It is so easy to say ”My life is an open book” and you know what it actually is and you can’t do a thing about it. If Google started f**king our privacy a couple of years back, Facebook raped it a couple of weeks back (Possibly…)
A week or so back during the F8 developer conference, Facebook came out with its master-plan to rule the Internet. At the name of competing over becoming your online identity, Facebook just ripped apart of little left privacy. Facebook told us all, during the F8 that their “evil” like button could be put up in every website (Including Ours) and these will then help them provide instant personalization of certain websites we use. And believe me 99% of Facebook users wouldn’t care much, they were happy to find their favorite “like” button all around on the internet. Facebook made sure, except of the few developers and tech bloggers who need “masala” to write, the normal Facebook user never got to know that the default setting was set as zero privacy for everyone. What was even more interesting was the fact that these settings where very difficult to find and I found them through One of my favorite analysts’ on the internet, Avinash Kaushik‘s tweet.
I changed my Facebook settings and set it all to private to my friends’. My Facebook status said:
Some Hidden Facebook Privacy Setting Each One of Us Should review http://zqi.me/cBjHhi http://zqi.me/aAMFLXhttp://zqi.me/ag92V9 http://zqi.me/aQzMDl Also, Always log off else your data is still shared to personalize sites, even with all other settings opted out. via Avinash Kaushik. Donot forget to check out all these settings would be my advise to all all of you.
- Facebook Privacy setting
All this happened one week after I told two of my friends’ about Google Web History. For someone, who doesn’t know about Google Web History, it can be quite a shock and believe me I caught both of my friends’ off the hook. For Avinash Kaushik (Evangelist of Google Analytics) to tweet about Facebook settings was a bit like saying “Google is your husband and is entitled to see you naked but not Facebook. He is just a friend.“. I am sure, not many people know about Google Web History too. Do check it guys. Some day some friend of yours like me will show your web history to you may feel quite embarrassed. Now, with Chrome becoming increasingly popular, every key-press on the browser is getting recorded by you personalized advertisement serving secretary in Google. For a funny peek into the future, look at this video.
So, with everyone running after your privacy, what do we do? Actually, we can do absolutely nothing. Google and Facebook are things we can’t live without. Privacy is a thing of the past. Google and Facebook may create multiple settings (and not tell people about them) and tell people that they will turn off tracking you, but Should i believe?
What is the future of online privacy?
I would say – None at all. My brother owns a Nexus One and tells me it it more tightly integrated to Google than he would have ever desired. iPhone’s upcoming versions will have Facebook integration. So, What is next? Are Android and iPhone OS going to hear our calls, do some voice processing and serve us Ads based on what we talk. Is that not a possibility? I wonder…
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