Open Information

[Stan Goodman]

At 18:18:08 on Monday Monday 25 October 2010, "Steve G." 
<wordz2u at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was not asking you to join Facebook, that part was directed at
> existing members.
> 
> I also agree with you that a content sharing and dissemination site is
> not the right place to keep information private and obscure.
> 
> That said, it is one thing for Facebook to know what I am doing, or
> even the CIA/FBI/NSA, who is eavesdropping on these services, and
> another for them to send user profile and activities info to third
> party. It is just like the phone book - I put my number in the public
> domain so people can find me, but that does not mean I want someone to
> collate my number with the socioeconomic average for my street, then
> package it and send it to marketers so they can call me and offer
> subscriptions for Newsweek.
> 
> Z.
> 
> On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Tzafrir Cohen 
<tzafrir at cohens.org.il>wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 09:03:08AM -0600, Steve G. wrote:
> > > This message is about information neutrality and openness, which I
> > > find
> > 
> > to
> > 
> > > be parallel to open source vs. walled garden approach.
> > > 
> > > I find the attitude of Facebook towards my information distressing.
> > > While they have no problem sharing my personal data with
> > > marketers, app developers, and strategic partners, which is bad
> > > enough, they now limit access to my data that I DO wish to share
> > > to BING, but not to Google or other engines.
> > > 
> > > I wrote express my opinion about it here,
> > > http://www.words2u.net/pmwiki/?n=Opinion.FreeMyFacebookInfo , and
> > > have
> > 
> > also
> > 
> > > started a Facebook group to convince Facebook to change their
> > > practices:
> > > http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_112921682105482&ap=1
> > > 
> > > You are all invited to read/join and express your opinion on the
> > > matter, which to me is just as important as net neutrality or free
> > > access to


But that's their business plan, and it's hard to argue that it isn't a 
successful one, having produced (even without bludgeoning customers to 
bundle their operating system exclusively) megamultigazillionaires.

They've been at it long enough for their market to be aware of what they 
do, and either not to mind it or to be enthusiastic about it. If it 
doesn't fit with your expectations (which would be a lot like mine), then 
you are not in the market sector to which they appeal, as simple as that. 
Perhaps you should consider finding another social site that is a better 
match. Wikipedia has a long list of them:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites>

Who would have thought there were so many?
-- 
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel