Inside Facebook’s brilliant plan to hog your data
Facebook’s ‘Anonymous Login’ is about neither anonymity nor logging in. It’s about creating scarcity in the market for user data.
Personal data is the new currency.
Companies want to get information about people — their location, age, relationships, interests, preferences and much more — because when they have that information they can offer more powerful, more monetizable apps and services and can make money with high-priced personalized ads.
But people want to prevent companies from getting their personal information for fear of being exploited, surveilled, abused and sold out.
It’s in the context of this tension that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week announced a new offering calledAnonymous Login. It’s one of the most ingenious ideasFacebook has ever had.
Here’s how it’s supposed to work: If you provide your personal data to Facebook, you can then install and use apps that support Anonymous Login without giving your personal data to the app maker, at least initially.
In other words, a mobile app that supports Facebook Anonymous Login would allow logged-in Facebook users to interact with the app as if they had supplied their personal information, even if they hadn’t actually done so.
Facebook says the feature provides “anonymity.” But that’s not accurate, because you do have to tell Facebook who you are. And it’s not “pseudonymity,” either, because you’re not using a surrogate identity…
I’m done with Facebook. Also you cannot unsubscribe just close your acct. but important info. is still stored on Facebook. Thanks for your article.
Last weekend, I listened to a television program on C-Span2. It’s called “BookTV” The guest author was
Julia Angwin. who recently wrote a book called “Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, ………….”
Copied from the BookTV website……..”She talks about the many ways that the government, private businesses, and criminals can and do collect our private data. She argues that, due to the pervasiveness of the dragnet system we live in today, we are in danger of becoming a society that self-censors itself instead of demanding our rights. This event was hosted by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.”
Just one of the points she makes is her personal decision to take down her Facebook and LinkedIn pages because Twitter was much more protective and active in protecting the privacy of its users.
I found her very enjoyable and entertaining, and recommend going to http://www.BookTV.Org and watch the program for your self. Scroll down to “Recent Shows” on the left of the page and find it.
“Julia Angwin is an investigative journalist for ProPublica. She was previously a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was part of the Journal team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for their coverage of corpoate corruption. Ms. Angwin is the author of “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America.”
The other thing I wanted to mention here, and forgot to, was the “heads up” she publicly gave to http://www.duckduckgo.com for searching needs.
Really appreciate all the wonderful information provided you gem you. Surely does help us the older generation get to understand the way the world has changed. Hard enough just watching it all. Thanks Thanks Thanks hugsxx
When I log in to Facebook now I see they are asking for my mobile phone number to add to security?????