I’ve never been a fan of things I don’t need. I don’t need a snuggie come this cold winter, I don’t need a bread maker from one of those shopping networks, and I don’t need Yahoo Mail teaming up with Facebook. In late May, Yahoo announced that its mail service would be stepping up by making the web more accessible through Yahoo Mail. Sites like Pandora, Flickr, YouTube, and popular blogging sites were magically incorporated last year to seamlessly transfer their updates to your user account for your viewing pleasure. The big news, however, came when Yahoo announced that your Facebook news feed would be accessible through Yahoo Mail. Not only will you see the latest viral videos that your friends ‘like’, but your mail even gets pre-sorted thanks to an upgrade. You can now read the important things first, but those e-mails about inheriting a large sum of money from an African Prince will have to wait. Sorry Nigerian scammers. Read the rest of this entry »

We all do a lot of dumb things that one day we look back on and say, “WTF was I thinking?” For Mark Zuckerberg that defining moment may be when he changed the privacy settings on Facebook. However, the bigger issue may be the movie that is coming out called “The Social Network,”which chronicles the development of Facebook. I highly doubt he’s going to be thrilled at watching himself on the big screen, especially since it seems like his privacy settings are going to be open to the public.

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In the past several weeks, Facebook has come under fire after widely publicizing changes in privacy settings. With over 400 million users in its grasp and the Internet seemingly bowing down to its every need, this negative publicity must be making Facebook a little uncomfortable, and it’s just getting worse. In April, New York Senator Chuck Schumer asked the Federal Trade Commission to check out the privacy guidelines of Facebook. There are now a growing number of users who are leaving Facebook for good. So far 1,605 people have signed up for Facebook Quit Day on May 31st. Here I interview Matthew Milan, one of the creators of the group. He currently runs his own company that specializes in the strategic side of interaction design for the web and devices.

SR: Who is behind the movement and how did it get started?

MM: The frustration people have with Facebook that you’re are calling a movement [I don't see it that way] has been developing for a long time. Joe Dee and I didn’t look to start a revolt as some have suggested, we just put a URL to a notion that was on the mind of a lot of people right now.  We reached a point where we didn’t feel comfortable being on Facebook anymore, and decided to be open about why we we’re leaving.

What was your biggest issue with Facebook?

While I believe it’s acceptable for organizations to collect and use comprehensive personal data from individuals, they must do it in a way that 1) Gives individuals fair choices to decide how that data is used, and 2) Is done with the intent of serving the best interests of current (and future) society as a whole.

Since Facebook is not doing either of these (and is, in fact, heading rapidly in the other direction), I’m no longer interested in maintaining a presence of any type on the site. If a company doesn’t consider information sustainability in their designs, they are not creating any long term value for humanity. For me, my frustration with Facebook wasn’t about privacy – privacy is a symptom of some emerging bigger issues, which most of us can’t clearly articulate yet. We latch on to privacy as the main concern because it’s an issue we can all directly relate to. Read the rest of this entry »