This is a site dedicated to social media. As such, it’s in the interest of those of us who contribute to Ploked to write informative posts for readers regarding the use of social media, and the numerous networking tools associated with social media, in our daily affairs. I fully acknowledge social media as a tool to increase business, and my posts reflect this belief. A professional media planner by trade, my job depends on determining as much as possible about consumers, using this information to better target advertising messages to potential customers. Obviously, the more information, the better the results.

Facebook

While striving to remain objective and professional, at times I have to question the level of blind trust that we, as consumers, provide to entities outside our immediate control, opting to allow online businesses the ability to access personal information, including birth dates, address, email, family members, friends, and online surfing behaviors. I’ve written posts that substantiate social media’s success at growing businesses. I’ve also written here–and on other sites–posts concerning privacy and the “information for access” model practiced by social media sites. The majority of these posts–questioning the use of personal information–concern Facebook.

Facebook was once a place to share among friends. As the site’s evolved, its morphed into a money-making phenomenon that changes the rules as necessary. Once Facebook respected, and protected their user’s privacy. Then, unforeseen and unprecedented, the site grew from college site to worldwide network in less-than a decade. Facebook ranks among the most popular online destinations, quick approaching half a billion users Read the rest of this entry »

On the last blog, we left off with the following statement regarding Facebook’s Privacy practices:

ALLOWING CAUSES ACCESS WILL LET IT PULL YOUR PROFILE INFORMATION, PHOTOS, YOUR FRIENDS’ INFO, AND OTHER CONTENT THAT IT REQUIRES TO WORK.

Most users hit “Allow,” use the application, and move on. Facebook posts the fact that the user accessed the application by posting the information on the his or her homepage, and on the live feed Wall of all the user’s friends. There is an option to not post at this point, but it does not seem to be used very often. So, the application has access to the user’s entire profile, as well as that of his/her friends. Once the user’s friends add their two-cents to the poll or take a quiz, the application has access to all of their friends. And so on. Soon, like a gigantic spiderweb, the application has access to millions of profiles. Just in case you’re not familiar with these applications, a few of the more popular ones are Gifts, Mafia Wars, Like/Dislike, Flixter, We’re Related, Who Has the Biggest Brain, and Causes. I visited the Living Social website (one of applications I had allowed) to read their Privacy Policy and Read the rest of this entry »