Facebook Pages: Apps Without Privacy Settings

Posted by Nick O'Neill on January 15th, 2008 2:21 PM

While browsing through SocialAds yesterday I found a local firm that had made an ad buy to promote their Facebook page. I was actually interested in the company and decided to become a fan of their company’s page. In joining the page I began to think about the difference between becoming a fan of a brand page and installing an application. When you add an application there is an option that says “Publish stories in my News Feed and Mini-Feed.”

That option lets me protect others from viewing my activities. By becoming a fan of a company you are publically endorsing them. This is what makes Beacon so controversial as well as possibly illegal. Isn’t it possible to be a fan of something without everyone knowing about it? I think this may be the key downfall with Facebook. I don’t want my friends to know absolutely everything about me.

While I may be more public then the typical individual, there are still things that are better being left private and sometimes that includes my favorite brands. While MySpace isn’t growing, there are still 60 million people going to the site everyday. While some people keep one-hundred percent of their social networking activities on Facebook (myself included), others have chosen to live out another lifestyle via their MySpace profile.

It’s an interesting mix and I think Facebook’s desire to share absolutely everything with your friends may end up being its downfall. Do you want your friends to know absolutely everything about you? How much privacy do you think is necessary? Do you think Facebook pages should have an notification/newsfeed opt-out?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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dbrowell 8 months ago 1 point
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Or is Beacon the equivalent of someone knowing you came out of an Adult Book Store. But in a good way. :)

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Jonathan Kleiman 8 months ago 1 point
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Jonathan is twittering: I don't think that it's true that you do all of your social networking on facebook, Nick!

I fell in with the crowd.. but originally I couldn't figure out why I'd want anybody knowing anything about me at all. It used to be more fun keeping them guessing. But then what site would I spend my time on?

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http://legalintellects.com/

Chana Golden 3 months ago 1 point
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I do not mind my friends knowing about my fan pages. However, I would like the privacy options to include notification and newsfeed opt-out, as well as to keep the Fan Pages from being fully viewed by non-friends or professional contacts. Currently, with other applications, I can choose how much of my profile is visible to non-friends, and I think that is good.

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