No - not really. But as far as Facebook is concerned, I may as well be there.
I’m done with Facebook.
Not that I needed much of a reason to leave mind you. I think their approach to social networking is flawed (despite their overwhelming success and vast numbers of people that have joined) and frankly, the network doesn’t offer me anything that I didn’t already have access to online without the Facebook Sales and Marketing departments looking over my shoulder.
Which brings me to the real reason I’m outta there.
In September 2006, the brainiacs at Facebook introduced now well-known features called News Feeds and Mini Feeds without considering the privacy implications for their customers. These so-called features alerted networked friends to every little action taken on the site.
Jesse is twittering
Jason is quite busy this weekend.
Sean is drinking tea.
Chris is in need of a roommate.
David is hoping to get a Red Rider BB gun for Christmas
End result? Let’s just say that the response from Facebook customers was less than supportive and Facebook had to quickly backpedal on their plans and make some changes regarding privacy.
Mark apologized afterwards and explained his position - but the company set a precedent that continues today - a lack of forethought when it comes to privacy.
Fast forward to 2007.
Three weeks ago, Facebook launched the Facebook Beacon - a handy little tool for businesses that “enables your customers to share the actions they take on your website with their Facebook friends”. Great for Facebook, great for advertisers, not so great for Facebook users.
Sure, Facebook told people about it. Sure they could turn it off if they wanted but the program wasn’t explained well as was definitely not implemented well on Facebook’s partner sites, resulting in a little problem for Charlene and others.
Facebook has made it painfully clear with these two incidents that personal data privacy and management is not at the core of their business model. If you’re running a social network and can’t make data privacy and management the most fundamental aspect of the business, you ought not be in the business.
So to my friends on Facebook, so long.
I’m moving to Guam to become an apathetic Buddhist worm farmer.
