The New Facebook. A Morning with my updated Privacy Settings.

Oktober 2nd, 2011 • 3 comments Allgemein
Tags: Facebook, People, Philosophy, privacy, Social Networks, World

One week after f8 – and I am still shocked of the general public acceptance of Facebook’s ‘frictionless sharing’ – and that as a marketing guy. I should actually be sitting on the bridge of Planet Death Star watching all you pathetic Earthlings getting data-sucked now. But as ususal – nobody cares how much ownership over our data we have just lost.

I started my own little exploration through my ‘new’ Facebook privacy settings (No 2 is only relevant for you if you have the new FB profile, No 1 is not).

Frictionless sharing – from ‘Public by default’ to ‘Private does not exist anymore’

So whoever talks about privacy – he usually belongs either to the school ‘Full Privacy by default’ or ‘Public by default’. Jeff Jarvis for example does not get tired to explain how crucial it is that we build our world by virtually defining, tagging, constructing objects and interactions. And that is why we need to be Public by default. In other words: We sign out if we do not want to transmit stuff instead of i.e. signing in to getting public with certain status updates.

But: Believing in a free web society in which everyone collaboratively constructs a virtual world is as realistic as believing in free globalized markets: it is a fiction that is constantly corrupted by the interest of a few. And Facebook has just presented some of their concepts for our brave new world – a world in which you can not sign out of being Public anymore. Simply because it is too complicated.

Unfortunately Facebook makes it almost impossible to sign out of the new ‘frictionless sharing‘. Example: I have 314 apps installed (Yes, 314 – as I said, I am an online marketing guy).

All of these apps do certain things. Maybe I have signed up to Nike+ on Facebook, or Slideshare, or twitter…there are many reasons why I may have installed one of them a while ago. And yes, I have approved most of them to pull certain data: my birthday, my profile pic, or other information from my profile.

But I did approve anything like ‘Yes, dear third party software – you can now post in my name’. But exactly this is a new setting in your Facebook profile since last week. And it is pre-approved by default.

Sharing the songs I listen to may be annoying to one or the other. But Facebook has just allowed 314 applications to post in my name whatever these pieces of software want to share.

There must be a button to turn this function off for all of them at once, right?

Nope.

Facebook allows to disapprove this propery. But you cannot disapprove this function for all 314 apps at once. Facebook forces you to click through all 314 apps individually to remove this.

eWeek claims that this is no problem. Because you can easily change the settings for what your friends see

Facebook pointed out that people who subscribe to its social applications will have complete control over whether they’re info is shared or not.

That is to say, the automatic sharing is on by default in the social apps, but Facebook allows users to control whether their app stories are seen by their friends at all times.

This is like walking around with a black box that constantly documents and transfers your data while its manufacturer asks you not to worry as it does not tell any of your friends.It is  not a proper response to the basic problem. The problem is not just what my friends see or what I actively share with the world. The problem is that currently 314 Facebook applications are allowed to document my life and per default are allowed to act in my name. What the F, Facebook?

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More German Angst? Thoughts on Facebook, Privacy and Germany.

August 29th, 2011 • 8 comments Allgemein, Politics, Social
Tags: Facebook, Germany, Politics, privacy, Society

Germany.

This is not just the place I come from. At the same time it is one of the richest tech-cultural repositories for blogging about digital media that I can imagine.

After living in the Netherlands for 15 months now I perceive Germany a bit like the Gallic village from Asterix and Obelix – the famous French cartoon series (that unfortunately only Europeans know). One village against the Roman Empire. Or – as in the case of Germany – one state against the rest of the web.

It’s hard to keep track of all my conversations with clients or colleagues in which we talked about a Global solution for a digital project before someone said ‘and we need a separate solution for Germany’. When talking about Digital Marketing my country of origin is something like the annoying cry baby or the nagging girl friend that is a pain for everyone but that nevertheless requires your full attention. Germany’s Tech-Idiosyncracy coupled with a privacy paranoia makes it happen.

So about two weeks ago it started again. ‘Germany vs. Facebook: Like Button Declared Illegal, Sites Threatened With Fine‘ said the headline of this article. And Mashable found out the Facebook Like is already banned in Germany.

That is of course crap. It is bad tabloid-style journalism.

Fact 1: Germany did not ban Facebook likes
Dear Journalists from Mashable and Silicon Filter: Believe it or not, States consist of institutions. Sometimes many institutions. And quite often far too many institutions (this is the German case). But just because one representative in one instution in a rather small district of Germany THINKS Facebook does not act legally does NOT mean this is the case. In fact it may even be illegal. Especially as Mister Teichert’s claims – if legally correct – would actually legally end the use of almost any type of web service in Germany. Key claim: ‘By using the Facebook service traffic and content data are transferred into the USA and a qualified feedback is sent back to the website owner concerning the web page usage, the so called web analytics.’

Yes, that’s ridiculous. But that’s not the key problem.

Fact 2: This is nothing compared to what’s happening in the EU right now

Directive 95/46/EC aka European Union Data Protection Directive – this does not sound like the stuff that the ordinary Digital Marketer really wants to learn more about. But in fact it will change an awful lot. Since May 25^th all member states of the European Union are expected to enact this new privacy directive, which requires businesses to get explicit permission to track pretty much any type of online user behavior.

This in fact means Marketers have to ask for permission for pretty much any type of digital insight gathering. Cookies? Ask for permission. google Analytics? Well…let’s see….oh, this is getting really complicated. And if you want to check out what a seamless user experience of the future might soon look like you can download the Privacy compliant WordPress Plugin here. Click the Demo button to see the drama unfold.

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google Me. Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love Privacy.

Juli 12th, 2010 • Business, Social, Strategy
Tags: Business, Facebook, google, google me, Prediction, Presentation, privacy, Reports, Social Networks, Strategy, World

Most of you may have heard about the so called Facebook killer ‘Google Me‘ that supposedly binds half of google’s resources currently. And as most of you know, google has not exactly been successful with social networking by now. Especially after google Buzz also failed as a platform that is able to compete with Facebook. google knows they need to get their hands on social. Why? Steve Rubel explains it quite well…

google will ‘continue to dominate “pull.” But Facebook will aggregate content, make it social and rule “push.” Using our social circle it will surface content that we care about just when we want it – and allow us to comment on it all. As more people use Facebook to connect, share and create, a network effect takes over – and the system get even smarter.’ And that is exactly what google needs to do to stay alive in the long term.

No matter how successful Facebook is with its social strategy – they need to conquer Planet Push asap or become Facebook’s junior partner. In the middle of all the buzz about google Me we have to read the deck embedded below as a first rationale for google’s new platform – not as the ‘designing social networks’ deck that it wants to be. It was created by one of google’s lead User Experience architects Paul Adams and it criticizes Facebook existing social networks and the way they make people interact with a clear focus on privacy. What a surprise!

Even beyond the google Me hype – definitely a deck worth to take a look at (even though it is looooong).

Big question: Do you think google might make it this time? Do you believe privacy will be an USP strong enough to differentiate google Me from Facebook? Leave a reply.

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