
Why I’m Not Leaving Facebook - nreece
http://www.centernetworks.com/why-im-not-leaving-facebook
======
Detrus
The real question is: Is Mark Zuckenberg smarter than 10,000 angry nerds?

He needs to be. The nerds are only screaming about privacy and more privacy.
Facebook's main problem is many people use it to post trite, uninteresting
crap. They use it to rage against the boss, gossip, do stupid things no one
wants to know about. It's because the site is based on real life friendships,
not because they heard it's private somewhere.

The etiquette on Facebook is to talk to people you know through real life
friends, but on other sites you can follow and talk with people who you find
interesting. Sites like Twitter, Flickr, Github where connections are based on
activities, interests, not personalities are in a better position. That type
of content doesn't need to be private. That's where Facebook wants to be, but
they have to fight the current perception of what Facebook is for to get
there.

I think a few UI changes could alleviate a lot of the problems. They need to
have fully private messenging like Inbox and chat but which connects to more
than one person at a time. Google Wave has a good UI for that part.

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ElbertF
Lame argument. If a video rental store suddenly published a list of all the
naughty videos you've ever watched, would that be OK because you opted in to
their service, gave them your name etc.? It's their business, they can do
whatever they want right? What if we had a private conversation and I emailed
it to all your friends a month later, would you be fine with that? It's your
fault for talking to me in the first place right?

Isn't it common courtesy to respect a person's privacy or at least be clear
about it?

~~~
silentOpen
Funny you mention video rental records... they are one of the few classes of
information that has statutory privacy protection:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act> .

Remember kids, your privacy is only worth protecting if not having it
protected would endanger the nomination of a politically influential person.

~~~
ElbertF
"In 2008, a class action lawsuit against Blockbuster Inc. was filed over the
release of customer rental and sales records to Facebook [..]"

Wow, that makes it even funnier. And kind of strengthens my point I guess.

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techiferous
It's about expectations. Facebook started out with expectations that it is a
place where you can share things among your friends but not the Internet at
large. Now the game is changing.

"You have opted into their service and you are paying with your information."
-- The typical user probably doesn't see it this way. It's borderline
unethical for the payment to be something the paying party is unaware of.

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greenlblue
I think this guy misses the point. Transparency is what people are pissed
about because facebook has none of it.

~~~
yaroslavvb
That's because people are spoiled :P The service is free, meanwhile Facebook
is a for-profit corporation so its responsibilities to the investors come
first

~~~
silentOpen
That's because corporations are spoiled :P The human is free, meanwhile a
zombie is a brain-eating monster so its responsibilities to its insatiable
bloodlust comes first

Corporations are legal entities and they clearly have socio- and psycho-pathic
tendencies. Facebook (and many other corporations) should suffer under at
least /some/ legal liability to treat users' data with care.

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benatkin
> From the way I look at it, they’ve done you a favor — They’ve connected you
> with all of your long lost friends and didn’t make you open your wallet.
> Isn’t that what you always wanted?

No.

