The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook About Facebook is a great service. I have a profile, and so does nearly everyone I know under the age of 60. However, Facebook hasn't always managed its users' data well. In the beginning, it restricted the visibility of a user's personal information to just their friends and their "network" (college or school). This blog post by Kurt Opsahl at the the EFF gives a brief timeline of Facebook's Terms of Service changes through April of 2010. Let me be clear about something: I like Facebook. Data The data for this chart was derived from my interpretation of the Facebook Terms of Service over the years, along with my personal memories of the default privacy settings for different classes of personal data. I welcome data corrections, so please leave a comment below if you have better numbers to share. Types of Personal Data Facebook's classification system for personal data has changed significantly over the years. Audiences Implementation I built this sketch using Processing.js. About me
Mobile + Cloud + Social These are the three interdependent forces that power the biggest wave of growth, change, and destruction I’ve seen since I have been allowed to take part in the high-tech industry. In the beginning (or mine, anyway), back in 1968 when I was, miraculously, offered a salary to be part of HP France there was the mainframe. IBM – “The Company” — reigned supreme, a dynasty that seemed unassailable. The IBMer wore a suit and tie when approaching the punch card feeder. Big Blue’s competitors, the BUNCH, were also called the Seven Dwarfs because their combined market share couldn’t compare to IBM’s dominance. A few years later, the dress code relaxed a bit and Digital Equipment Corporation’s minicomputer displaced mainframes. The PC era lasted longest of all, more than 30 years, partly due to Moore’s Law: “The microprocessor shall double its power every 18 months”, and then repurposed as a transmission medium with the advent of the Internet. But, there’s more than clobbering, there’s location.
Privacy and safety - Social Media Statistics Two-thirds of parents claim to set rules on their child’s use of social networking sites, although only 53% of children said that their parents set such rules. While communication with known contacts was the most popular social networking activity, 17 % of adults used their profile to communicate with people they do not know. This increases among younger adults. Sixty-nine per cent of adults who have a social networking page or profile used social networking sites to talk to friends or family who they saw regularly anyway, compared to 17% of adults who used sites to talk to those they didn’t already know. Those who talked to people they didn’t know were significantly more likely to be aged 16-24 (22% of those with a social networking page or profile) than 25-34 (7% of those with a profile). Several areas of potentially risky behaviour are suggested by the qualitative and/or quantitative research.
Social Networking On-The-Go: U.S. Mobile Social Media Audience Grows 37 Percent in the Past Year October 20, 2011 Social Networking On-The-Go: U.S. Mobile Social Media Audience Grows 37 Percent in the Past Year Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Post Mobile Growth of at Least 50 Percent Majority of Mobile Social Networkers Read Posts from Brands While on Their Device RESTON, VA, October 20, 2011 - comScore, Inc. “Social media is one of the most popular and fastest growing mobile activities, reaching nearly one third of all U.S. mobile users,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile. More than Half of Mobile Social Networkers Access Sites on a Near Daily Basis In August 2011, more than 72.2 million people accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device, an increase of 37 percent from the previous year. Research also indicated that although more people accessed these sites via their mobile browser, the social networking app audience grew five times faster in the past year. Facebook Mobile Audience Approaches 60 Million Users About comScore comScore, Inc.
Facebook sous surveillance pendant 20 ans Smartphone Penetration Rates by Country! We Have Good Data (finally) Thank you Netsize Guide and Informa! Thank you Google and Ipsos! We have finally some solid international data on smartphone penetration rates, broken down nationally. The data from the two sources is not really measuring exactly the same things, and there are considerable discrepancies on some of the data, but digging into both sources, we can get pretty good clarity on the actual national per-capita rates of smartphones, which should be very useful data for those who are interested in smartphones, their users and the related ecosystems. First what they measure. Then for the Netsize Guide. In the Netsize Guide there are unfortunately several of its surveyed countries that do not supply a smartphone unit count number, including several countries that are usually listed among the leaders in most mobile statistics (Finland, Norway and Denmark) and which are high among Google's survey of smartphone adoption rate (Switzerland). Rank . 1 . . . . 11 . . . tie 21 . 32 . . . 41 . . .
FTC chairman shares lawmakers' privacy concerns about Facebook Last month, Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called for the FTC to investigate Facebook's practice of tracking users even after they log out of its site. Facebook collects data when users visit websites that feature its "Like" button, even when the users have logged out of their Facebook accounts. The social-networking site says the data collection is inadvertent. "Facebook provides people with control over their information and our focus is on innovating new ways for people to share what they want with whom they want," a Facebook spokesman said in an email. Leibowitz also hinted that the FTC is taking a hard look at "supercookies," tracking files that are more difficult to delete than traditional "cookies." The chairman described supercookies as a "whack-a-mole problem" because they can keep popping up to track users online ever after repeated attempts to delete them.
Ethnicity Study Announcements As gamers age, so does their propensity to buy mobile virtual goods BOSTON – December 20, 2011 – Today MocoSpace, the largest mobile gaming community in North America, is announcing results of a new study focused on virtual goods consumption and engagement by age. The study indicates that age directly correlates with amount of money spent on virtual goods within social games. The 25- to 35-year-old is by far the most active social gaming demographic, spending nearly twice as much time gaming as any other group. When considering the average amount spent per person on virtual goods, however, a trend emerges showing younger gamers are less likely to spend on virtual goods, while older gamers are much more likely to buy that sword or shield to advance in a game. “We’re seeing parents go from spending money on buying games for their kids, to spending money on virtual goods in games for themselves. Full breakdown of the findings: About MocoSpace
Facebook’s entire business model is under fire in the EU Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.” Facebook (and just about every other free Web service) has built a business on that saying and its implications, and the European Commission is taking the social network to task for it. The EU is considering a ban on Facebook’s practice of selling demographic data to marketers and advertisers without specific permission from users. First, let’s have a primer on how Facebook makes money: The company gets you to willingly enter all kinds of demographic and behavioral information into a massive database. Facebook then uses that data — in an aggregated, anonymized form, of course — to sell media space to brands and advertising agencies. Now, however, the EC is planning to ban such activity unless users themselves specifically agree to it.