On Monday 28th April, cnn.com published an article highlighting the possible privacy threats for social network users, and the potential destinations of their profile information, which in many cases are not the locations intended or desired by the user. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/28/social.networking.privacy.ap/index.html User profile information has been available to third parties since the emergence of social networking sites, clearly those profiles which are most freely available being those which are Public. However, since the rapid growth of “Applications” on social networking sites, even the users who set their profiles as Private provide their information to developers; either companies or private developers with the required technical skills. That is, if the user decides to download an Application from the site. Which, should be added, is highly probable, given the number of user-oriented applications available on social networking sites. When a user wishes to download one of these applications, they must check a box which gives developers permission to access their profile information.In particular, two of the most prominent sites, FaceBook and MySpace, give developers access to the profiles of users who download their applications. MySpace provides applications such as “Stickers” (In the “Photos” category of applications), which allows the user to “Choose from over 25,000 FREE stickerz to add your profile and show to your friends!” and “Sketch Me” – “Let our artists create personal sketches of you from you pictures.” The benefits of such sites are obvious – users avail of a network of contacts selected by them, personalized services, such as the growing number of Semantic Web applications tailored towards a personalized user experience, which combine aspects of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 – Twine, Baagz, Friendfeed, Twitter, etc. In summary, they profit from the communicative aspects in a revolutionary way which has not been previously witnessed since the advent of the Web. However, there are other more sinister uses (or should that be “re-uses”…) of profile information, accompanied by the fact that the legal specifications for this field are scarce and unclear. Uses include, for example, matching profile information with public records, or targeted advertising. These are two of the possibilities mentioned in the CNN article, however, it is not illogical to suspect that there are many other possible uses which have not yet been tapped into by developers or brought into the public eye. What about calculating the amounts of money a user spends on online purchases, grouped according to article type? Ultimately, the advantages and disadvantages depend on the users point of view – some users may embrace the idea of third parties having access to their profiles, to aid the creation of many positive services characteristic of Web 3.0 – recommendation and personalization of products and advertising, avoiding the nuisance of unsolicited advertising. See, for example, FaceBook’s most recent “App Endorsements”, which allows users to opt for receiving advertisements only endorsed by the user himself. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/identified_hits_facebook.php#comment-53373?referer=sphere_related_content
Tags:
App Endorsements,
Facebook,
MySpace,
social networks,
web 2.0,
Web 3.0
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