Is There a Facebook Conspiracy?
My girlfriend sent me a website last night that was pretty compelling (at 2AM when I was about to shut my computer). I figured I’d share it with you all.
Does what happens in the Facebook stay in the Facebook?
Remember the Google Grid video that predicts Google’s eventual world dominance? This website offers a similar type of video uncovering some so-called nasty truths about Facebook.
A person called ‘Marie’ wrote a piece titled, “Big Brothers, Big Facebook: Your Orwellian Community.” A strong title. Here’s a snippet from that:
Some of the aspects of the privacy policy are downright creepy and confusing. This particular gem is especially disturbing: “Thefacebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site.” And there’s no telling when the privacy policy may change. As of when this was written (July 1, 2005), the policy was effective as of June 28, 2005.
Who knows where the information they collect about these three million college students, alumni, and professors is going, or what they intend to do with it. The fact that these companies and agencies are all so closely related, and that The Facebook has almost no organizational transparency are all cause for concern. Hopefully we can soon uncover the truth.
What do you think? A quick way to get some Digg action (2,431 Diggs as of this posting)? Or some decently credible content?
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March 2nd, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Sounds like mythology, but hey - you never know.
When we entrusted so many private characteristics of our lives to strangers barely older than we are, what did we expect? What did we really expect?
Privacy has long been a myth. It was part of the forfeit we agreed to when we said, hell yes, let’s tell our life stories over the internet.
Don’t like it? Opt out, pay for lunch in cash and return to the quaint but pure merits of snail mail.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
funny that i heard about this ON facebook. haha.. it’s the frankenstein analogy you mentioned.
i don’t think it should be too huge a cause for concern. people should know that the web is not private. even if you need to log in. even if you think you are in a “private community” and you have privacy settings. pretty much everything has the potential to be public, and it is your responsibility to either (1) not be guilty of anything that would cause someone (ie the government, your employer, or a husband you are cheating on) to come after you or (2) if failure to #1, not be stupid and post it on the web.
this reminds me of when the New York Times uncovered the government’s new security program (access to our e-mails, calls, purchases, personal information, etc), and boy was the White House pissed. i believe it had good reason to be; the government is just trying to protect us, as it should. when it comes to domestic security, it is more often inconvenient (airport security) or embarassing (posting stupid pictures of yourself) than harmful. many times it is probably effective, not just to catch potential “terrorists” but other criminals as well. as for the war, and the government trying to protect us by attacking another country - that is an entirely different story, which i am not saying that i am for or against.
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the other funny thing that i was going to tell you from the office was this: in the bloopers, jim would always stick his finger in the “action!” thing and pretend to get it cut, then later kevin and pam copied him and jim got mad bc it was his joke. i thought that was funny, and the “just make sure you leave the toilet seat down” reminded me of it. i think its in youtube under “the office bloopers”
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:59 pm
darn it! too late :P
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Haa… damn, it’s a good thing my doc isn’t about facebook.
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Amen Nii. I immediately thought of you when I saw the video. Angela and Floria, great points.
Floria, interesting point on the New York Times and the government. I think that transparency is pretty important in an increasingly public world. To make things very open so that nothing seems intentionally covered. With the internet these days, you never know who’s watching.
“When we entrusted so many private characteristics of our lives to strangers barely older than we are, what did we expect? What did we really expect?”
Well put Angela.
The bottom line is that the internet is by no means private. Anything and everything you do on the web can and will be seen by someone out there.
Regarding the Facebook video, any excerpts from a contract or policy agreement, when placed in the wrong context, can sound somewhat harmful or evil.
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I do not have a facebook but I was thinking of signing up. After reading your blog, I am not so sure if I still want to do that or not.
March 3rd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Kahea, although I think it’s good to be informed about what the video is ‘exposing’, I don’t think it’s something to be too concerned about. The site was founded by a college student for college students.
Mark should have enough sense to keep Facebook clean. ALTHOUGH… there are a lot more ads as of late… have any of you seen those Southwest ads in the ‘pools’? Can they be any more blatant?
alvin Says:
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:22 pm
HA! looks like someone put in a lot of time into finding these connections. My theory is that if you go in-depth into ANY organization, online or off, you’ll find a “conspiracy” web just as widespread as this facebook’s research (think 6 degrees of kevin bacon). I’ve skimmed a couple “Terms of Use” and “Privacy Policy” write-ups and I bet there are more sites out there than you’d expect that probably has similar freedoms described in facebook’s policies. To be honest, i personally think that ANYTHING GOES on the internet. there’s no way you can guarantee anything online. Sure, there will be attempts to restrict things on the internet (DRM/RIAA seems to be the first to come to mind), but there will always be identity theft, hackers, internet fraud, etc. I’m not saying that we should accept it, but it’s a risk that we take every time we go online, whether we like it or not. don’t worry…i still love you, internet.
March 5th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Agreed alvin. Anything goes on the internet. Assume that anybody could be reading or watching or listening at any time.
March 6th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Thats really interesting. I, myself, have a facebook account and you know when you were talking abut the Googe Grid. Is Google really going to buy out every major internet property? Because that would be scary. I know google already bought youtube. >_O