Tech Orwellian Future Here Now Alert
posted by on November 20 at 19:33 PM
I realize that my very status as a Slogger, of however dubious origins, makes my Luddite Union Card a bit suspect, but my dislike of online social networks like Facebook and Myspace is proving to be prescient. Hey, you kids out there: sit down and listen up.
The usual conversation (at places like my employer-who-pays-me, Northwestern University) is about how students who use Facebook or Myspace post things about themselves that are stupid, counterproductive or legally actionable. Someday, we say, you’ll be applying for a job and they’ll Google you, and do you really want that picture of your exploits at the Gamma Delta Iota house online for all to see?
Nonetheless, such indiscretions, however stupid, are at least intentional. Hey, you want the world to see your prowess with a beer bong or your sports team’s hazing rituals or your tits, rock and roll. You’re an adult, and we cannot stop you.
But how would you feel about someone else deciding what to reveal about you? Do you want some computer program providing the world with information about what you do?
That’s what the wonderful world of online buying and selling is coming to. (And what is Facebook but the selling and buying of reputations?) It seems that Facebook has arrangements with various and sundry providers of other internet goods and services to AUTOMATICALLY reveal the purchases of their customers on their Facebook profiles. Like, you know, all the shit you buy online without thinking twice about it, like movie tickets on Fandango, would be posted on your page without you actually deciding to do so.
The revelation of such innocuous information is always the wedge that leads to more personal information being commonly available. You might not care if all of your friends know you went to see Beowulf on Friday night, but do you want that information automatically posted to your Facebook website without your consent?
No? Tough shit. Facebook apparently has automatic buy-ins to such postings, and it’s as big a bitch as Grendel’s Mother to opt out. As is so often the case with matters of privacy and the internet and government indifference to our rights, Aravosis at Americablog is all over it.
I've been hearing about this, andyes it sounds bad, but maybe you can explain to me the part that I don't get-- how does facebook KNOW when you buy something? They don't have your credit card info or anything.
Do they track your email address? Like, if your facebook and amazon are under the same email address, will facebook know what you buy from amazon? Can you stop this whole thing by just using one email for facebook and another for everything else?
Puh-lease.
Yeah, your boss might fire you if he finds out the Nazi propaganda you're posting on FaceBook. That's what pseudonyms are for.
This is sort of a bullshit story and your summary at the end is almost entirely inaccurate as is the post at Americablog.
More here.
I'll admit, it's confusing, but not nearly as sinister as you claim.
God now everyone will know how many time's I've seen Glitter.
Well, hell, let me try that again:
More here.
And for those who don't want to read that entire Metafilter thread to get to the truth, you have to opt in for Facebook to publish your purchases. Americablog is completely whacked out with their claims that you're automatically opted in and you have to go to each consumer website to opt out. That's patently false.
So, as long as you don't manually link your Amazon account to your Facebook account, you're good.
Adults use Facebook?
Go ahead and keep using Facebook and MySpace. The rest of us only benefit from your stupidity.
So it's like as a Safeway Club Card? Somebody is offering you a couple discounts in exchange for the chance to send you personalized junk mail.
Scary shit man.
You know, at least you can use the internet to defend against some of the information that does get collected about you that you don't have any control over.
Oh Chicago Fan, you old people can be so silly sometimes... As for the rest of you, if you've actually put yourself on Myspace (unlike the author, who speaks of things he does not know) then I would hope you've had the foresight to set your profile to "private". It does wonders for keeping things like Google and future (or in my case, current) employers from reaching you. Of course if you're an attention whore who accepts every friend invitation that comes your way, this will do you no good- but those people never really wanted privacy to begin with.
Now if we could all accept that social networking sites are here to stay, and create one not run by either big brother or Rupert Murdoch, I'd be a happy man.
There is so much to be paranoid about with the current government and business apparatus, that this fake story about Facebook collecting data is total moronity.
Maybe they do it by implanting a virus on your computer
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/dontadd.asp
I'm fucked.
Um, if you don't like what a website like Facebook is doing, you can always, you know, cancel your fucking account.
Our friends at Yahoo have discovered a fossil of Grendel's Mother. They've used the latest tech advancement, Holomoophpetizering, to recreate an intimate scene between the son and mom.
I still think gazing for hours at bugs in the dirt is a cooler thing to do, even indoors.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/ap_on_sc/biggest_bug_ever
Once again, Slog hasn't been updated in over 12 hours. It's not Thanksgiving yet.
This is why I use cash.
Except on Friday this week, which is Buy Nothing Day.
@8 - yes. There's even an I Was Born In The 50's facebook group.
Just like there's a We Are Green Seattle facebook group for people who use the I Am Green facebook app.
My stepson's all pissed off about the Facebook thing. He bought his girlfriend a present, one he'd looked for for a long time, not realizing that he'd done the whole linking-of-accounts thing (he's not all that computer savvy, but in his defense, they did present that as a good idea for convenience' sake). His girlfriend now knows what she's getting for Xmas, and he's beside himself, because he can't afford to buy her something different.
It's an opt-in, yeah, but I don't think they exactly made it really clear to the users what they're opting in for. Most blow by it in spouse-mode, just hitting Accept Accept Accept, just like most people do with a EULA. It's disingenuous for Facebook to claim that the users opted in. They know perfectly well most users aren't reading the fine print.
See, it was just harmless fun when your boss finds pictures of you in a fairy dress, but now 'tis evil.
Gee, who in my generation knew you should be careful when buying things online? NO WAY. (By the by I'm 22...) I mean come on people, use your heads about things occassionally...
@21 Do you know where exactly those hidden opt in buttons are? I've been using facebook and I havent' seen anything asking me to link accounts.
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