Dr. Facebook or: How I learned to stop worrying and love to “Like”
Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration. I don’t love the “Like” button. Yet. I still need to wait it out to see what happens.
What I don’t love is when I see things like this polluting my Facebook news profile:
Bobby Sue Smith likes Telling FOX News to shut the hell up, Skittles, and I BET WE CAN FIND A MILLION PEOPLE WHO LIKE TEAM JACOB BEFORE TEAM EDWARD!!1
I won’t even mention some of the more deplorable trends, like when people like Facebook groups to pray for President Obama’s death.
Ultimately, though, I know it doesn’t matter. Clicking a button doesn’t actually mean if you thought it through, you would wish harm to the president, just like I know that if Team Jacob got to a million fans before Team Edward on Facebook, there is no prize to be won, or even bragging rights to be had.
But Facebook’s new Open Graph API promises to export the Like button to the rest of the web does matter a little more, even if just a little bit.
Part of it is cool. If I am on a blog reading a story I like, I can click the “Like” button and it shows up on my Facebook profile. It functions in sort of the same way that Delicious bookmarks works, only it reaches a larger base of people. Me, I have somewhere around 670 Facebook “friends”. I can click the like button, and share that with them really easily, without browsing over to Facebook and sharing a link.
But there is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that people may not realize yet. I just read an editorial on PC World’s website about some of the other data sharing features of Facebook’s new technology. And it is a bit creepy.
I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I schlepped down to the nearest Wifi cafe. To escape the execrable soft jazz playing in my local beanery I plugged in my noise-canceling ear phones and dialed up Pandora. Before I’d even logged in, the site launched into one of my favorite Tom Waits songs, “Jockey Full of Bourbon,” followed by songs from John Lee Hooker and Tift Merritt. Bang bang bang, three of my top artists, just like that. Coincidence? Nope. Pandora pulled my musical preferences from my public Facebook profile. I didn’t ask it to. It just did. It was both cool and just the tiniest bit creepy.
[Full article, "Why I Really, Like, Dislike Facebook's Like Button" by Dan Tynan]
While I respect the rights to privacy, I don’t tend to make a big deal about it on my own. A few years ago I made a decision to remain fairly open about myself on the internet — if I started trying to hide parts about me from certain groups of people, that could cause drama and confusion. But I always like to know when and how my information is being shared. Yes, Facebook does let you opt out, but since this technology has an open API, many of your web services could start collecting information from your Facebook page without you being aware.
I do see some positives from this technology. As Tynan mentioned, your web apps are a little more personalized to you this way. You can stay in touch with your friends easier, and find great conversation starters with friends when it tells you fun similarities between the two of you. It can help you find restaurants, articles, games, and other people that you might like based upon your previous browsing habits. Generally, it lets you interact with the internet in the same way you can interact with so many Facebook elements.
What do you think about this? Let me know, and of course, click the “Like” button below if you find this interesting.
My Pandora account had popped up a little message about it and at the time I was not able to sit down and give it a read, now I believe that I’ll be reading up on that tonight
The problem with Facebook’s new privacy policies and Open Graph is that it’s not only opt out but the user never has the ability to totally opt out short of terminating their Facebook account. Even if they choose to not share their personal information with sites implementing features based on Open Graph, their information still gets shared via their friends who don’t opt out.
That’s pretty scary to a lot of people. Heck it’s pretty scary to me and I’m a fairly open person online. Still, I do choose to retain some privacy and it’s important to me to be able to choose what I share and with whom. Choosing not to share your personal information with unknown websites is not hiding parts of yourself from friends and family. It’s just common sense. For instance, what about your insurance company scarfing down all your personal information to use to determine whether to approve or deny claims or your employer using your personal info to terminate your employment?
There are legitimate issues raised by Open Graph and Facebook’s new privacy policies.