Sometimes Tech People are Dumb. Especially With Facebook.

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Careful. If you read Techmeme or some of the major blogs you may get the impression that Facebook is out like mainframes. This whole Beacon thing has people in a tizzy. I think that Facebook actually ruined itself when it opened up to everyone. That meant that any tech blogger/industry pundit could join up. Eventually they freaked out because of this privacy issue or that invasive application. Guess what tech people, 99% of Facebook’s demographic doesn’t care.

I consider myself a “below average” Facebook user. That means I’m older than most of the people who actively use the site but I still use it a ton and consider myself close in mindset to the mainstream users. As I’ve said before I was actually a senior in college when Facebook came out, so I’ve been on the site since basically day 1. My privacy? I couldn’t care less. Even the Fortune blog acknowledges that many of the people are “unaware” of the “worsening situation”. You know what? We just don’t give a damn. Remember when everyone freaked out about the mini-feed? How many of those people quit the site? Zero? .001%? Now it’s one of the best features ever. I think to my generation privacy has a totally different meaning than it does to the various tech bloggers who look aghast at the way Facebook works. Me? I didn’t even really get what Beacon was until recently and when I found out I thought it was kind of cool because I could show my friends what I was up to. Privacy doesn’t exist to me. I’ve put way too much of myself online to care and I think people younger than I am are even more privacy-averse.

So for those of you who are worried and thinking about closing your Facebook account, do it. And stop messing with our Facebook.

[tags]Facebook, Privacy[/tags]

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  • http://www.geise.com PXLated

    – “99% of Facebook’s demographic doesn’t care” –
    Doesn’t matter, the advertisers do, you know, the ones that actually pay Facebook. The ones Facebook is counting on to make it money so they can monetize the thing and justify the $15B value. You know, the ones they can sell the sheep to. :-)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    I agree, but I have to think part of the reason the advertisers care so much is because everyone’s making a big stink about it. Maybe I’m wrong, but since when are advertisers inherently “good”?

  • http://adamkinney.com Adam Kinney

    I was thinking along the same lines as you until read a little bit more.

    Imagine Google joined beacon and every search term you entered was collected by Facebook and attributed to your account. Even if you choose to hide the stories, Facebook still knows you have a fetish for gerbils and starts sending you ads about gerbils.

    Then one time you ok a single search term story and accidentally all search terms are exposed publicly. Now everyone knows about the gerbils and that would suck.

    If they would just add an extra step where you can verify whether or not to send the data to Facebook, I think there would be a lot less anxiety about the whole thing.

  • http://www.geise.com PXLated

    A lot of advertisers aren’t good but all like to avoid controversy. Facebook certainly put them in the eye of the storm and hasn’t exactly handled this wel. Their PR people should probably get fired.

  • http://lazycoder.com Scott

    What tech blogs actually show up on Techmeme? Isn’t it all Marketing/pundit blogs + the occasional Jeff Atwood, Tim Bray, and Dare Obasanjo post?

  • Andrew

    As much as advertisers may have a knee-jerk reaction to controversy, they also have a reaction to a massive user base in an inherently viral environment.

    I doubt that advertisers will stay away long after the immediate issue is superceded by the next big tech controversy.

  • Pingback: Telephony 2.0 » Blog Archive » Facebook: Oops, Sorry About That Beacon Thing…

  • Bill

    Online privacy is a very delicate issue, and no matter how safe we all think something is online, we should also accept that our information may easily fall into the hands of dishonest users someone one day.

  • http://weblogs.macromedia.com/jd John Dowdell

    ah, Adam, so you heard about that gerbils story too…? ;-)

    Ryan, Valleywag has a piece today on the blogosphere hype cycle, although it goes offtrack after a few paragraphs:
    http://valleywag.com/tech/media/facebooks-foolish-foes-330424.php

    Same dynamics as with Britney Spears and the National Enquirer.

    Privacy’s important, though. You can’t stuff the genie back in the bottle. If rumors of Carnivore and Echelon draw umbrage, then so should commercial cross-site tracking.

  • http://adamkinney.com Adam Kinney
  • http://www.brandonellis.org/ Brandon Ellis

    Folks (should) do what they can to ensure their identity stays intact but as far as tracking users? Do any of you use a library card, a gas card, credit card, valued customer card at the grocery? What we do is no secret and hasn’t been secret for years now.

  • barry.b

    and since when does advertising on things like Google and Facebook actually get noticed?

    OK, twice all year so far I’ve clicked on a Google ad link embeded in a page or search results. Twice. and no sale from it.

    reminds me of a simpsons episode where Lisa was being chased by a giant Donut Boy bilboard: just ignore it and it’ll go away.

    now, direct mailing and Spam … *that* I have issue with…

  • http://www.flashgamer.com Jensa

    Today I bought a T-shirt from Busted Tees. After I had completed the purchase, a small “window” slid up at the bottom of my screen saying “We’re changing your Facebook status message to Jensa just bought a cool shirt from Busted Tees”. Luckily it had an option to allow or deny, as I was buying this shirt for my girl this xmas (She probably would have noticed as she’s on Facebook as well).

    I seriously do not want this kind of stuff to happen without me knowing it and Busted Tees obviously use the Beacon-thing here. If I have to click to say yes or no, someone could make something that did not require that and put much worse stuff than ads on my Profile page. I’m not paranoid, but I just don’t trust Facebook. Why should I?

    J

  • http://www.geise.com PXLated

    The bad part Jensa…the data is still being sent to Facebook, it’s just not displayed publicly…from all I’ve read.
    6Apart (blogging software) has an option to opt-out so the data isn’t even sent. Blockbuster and other vendors don’t offer that option. So, one needs to let the Blockbusters/BustedTees of the world know that you don’t appreciate the fact that they are sharing data without your approval.

  • http://www.flashgamer.com Jensa

    Yeah. I found the setting on the “privacy” page in the upper menu on Facebook. Now there was an option for me to toggle between “Always”, “Notify Me First” and “Never”. It defaults to “Notify”, but there’s also a feature that says “Don’t allow any websites to send stories to my profile.”

    This really is no issue for me, but there’s a bunch of kids out there that posts all kinds of shit without realizing that their next employer will probably see all those “fun” party pictures (through someone you only know remotely but added to your list of friends years ago).

    These days, most people use Google to check out future employees, but Facebook is a strong contender. You always know somebody that knows somebody and the list of Friends are public for all unless you opt out…

  • http://www.flashgamer.com Jensa

    Forgot to mention – the privacy setting for Busted Tees were only visible after I bought my shirt.