Render unto Facebook the things which are Facebook's

Two countries, a few states, and numerous user groups have filed lawsuits against Facebook over privacy issues. In a nutshell everything you upload to Facebook belongs to Facebook. Everything you do on Facebook belongs to Facebook. And what does Facebook do to make money? They sell information and ads. Information you gladly provide in your profile, and through the "Facebook toys" scattered through out their system for your enjoyment. Information that makes the ads they sell more valuable to the advertisers and hence more lucrative for Facebook.

Facebook has become the de facto AOL of the 21st century. "You've got wall" has replaced the "you've got mail" mantra from the 90's. Of course it's easier and faster. Pictures and video are easy to upload and share with friends. And those virtual toys, what better way to spend a day then collecting and distributing two-dimensional kittens, fish, stars, etc.

And let's not forget those humorous quizzes and multi-player games. According to new research by the ACLU every quiz you take enriches Facebook's database on "you". say what???

To quote Rupert Murdock (CEO News Corp which owns MySpace), "Facebook is just a directory".
It is a great place to keep track of your friends. But is it the right place to store your personal legacy? When you die, your data reverts to the whims of Facebook. You won't be clicking any ads, so your space on their disks becomes dead space so to speak.

PermaSite is a place where your memories belong to you. You determine who views them, and who manages them after you are gone.

Idle Hands are the Devil's Playthings

If you were a cartoon character, which cartoon character would you be?
If you were a Dunkin donut, which Dunkin donut would you be?
If you were one of the Seven Seas, which Sea would you be?
If you were an disContinued Car, which disContinued Car would you be?
If you were a Failed Financial Firm which Failed Financial Firm would you be?
If all the brain cycles spun on these fantasies could be synchronized, what real problems could be solved?

This isn't an entirely whimsical question. Luis von Ahn, a professor at Carnegie Mellon invented the "captcha" used to separate humans from "bots" on web sites. He realized that the uniquely human ability to "fill in the gaps" could be used to solve real problems, like correcting OCR errors.

On the other hand, a friend recently suggested that Facebook quizzes may serve another purpose - collecting valuable profile information to sell to 3rd parties. After all, that which is rendered to Facebook, belongs to Facebook.

Facebook Press Releases from the not-so-distant Future

Facebook changes company name to WWW.
Facebook signed up the last connected human today, reaching the 2B user mark. CEO, Mark Z was quoted as saying "We have the whole wide world right where we want them".


Facebook proves to be Fad
Mass user exodus attributed to Woody Allen affect - "I wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have me".

Facebook,Woody Allen