Wednesday, July 7, 2010
German Data Protection Officials Investigate Facebook for Possible Illegality of Privacy Policies
In German officials latest to challenge Facebook | The Social - CNET News. Caroline McCarthy at the social writes at CNET News (on a story originally run by the AP):
"Data protection officials in Germany announced Wednesday the launch of a formal investigation into Facebook, saying they believe some of its much-maligned privacy policies are illegal. It's given Facebook until August 11 to respond formally."Read the rest of this copiously linked article here for further background on Facebook fortunes in Germany, past and present.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Facebook Privacy Policies Have Litte Impact on Users as the Strategy of the Lowest Common Denominator -- also found in Blogging, Publishing, Academia and the Law - Captures the Mainstream
Privacy concerns about Facebook have few teeth in the absence of laws which impose a stricter regimen on what customer data social networking sites are permitted to make public and what not. As written in a Business Week headline,Facebook Privacy Woes Make Little Impact on Site’s Popularity:
"While privacy is a consideration for users, many are wedded to Facebook’s features, such as messaging, social gaming and running feeds of friends’ status updates. The average user creates 70 pieces of content monthly and is connected to 60 pages, groups and events, according to Facebook."The strategy of Facebook seems to approximate the same basic philosophy as followed by the major surviving Hollywood film studios, in fact the main reason for their survival, which was a strategy geared to pleasing the lowest common denominator, the same market group that drives mainstream television. Indeed, this strategy is the one which is successful for nearly any "mainstream" direction, including blogging, publishing, academia (academic schools of thought and "peer group pressure", also via "peer review") and yes, even the law (mainstream precedents represent the lowest common denominator, not the highest). To capture a "crowd" you have to pander to that crowd and Facebook is doing this better than anyone else at the moment.
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