Are you thinking of leaving Facebook for good?

[Guest guest]

http://ca.tech.yahoo.com/blogs/ereviews/rss/article/4545

Are you thinking of leaving Facebook for good?

By Ted Kritsonis

Facebook was all the rage once upon a time. The social networking site exploded

onto the scene in 2006, but it's begun wearing out its welcome over the last

year or so, primarily due to privacy concerns. As the world's largest social

network, Facebook has 400 million members worldwide, and as a result, is

supposed to safeguard all the personal information that users upload to it.

Roughly one-in-three Canadians has a Facebook account. But lately it seems that

users have been feeling more like pawns and guinea pigs when it comes to how

Facebook provides third-party companies access to their names, friend lists and

interests. This is because participating companies can " personalize " your visit

to their sites by tailoring ads based on your Facebook info. The problem is that

this is turned on by default, meaning that you would have to turn it off

manually yourself.

Canada's Privacy Commissioner held an investigation last year into the social

network's privacy policies, which forced Facebook to make some changes. This

latest move to open up information to third-party sites may be the straw that

breaks the camel's back for a growing legion of disaffected users. It's gotten

so bad that a new online campaign is underway to create more awareness, and to

ultimately encourage others to cut their ties with Facebook.

QuitFacebookDay.com and the campaign behind it are the brainchild of Toronto

natives ph Dee and Milan. They have declared May 31 to be " Quit

Facebook Day " , and have so far signed up over 5,000 people who will turn their

backs on the social network for good. In their own words, here is why these two

men feel so strongly about it:

" For us it comes down to two things: fair choices and best intentions. In our

view, Facebook doesn't do a good job in either department. Facebook gives you

choices about how to manage your data, but they aren't fair choices, and while

the onus is on the individual to manage these choices, Facebook makes it damn

difficult for the average user to understand or manage this. We also don't think

Facebook has much respect for you or your data, especially in the context of the

future.

For a lot of people, quitting Facebook revolves around privacy. This is a

legitimate concern, but we also think the privacy issue is just the symptom of a

larger set of issues. The cumulative effects of what Facebook does now will not

play out well in the future, and we care deeply about the future of the web as

an open, safe and human place. We just can't see Facebook's current direction

being aligned with any positive future for the web, so we're leaving. "

This backlash is being coupled by new interest in social networking

alternatives. Some are preferring to keep in touch via Skype, Flickr and

Twitter, while others await a new social network called Diaspora to launch.

Based on the Greek word that means the dispersion of people from their original

homeland, Diaspora has a similar origin to that of Facebook. It's being created

and developed by four New York University students who feel the best social

network is one that is both decentralized and privacy-aware.

The new social network is meant to be as private as a user wants to be without

being subjected to privacy rules that change regularly. Moreover, a user would

control whatever information he or she posts, though there are no specific

details on what that means in practice.

Initially, the four students were hoping to amass US$10,000 from Kickstarter, a

site renowned for grassroots funding of entrepreneurs by anyone and everyone

willing to help out. Interest has been so big that the quartet is approaching

US$173,000 in donations as of today, almost 20 times their original budget. With

that much money to start off, there is a possibility that Diaspora could grow to

compete and maybe even overtake Facebook one day - especially if what the

founders say about privacy turns out as they say.

Facebook ended up dethroning MySpace as the top social network, which itself had

topped something else. Facebook's troubles may be part of an evolutionary

process where something new takes over every few years, or it may be that its

questionable motives on privacy may have sealed its fate in the long run.

Time will tell, but it's clear that grassroots campaigns can have a significant

impact when the power of the web is behind them. The best part about all this is

that you have a choice on whether you want to cut the cord with Facebook for

good.

[Guest guest]

I've got a Facebook account that I've actually been using a bit. Its interesting, but if the thing folds I won't be too upset. I mostly use it for some of the games, which might be leaving because of disputes with Facebook. I still like the setup of this site and its kin.

In a message dated 5/20/2010 12:09:40 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

Facebook was all the rage once upon a time. The social networking site exploded onto the scene in 2006, but it's begun wearing out its welcome over the last year or so, primarily due to privacy concerns. As the world's largest social network, Facebook has 400 million members worldwide, and as a result, is supposed to safeguard all the personal information that users upload to it.

[Guest guest]

Raven and I have our Facebook accounts, but we have been careful to ensure that

all the security measures are in place. Still, it can be a frustrating

experience with certain " friends " who turn out to be trolls.

Administrator

I've got a Facebook account that I've actually been using a bit. Its

interesting, but if the thing folds I won't be too upset. I mostly use it for

some of the games, which might be leaving because of disputes with Facebook. I

still like the setup of this site and its kin.

[Guest guest]

There is a program that scans your settings for privacy. I used it the other day and boosted up my settings. Pity Facebook doesn't have that already on offer.

I was thinking that if I set up a social networking site, it would be the reverse of the ones out there. Privacy would be first, meaning all the defaults would be "Myself only" and users could expand out from there. First you could add people by email address or name on the site. I suppose I'd keep something like Facebook's system of finding friends, though I would add an extra step called "Introduction." This way you would introduce yourself to the other person and you could watch each other's posts, say maybe 10 to 20, to see if you really like that person or if you will move on. This would be more like real social interaction at a gathering and would skip the step of defriending people, you would simply let the number of posts elapse and do nothing, just like drifting away at a party, no harm no foul. I'd also set up circles of a sort where one could go to look for like minded folks. This could be as broad as liking history or a certain kind of music, to refine it to a specific period or band, or it could be narrows by listing more interests. This would narrow it because there would be fewer people who had the same set of interests.

Lastly, I would make it so that all media posted that is the original creation of the poster is their property. This would be in keeping with current US copyright laws and it is also honest. I could see charging a small fee for storing a lot of files on the site but claiming ownership because it appears on the site is just wrong.

In a message dated 5/21/2010 12:48:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

Raven and I have our Facebook accounts, but we have been careful to ensure that all the security measures are in place. Still, it can be a frustrating experience with certain "friends" who turn out to be trolls.Administrator