Was Beacon intentional? What about sponsored stories? How about frictionless sharing?
It is painfully obvious this company is desperate and undaunted it its efforts to "package peer pressure as a service" they can sell to bring more exposure to brands, with or without users' consent, knowledge or approval. It's not merely confusing UI to pull in some random post from a site you "liked" once and post that as part of an endorsement. It is part of an established pattern of ethical melt-downs and trust. Moreover, it's been established that Likes can be derived from simply sending a link in a PM or posting one to your timeline, even in a negative context.
Putting "full blame" on the user fits nicely with the CEO's view during college that we're all just "dumb fucks" for using the thing.
I hate to be so negative, but I find this outrageous and indefensible. Because of it's scale and the many talented people working there, I think Facebook holds promise in lots of areas, but it is profoundly creepy the way they are always trying to lull us all into gradual acceptance of using our information however they damn well please for a mythical valuation sustaining cash cow that has as of yet to materialize.
*credit to Jaron Lanier & his book You Are Not A Gadget book for some of my phrasing and ideas here. He articulated this when Beacon was their only offense, and his predictions about their direction have proven completely and totally accurate.
It is painfully obvious this company is desperate and undaunted it its efforts to "package peer pressure as a service" they can sell to bring more exposure to brands, with or without users' consent, knowledge or approval. It's not merely confusing UI to pull in some random post from a site you "liked" once and post that as part of an endorsement. It is part of an established pattern of ethical melt-downs and trust. Moreover, it's been established that Likes can be derived from simply sending a link in a PM or posting one to your timeline, even in a negative context.
Putting "full blame" on the user fits nicely with the CEO's view during college that we're all just "dumb fucks" for using the thing.
I hate to be so negative, but I find this outrageous and indefensible. Because of it's scale and the many talented people working there, I think Facebook holds promise in lots of areas, but it is profoundly creepy the way they are always trying to lull us all into gradual acceptance of using our information however they damn well please for a mythical valuation sustaining cash cow that has as of yet to materialize.
*credit to Jaron Lanier & his book You Are Not A Gadget book for some of my phrasing and ideas here. He articulated this when Beacon was their only offense, and his predictions about their direction have proven completely and totally accurate.