A Contrarian Stance On Facebook and Privacy 160
macslocum writes "Amid the uproar over Facebook's privacy maneuvers, Tim O'Reilly offers a contrarian view. He writes: 'The essence of my argument is that there's enormous advantage for users in giving up some privacy online and that we need to be exploring the boundary conditions — asking ourselves when is it good for users, and when is it bad, to reveal their personal information. I'd rather have entrepreneurs making high-profile mistakes about those boundaries, and then correcting them, than silently avoiding controversy while quietly taking advantage of public ignorance of the subject, or avoiding a potentially contentious area of innovation because they are afraid of backlash. It's easy to say that this should always be the user's choice, but entrepreneurs from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg are in the business of discovering things that users don't already know that they will want, and sometimes we only find the right balance by pushing too far, and then recovering.'"
Facebook has confirmed it is working on more changes to its privacy policy in response to feedback from users.
Re:Missing the point (Score:3, Informative)
"He uses the example of how we give up our location for turn by turn GPS directions. " and neither does he.
I don't think you know how GPS works.
It does not work by sending data back to the satellites. All the software and data is stored within the device. It does not transmit anything. It is a RECEIVER of time signals from the GPS satellites.
A GPS receiver, like TomTom or Garmin doesn't transmit. Ever.
Therefore, the "gps turn-by turn" gives up your privacy is complete bullshit.
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BMO
Re:Security and Privacy (Score:3, Informative)
Your street corner analogy fails because I never expected that I was standing in the open. From the very beginning, Facebook promised it's members again and again that their personal information could and would be kept private. Then they basically went and shared it with anyone who was willing to pay them for it. To use a slightly modified version of your analogy, it's like having a private wedding reception at a nice hotel. You invite a few dozen of your closest friends, but then the hotel opens the doors and invites in anyone who walks by on the street. You can try to close the doors, but the hotel then just opens one in the back.
Facebook's problem is not just that they have a crappy privacy policy, but that they administer it in a blatantly deceptive way, to people who may not even be old enough to understand the implications of what they are doing.