One of the biggest gripe that users have/had with Facebook was its privacy. Additionally, Facebook privacy has gone through so many iterations over the years, FB users are actually more confused about it. It has been a sticky issue for Facebook for a while, however, it has not stopped facebook from reaching a whooping 800 million users.
Google+ on the other hand made a blockbuster opening, garnering over 50 million users in just less than 3 months – And one of the main reasons was its absolutely simplified privacy. Google+ users exactly knew what they were sharing with whom and who it would be visible to.
So – how does Facebook’s privacy stack up against its younger peer Google+. Here is nifty infographic published by Peer1 hosting that depicts Facebook’s Privacy Vs Google+ Privacy. It makes for an interesting visual.
Facebook Privacy Vs Google+ Privacy
Here are couple of real gems from the Infographic, if you missed them.
- The “Like” button is considered illegal in Germany and carries a fine of upto 50,000 euros!
- Facebook will guess your interests, even if you have provided absolutely no information in your profile, based on interests of your friends!
well, I cannot access social networks or even personal emails from office where I am practically spending my life. So, am i actually saving myself from thsi trouble? I don’t know, I wish I was active on social networks to share my views, lifetimes, and know more about whats going on in my friend’s life without having to talk to them.
Anyway, in the end, any social network is a machine to serve humans. As of now, it has limitations around where all it exposes our information. In future, may be they will become like humans who know what to share with whom. These calculations that our mind can make swiftly (almost involuntarily), social networks will learn to make.
But the intention of social networking site owner is paramount to safety of our information. Do we want to act them exactly how we will act with our phone numbers? Should they tell a marketer that I am interested in a product? I say-why not? As a person I am giving my info to them to store. From where will they get resources to store this information? Why should I get free service of storing and sharing my information? May be I should pay them to maintain my account? Think what might happen then?
If the information sharing is for commercialisation, I may be fine. But a step further is of national security. What if my information can be tracked and used by terrorists to plan something. My imagination is not that lively to capture this story in words but you get the drift, right?
Anyway, I was just thinking about options available. If Social networking sites do not share our information, what else they can do to fund themselves? From our side, we should be as social online, as we are offline. I have seen people posting elaborate comments on my photos, who do not even talk to me for few minutes in real world.
May be, social networking sites have now learnt what information sharing can result into, they can ow warn everyone who updates their contact information about how this information can be seen by their friends and shared further. If I will not advertise my contact number in newspaper and will not wear a shirt having my address written on it for everyone to read it, should I post these things on social networking site? It’s for each individual to decide.
Social Media is the new mantra for marketers. Everyone seems to be running after it. But hardly a handful knows how to get the optimum result out of a social media campaign. Though it may sound easy to use platforms like FB, Twitter and other social sites for promotion and brand building, in real terms this needs a deep understanding. Just posting isn't enough. It has to be marketed well. I think this is where the concept in integrated social media campaign might also come in. Please share your views on the same.
Divya Bhaskar
MyGrahak.com
Facebook is improving while Google is the leader so has better insights of the online audience!
Facebook has improved a lot since last two months with launching new features. But when you are on a social network, how you can ask for privacy. Better you leave those sites if you want privacy.
I like Google privacy because i got banned to post more links.
And I’ve 100 Fb ids from same ip address.
I feel the fever of the social networking website is soon going to end. People are now getting bored and tensed about their privacy. FB’s new features have made you exposed to everyone. What ever you post, like or add friends has been notified to everyone. I have really stopped using FB now.
I stopped using Facebook facility for communicating with friends. I felt awkward to be in Facebook with so many types of friends (some are funny, some are serious, some are flirtatious) all able to see what I post on facebook. It effects the relations.
It is the user friendliness that matters.
Even Yahoo is nowadays different from a few months ago. Few months ago, when I logged into my mail ID, it asked me to try a new version of the page. There is no choice button like not interested or try later. I was forced to accept their new version. Now the version of mail page is not good for me. Earlier I used to chat with friends from mail itself (it shows contacts active in left side so we click on active ones and chat directly with out going to yahoo messenger). Now this option is gone. My company policy do not allow me to download yahoo messenger on my company laptop. I am missing so many friends.
This is very unfriendly gesture from yahoo. More over the loading of pages has become very slow now.
The user friendliness is gone from yahoo on which I depended on for so long. After this new version, some one or some programme hacked my ID and started sending adult spam messages to all in my friends list. And this forced me to change my pass word after almost 16 years. I was so much attached to my password and its gone in a flash!!. Arun tried to sober me up by saying the password is only zeros and ones. But the attachment I had with it for 16 years?
I am less and less communicating with friends and all.
Bottomline is in the end virtual world is virtual world. I dont own even a piece of it. Whether it is facebook or Yahoo. Its they who decide how I use the internet.
Good one Altaf – A comment from someone who does not live in the VIrtual world :)