On September 22, 2011, Mark Zuckerberg announced at Facebook’s f8 conference that the social networking giant would soon allow its users to integrate all of their music, media, and lifestyle actions and interactions with their profiles in their own curated “Timeline”.[1] Timeline will not only create an organized and easily read history of all your interaction with the website, but will allow for others to more easily access this information (though it should be noted that a timeline-like view of your information has been available to law enforcement personal for some time [2]). Of course this raises serious concerns about user privacy. While this update to Facebook will provide a look and feel different than what you’re used to, the information you’ve given Facebook will not change. However, according to Dr. Ananda Mitra, social media expert and Chair of the Communication Department at Wake Forest University, “[w]hat’s new is the amount of data people are invited to, and will, provide…”.[3]
According to Mitra, “[m]ining of all this data is the next inevitable step, opening the door for more prevalent community-based stories and more targeted marketing opportunities” and “… Facebook Timeline makes your weekend check-in at the University’s football stadium with two of your friends more visible and data-rich than ever before. It says where you are, whose company you keep, that you like sports, that you possibly graduated from that school and suggests that you also might like to eat or drink certain things. It invites targeted advertising and information about consumption behavior directly to your tailgate…”. Taking Facebook’s bad track record for protecting user privacy into consideration, this should come as no surprise. Facebook’s product is its users’ information.
References:
1.http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/facebook-timeline/
2.http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/facebook-spy.pdf
3.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/idUS200517+23-Sep-2011+PRN20110923
Related reading:
How to enable Facebook Timeline
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/how-to-enable-facebook-timeline/
Facebook’s Timeline is nothing but a LAZY and BLUNT marketing data parser
http://www.gubatron.com/blog/2011/09/23/facebooks-timeline-is-nothing-but-a-lazy-marketing-data-parser/
Facebook wants your past, present, and future on Open Graphs and Timelines
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/09/facebook-wants-your-past-present-and-future-on-open-graphs-and-timelines.ars
Diaspora: Free and decentralized social networking (ask people on our forum for an invite)
https://joindiaspora.com/
