to better educate consumers about what the risks are, here are the questions I would include about what information about ourselves we trade when we use Google’s free advertising-supported applications:

1. When I have a free consumer account at Google, what user profile information does Google collect and retain about me?

    a. First Name, Last Name, Email address
    b. Gender, Age
    c. Phone Number
    d. Credit Card number and billing address (if I use Google Checkout)
    e. Who my contacts are
    f. Who I have included in my Google+ Circles
    g. All of the above
    h. Some of the above (only a thru d)