Thinking The Sounds

50 Fantastically Clever Logos | Design Shack.

There are some amazingly creative concepts in this batch of logos.

I bet these people have no idea that this information is public.  If everybody on Facebook saw this site, there’d be some changes in privacy tomorrow.

Openbook – Connect and share whether you want to or not.

This article gets at the crux of my feeling about the current status of Facebook.

My privacy controls were pretty locked down, so I wasn’t sharing that much.  I wasn’t worried about what I was sharing as much as what I was being FORCED to share.

The battle that is underway is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It’s a battle over choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being duped, tricked, coerced, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely unfair. It gives users the illusion of choice and hides the details away from them “for their own good.”

via apophenia » Blog Archive » Facebook and “radical transparency” (a rant).

I never heard about this part of Facebook’s history.  No wonder I don’t trust Zuckerberg with my privacy.

Squishing Facemash

When this happened: October 2003

What happened: Call it insidious, childish, or just plain silly: Before he founded Facebook, Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg had a crazy late-night idea. He broke into online campus directories and used their contents to build Facemash.com, an app that let students vote on which of two of their classmates they thought was more attractive. Facemash created an authentic viral sensation before the marketing world had even caught wind of the term

via Facebooks follies: A brief history The Social – CNET News.

Well, I have to say I’m really happy to see that current criticisms are having at least some reaction at FB.  However, I’m dubious as to how seriously they take the whole situation and expect a lot of smarmy self-justification and pseudo-measures.

Facing increasing pressure from the media and users, Facebook has called an all hands meeting tomorrow afternoon, at 4 PM Pacific, to discuss the company’s overall privacy strategy according to sources inside the company. Facebook has come under increasing scrutiny for a number of reasons and many were left with a sour taste in their mouth following a New York Times reader Q

via Facebook Calls All Hands Meeting On Privacy.

I deactivated my FB account.  They had a box asking to explain the reason for deactivating.  Here’s what I put in that box:

Facebook created a giant network by being the anti-MySpace, a place where I could interact privately with people who I know and care about.  But you have been aggressively stripping privacy–and, more importantly, control–from users so you can sell our information.  And you have done so in a way that is intentionally confusing and dishonest.  I resent that my social life is now held hostage to your commercial interests.  I am encouraging everybody I know to deactivate their accounts until Facebook becomes a company that we can trust with our information.  Sadly, Facebook has proven to be untrustworthy.  It’s a shame, because the service itself has been a wonderful way to connect and I have been an avid user and cheerleader for the service.  I would pay for the service if I could CONTROL my own information.  But even if that became an option, I’m not sure that I could trust that the information would be kept private.  And so I’m deactivating.

I’m going to really miss feeling connected to my friends.  And it’s possible that I’ll cave and come crawling back.  I hope that FB begins to take heed of the discontent and gives users more control, but I’m not holding my breath.