From Steven O’Hear at TechCrunch Europe, my eyes popped out of my head when I read this – and it’s a feature, not a flaw.
As an example, a privacy quirk on Facebook appears to produce the following scenario: User A sends a friend-request to user B but they choose not to accept, at least not yet (it’s a pending request, so they haven’t declined either).
However, just by issuing that request, some of user B’s activity begins showing up in user A’s Facebook News Feed under ‘Most Recent’. This could be complete status updates if user B has chosen or inadvertently made those public (again, remember, this is a feature not a bug, a bit like following somebody on Twitter).
That’s probably OK, assuming user B knows what they are doing. But, more bizarrely, the feed could also show who user B has recently befriended.
In other words, while user A is being shunned, they get to see that other friend-requests are being accepted.
Ouch. (O’Hear, May 10, 2010, n.p., emphasis in original)
Read the rest of it here: Facebook’s byzantine privacy controls produce more confusion
Will have my own review paper on Facebook’s privacy policy coming soon in the next few days.
As I mentioned before, Farmville and other social games, use sophisticated psychological mechanisms to keep you playing. But that might not continue for much longer on Facebook, as their major producer, Zynga, is having a bit of quarrel with Facebook, with the former threatening to leave.
Zynga Gunning Up (And Lawyering Up) For War Against Facebook With Zynga Live
Some ‘social media scientist’ has data-mined shared stories on Facebook has found that the most popular ones talk about sex, or are in some way positive. Well, nobody would have predicted that.
Data Shows: On Facebook, Sex Sells | Dan Zarrella
A Seattle couple, Jason and Kelli Krafsky, have written an entire book about the problems of managing your current and previous relationships on Facebook
Husband and wife write book to help couples navigate Facebook
This is a more serious issue than you might think, but as I have previously posted, you don’t want to know how Facebook affects your relationships …
..it seems like a lot of you are spinning fibs. This ‘survey’, conducted by an ‘agency’, published via ‘release’, apparently found that half of social media users – that’s you! – don’t use their real names. Perish the thought that anyone be economical with the truth on the internet …
CHUBB CP : Many Don’t Use Their Real Name on the Internet, Reveals Social Networking Survey
