Sunday, October 24, 2010

The era of non-privacy

Facebook applications always make me feel uncomfortable. You read about all the people who used them, and you'd like to try it out too, but then

Which Disney princess are you? is requesting permission to do the following:

  • Access my basic information
    Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I've shared with everyone.

  • Post to my Wall
    Which Disney princess are you? may post status messages, notes, photos, and videos to my Wall

Which Disney princess are you?

There are two things wrong with this picture (maybe more):

1 Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but I hate the idea that the app is asking to "Access my basic information." NO! Why would "Which Disney princess are you?" need to access my basic information? By clicking allow, have I just opened the door to a violation of my privacy and potential legal hacking? I'm not tech savvy enough to understand what pandora's box I have just opened, but it's just discomforting clicking a button that allows a third party site to access my basic information

2 What if I don't want to "Post to my Wall?" Maybe I just don't want people knowing I took a quiz to find out which Disney princess I am, or what if the results are embarrassing? I don't want to take an IQ test and have all of facebook knowing I'm "dumber than a turtle".

It could just be me blowing things out of proportion, but facebook apps as they are today, really rub me in the wrong way. It appears that we have entered... 
An era of non-privacy

4 comments:

  1. Hey man turtles are smart as hell. :@

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  3. "Whales have the largest brains known.": they are smarter than turtles. sooo you lose :)

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  4. Yes, those apps are ridiculous and I never do any of them. People don't realize how not-safe any information you put anywhere on the internet is, especially Facebook!

    It does seem like clothes are getting skankier, but demand creates the market! Blame Paris Hilton, that's always a good plan.

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