Reclaim your Facebook Privacy
Matt Pizzimenti is concerned about how Facebook’s privacy policies and settings have evolved over the last little bit; that is why he started the ReclaimPrivacy project. He has created an application that people can easily use after they login into their Facebook account.
The application scans their privacy settings and provides alerts about several settings that one can use to hide various aspects of their account from anyone’s view. One of the things that I particularly like about this application is that it provides instant links to the place where a person can adjust their settings to ensure that their information is only shared with those with whom they desire.
Pizzimenti links to several recent articles that explain that Facebook’s recent actions have aggravated privacy advocates. One thing that has irked them is that in some cases new settings have default values that allow the site to share account holders’ information with the public. Pizzimenti’s application will help individuals better understand all of the privacy vulnerabilities that they face. It appears that it will flag any setting that is set to share information with Everyone (versus "Only Me" or only friends). However, the application does not change anyone’s settings; it simply alerts them to vulnerabilities. I think that this is an excellent idea since some people may want to have some information publicly available as this facilitates people finding them.
Regardless of how one feels about Facebook’s actions towards privacy, it is a good idea to continually examine one’s account settings on a social networking site.
Finding Value in Google Buzz
I’m not an early adopter of the latest tool. I’ll happily sit back and wait for the dust to settle before I consider using any new application.
It has been my experience that this is a good practice. Most of what hits the social web usually putters and falls into obscurity.
So when Google Buzz was announced, I didn’t give it much thought.
With any tool that I use, my main objective is:
- To determine if it provides me value when it comes to sharing and communicating on the social web.
- To determine if it’s just another way to broadcast my voice. If that’s the case, I probably won’t use it.
- To be sure it provides value to the people who like what I share and listen to what I have to say. (most important to me)
Recently I’ve been trying to think of a way to share just the articles and resources I come across. I know some people set up a separate Twitter profile for this, but I was curious if there was another way to do this. So I thought about using Buzz. That way my friends who are already connected to me via Gmail can easily grab the information useful to them without having to dig through all my bookmarks or tweets.
I found a Firefox add-on called Buzz it! that works and is useful. It allows you to update your Buzz timeline through your Gmail. The update will include the title and the URL of the page you’re sharing. It also provides the option to edit the update and utilize Bit.ly to shorten your URLs, which I like.
I’ve just started playing with Buzz, so it remains to be seen if this will work. Like all tools, it’s going to take some investment of time to determine if I’ll want to continue using it. I wrote off Twitter when I first used it only to find its value the second time around.
Regardless, it’s probably not a good idea to constrain all my engagement to only one tool. Twitter has provided me tons of value and opportunities, but if it disappeared… well, then I’d better be sure I could find an adequate substitute.
Have you found any value using Google Buzz?
The Power of Chat Roulette
Chat Roulette is a fascinating and bizarre new website that enables visitors to randomly chat with strangers around the world via webcam. The concept for the site is dead simple – you visit the homepage, click Play, and all of sudden you are dumped into a one on one conversation with a random stranger. If you are horrified by or bored with your chat partner, you simply click Stop and move on to the next person.
Recently, Chat Roulette has hit the big time, with usage skyrocketing and mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post devoting ink to the site, which launched in November. I’ve used Chat Roulette a few times now myself, mostly as an experiment, and like everyone else I’m equal parts fascinated and horrified. While Chat Roulette supposedly bans pornography, you will undoubtedly come across some nudity if you use the site long enough. You’ll also run into some fringe societal elements, and have great conversations with some interesting people you would never come across otherwise.
The power here is in the randomness of it, and in the connections you can make. Every time you switch to a new chat partner it is like opening a present. It may be a horrible present, but it’s still fun to open and see what is there. In a world where sites like Facebook and LinkedIn force us to build networks and define our relationships, there is a real power in a site like Chat Roulette that allows you to experience life outside your sphere.
I also think it is inevitable that the chat roulette concept will be appropriated. Why not start a Chat Roulette that connects people around common interests instead of being entirely random? Maybe cat lovers? Why not build functionality into your website that allows visitors to enter into random chats with other people visiting the same site at the same time? There seem to be lots of possibilities to me, and it seems like the concept, if not the Chat Roulette site itself, could be one of the Internet’s next big things.
I could be wrong. Chat Roulette could be a one hit wonder that fades away after the novelty wears off. But to me it looks like the creators have happened on a very powerful and useful way for people to connect with each other, which is ultimately what the Internet is all about.
Did the RNC Launch a URL Shortener?
Yesterday on Twitter I started seeing links pop up to what looked to be a URL shortening service run by the Republican National Committee – www.gop.am. The site has “gop” in the URL and has branding consistent with the main RNC site – www.gop.com. So it seemed reasonable to assume it was put out by the RNC.
But if you look closely, it seems more likely that it is an independent effort meant to look like something put out by the RNC. As you’ll see from the screenshot below, the site doesn’t include an RNC copyright or the financial disclosure information (“Paid for by the Republican National Committee…”) that you’ll find on any official political website.
Instead, the site is attributed to a firm called Political Media, which doesn’t list the RNC on its client list. I also couldn’t find any mention of the service on the RNC Twitter account or website. So I think it is safe to assume that this is an unofficial effort.
As a side note, I do think it is a pretty good idea to launch branded URL shortening services. It is easy to do, and with the ubiquity of Twitter I think it is a pretty good way to subconsciously brand your content. However, the implementation on GOP.am is heavy handed. Here is a sample link to give you an idea what it looks like, with a screenshot below.
I see two fairly major problems from a usability standpoint:
- There is no easy way to close the frame that is around the content. So once someone clicks on a gop.am URL, they are pretty much stuck with the frame until they go in the URL bar and manually type in another URL.
- Many URL shorteners don’t put framing around the content at all, and the ones that do use subtle colors that don’t clash with the end website and make sure not to take up much space. The red here is simply overpowering. Worse, on gop.am we’ve got significant framing on both the top and bottom of the page. It is just way too much.
So in summary, I would never use www.gop.am out of respect to the people I share links with. It has too many usability problems.
What do you think? And please let me know if I’m wrong about the ownership of the service.
Update: And five minutes after I completed this post, GOP.am was taken down with a note saying it will be back soon. I bet the RNC got in touch.
Update 2: Looks like I was wrong. It is back up.
Update 3: Via Ali Akbar on Twitter, the new version of www.gop.am includes slightly different branding. The logo has been changed to look less like the official RNC logo. I’ll be the RNC gave them a call requesting this change as a condition for allowing the site to stay up.
Old Logo
Redone Logo
Update 4: The site is officially not run by the RNC. It now contains this disclaimer: “GOP.am is a property of Political Media, Inc. The Republican National Committee is not responsible for any content generated by GOP.am.”
Update 5: Wired has a story on the tool, which says the site was taken down for a few hours today as a result of GOP opponents overriding the site with porn links.
Twitterslurp hits Barcelona at PdF Europe
The Bivings Group powers the Personal Democracy Forum website and is proud to run Twitterslurp, a Twitter hashtag aggregator tool being used by those attending and monitoring this year’s European Personal Democracy Forum Conference, currently being held in Barcelona.
Use #pdfeu to join hundreds of attendees of the conference, which focuses on the many connections between politics and technology and the leaders of both industries across Europe.
Speakers, participants and sponsors are using Twitterslurp today and Saturday to share ideas on the conference’s most compelling topics and panels, including Friday’s opening address on how President Obama’s technology team helped him win the American presidency and Saturday’s keynote on mobile platforms for change.