Simple. You scrape data from Facebook. Anyone else concerned about their privacy on Facebook now?
5 results for privacy
Applying the honeypot theory to Facebook.
I think some of my friends are already doing this, but until now, I didn’t think there was method to their madness. (There probably isn’t, most of them are narcissistic, and believe the world needs to know that they think “Domino’s is yummy.”)
In all seriousness, as I’m a big fan of privacy, there might be some merit to this idea. What do you think?
Facebook Deals: Come on Facebook, are you really trying?
We’ve commented before that Facebook appears to have difficulty in figuring out how to monetize their huge repository of our personal data.
Their latest attempt?
Facebook wants to be the next Yowza! I wonder if Greg Grunberg knows about this…
(Source: facebook.com)
Bing Drinks your Milkshake!
Microsoft’s Bing is fixing to drink Facebook’s milkshake, and initially I’m not sure how to feel about it.
The premise of the relationship is that the Bing search engine will take into consideration whether any of your social contacts through Facebook ”Like” any of the top search results for the query you are looking for. On its face, this seems to be a very powerful proposition. Imagine you are looking for a cool flash game to play at work—if any of your Facebook friends have a predilection for Desktop Tower Defense, it will be bubbled up in your search results. Let the challenge begin!
If you aren’t into flash video games (and I think you are lying if you say you aren’t) you can be sure that your friends’ favorite movies, books, restaurants, and products will be at your fingertips.
The most controversial downside would probably be privacy concern, which is a hot-button issue for me and other members of the paranoid community. Facebook profiles will also become part of Bing’s People Search. The entire reason Facebook beat out Myspace and other competitors wasn’t because you could ‘poke’ your friends, or write on their walls. The ability to keep your profile exclusive to people you approve was the killer app.
Facebook will give users the option to opt-out of profile sharing, however, their privacy settings have become what appears to be a deliberate hedge-maze. Many users will think their profiles are private until a co-worker asks about a frat-house profile picture, where they appear to be playing air-guitar on a woman’s behind.
I suppose another downside (if you believe there is value in knowing what your friends like when you search the web) is that you will have to use Bing to do it. Now I don’t mean to be a hater on Bing, but Google has been getting it right for a long time.
I’m also not sure that my Facebook friends and I share similar tastes. Many of my ‘Friends’ are actually family members and ex-coworkers whose demographics, views, needs and tastes might vary anywhere from slightly to substantially from my own.
Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg says that Bing is the clear underdog in the search battle, and they are being strongly incentivized to innovate. Clearly they have come up with something out of the box in the very short two months since the two companies announced a joint venture in search. The innovation could quickly show dividends on the $240 million that Microsoft invested in Facebook in 2007.
Now as much as we at Five Nerds use and enjoy Facebook, it has been contended here several times, that as cool as it is, they still haven’t figured out a good way to monetize it. Since Microsoft is already a part owner, and is not sharing back any data with Facebook, we are again scratching our heads, wondering what direction Zuckerberg is trying to take the company.
Do you have any thoughts or comments on the notion of you and your friends’ personal data being shared with each other for the purpose of web-search?
(Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Going Places with Facebook
//via Facebook.com
Starting today, you can immediately tell people about that favorite spot with Facebook Places. You can share where you are and the friends you’re with in real time from your mobile device.
Checking In with Friends
Ever gone to a show, only to find out afterward that your friends were there too? With Places, you can discover moments when you and your friends are at the same place at the same time.
You have the option to share your location by “checking in” to that place and letting friends know where you are. You can easily see if any of your friends have also chosen to check in nearby.
To get started, you’ll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation.
Go to Places on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com site and then tap the “Check In” button. You’ll see a list of places near you. Choose the place that matches where you are. If it’s not on the list, search for it or add it. After checking in, your check-in will create a story in your friends’ News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place.
Interesting that Facebook has seen the value in services like Foursquare, and has decided to try to cut out the middleman, so to speak.
I’m still a little nervous about privacy issues of letting your GPS announce where you are, whether it be to friends, or even just stored in a repository to profile you at the whim of an individual, enterprise, or government. But maybe I’m just paranoid.
