Path’s Privacy Problems Aren’t Path’s – They’re Apple’s
The world is up in arms about how the mobile application Path, which I covered here as one of the next social networks to watch, has been sending users’ phone directory data back to the service. As someone that knows the founders and trusts what they’ll do with the data, I didn’t give it a […]
Read more...Facebook to Google+: "Hey Look, We Have This Too – It’s Right Here!"
Facebook announced an expected update to its service today that is scheduled to be released on Thursday. It’s a simple one, which brings to the forefront features that Facebook has had all along and Google+ has been getting all the attention for lately: The ability to target posts and elements of a person’s Facebook profile […]
Read more...The Power of Google+: Privacy "Circles" the Entire Experience
Facebook has always had one strength that no other social network (other than perhaps FriendFeed) has seemed to fully get: The fact that you could add friends to lists, and target your updates so only those lists, and specific people you chose, can see the updates you post. I share this in my presentations often – […]
Read more...Authenticity vs. Anonymity: Would We Exist if the Constitutional Convention Met Publicly?
In a recent conversation surrounding my involvement with Utah’s FOIA equivalent legislation (called GRAMA) I brought up the point that this nation was built upon people willing to stand up for who they were and risk, quite literally, their lives for that decision. The point was brought up however, that the very premise of what […]
Read more...Huffington Post to Scare Users About Their Addresses, Phone Numbers
I decided I should prepare you for what is to come. You’re already seeing (hence my title – you can read more here), and will see over the coming weeks a hailstorm of critique, saying Facebook is sharing your phone numbers and addresses with third party sites and applications. Huffington Post’s (see the link above), […]
Read more...Privacy is Not an On and Off Switch – "Do Not Track" is Not the Answer
Victoria Salisbury wrote an excellent blog post today on “Who’s Creepier? Facebook or Google?“. I’ve been intrigued by the hypocrisy over criticism of Facebook’s own very granular privacy controls when sites like Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, and others have an all-or-nothing approach with some things (location and email in particular) that are even more private […]
Read more...Facebook Shows its Hand in Privacy
I spoke earlier how I didn’t buy the claims against Mark Zuckerberg trying to steal away our privacy and con people into becoming more public if they didn’t chose to do so. Today Facebook made that even more clear in a press conference I attended by phone by stating their intentions, and introducing an even […]
Read more...Mark Zuckerberg – A Cheater? A Stealer? I’m Calling Calacanis’ Bluff
I give – I call. I’m getting really tired over all the “I’m deleting my Facebook because they have gone corrupt” posts all over the place. Some of the smartest minds in the industry (and those I respect most) are all doing it, even Leo Laporte, and it’s breaking my heart. I don’t understand how […]
Read more...Yes, Facebook Broke Your Trust, and Yes, That’s a Good Thing
It seems like every other post I read these days is about whether Facebook violated users trust, or whether they were wrong, or right in opening up more. It’s eerily repetitive for someone that’s written 2 (and 3rd on the way) books on the subject and who’s been following Facebook pretty intimately for the past […]
Read more...Is Google’s Position Towards Default Privacy a Good Thing?
I’ve been openly critical about Google’s lack of privacy in their launch of Buzz (and I argue other things as well), and its’ opt-in attitude towards opening up contacts and settings people previously thought were private. That doesn’t change. However, I’d like to spend some time here playing devil’s advocate and share how perhaps, Google […]
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