jac

Update: Today isn’t any better: #

This may seem like a bad way to treat customers, but the whole point about Facebook is that users aren’t customers. Anyone who supposes that Facebook’s users are its customer has got the business model precisely backwards. Users pay nothing, because we aren’t customers, but product. The customers are the advertisers to whom Facebook sells the information users hand over, knowingly or not. #

Which may be unfair, if Paul Bucheit is to be believed: #

I doubt that you’ll believe me, but I contrary to popular opinion, it’s not about monetization. #

And danah boyd: #

For example, he states that “The older you are, the more likely you are to find Facebook’s exposure of personal information intrusive and excessive.” Interestingly, rock solid non-marketing data is about to be released to refute this point. Youth are actually much more concerned about exposure than adults these days. Why? Probably because they get it.
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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.” #

Original Post: It’s just a guess – the headline, I mean – but putting this and this and this together with this, I feel comfortable making the prediction. #

Facebook’s having a run of bad PR. But that PR is driven in part by business decisions made by Facebook. #

Not all that long ago, Facebook was a “walled garden” that blocked search engine spiders and required you to have a “dot edu” email address to register an account. Now, its technology actively shares your information with search engines and businesses. Browse Yelp or Pandora, and Facebook tells them who you are. #

Facebook has repeatedly made significant changes to its technology that made their activity more public than it was, and only notified its users after the fact (if at all). Users that trusted Facebook to keep their activity on Facebook private feel betrayed. (Whether they should have ever trusted Facebook in the first place is another issue – they did.) #

The company has talented employees, who could have easily implemented solutions that left your past activity private, and your future activity public. It chose not to do that. #

Facebook has committed the error of not respecting its users. The impression, right or wrong, is that Facebook sees its users as assets to monetize. #

The bad PR is earned, and it’s about trust, not technology. It won’t just blow over. #

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