Facebook privacy bungle

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg finally gave in to pressure from critics this week and announced plans to update the site's privacy settings. In Lanai Vasek's article, published in The Australian on May 24th, it was reported that Mr Zuckerberg announced the plans by exchanging an email with popular technology blogger Robert Scoble who soon shared it on his website, apparently with Zuckerberg's permission. The announcement came little over a week after a Sydney teenager was allegedly murdered by a man who had befriended her on the site, with Zuckerberg stating: 'I know we've made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that ...we respond to the feedback from the people we serve'.

With Facebook continuing to grow and expand it has come under fire from privacy and consumer groups over its fancy new features, most recently the ability to share data with Twitter, which compromise the privacy of its 400 Million+ members. These features basically make personal information available to third-party websites, and, according to user surveys, the site's current 5 830 word privacy policy isn't making that clear enough. Facebook said it would now move to make its personal information settings 'simpler and easier to use.'

May 31st has been declared Quit Facebook Day and more than 13,000 people signed up to the boycott led by Canadian internet consultants Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee. The pair, along with many others, believe Facebook makes it too difficult for users to understand the site's information and settings, ultimately compromising privacy.

According to RMIT University senior lecturer Jeremy Yuille, 'teenagers using social networking sites are often the most vulnerable online' as many spend hours a day unmonitered on social networking sites. This month the federal government has also stepped in by launching an inquiry into into cyber safety and urging parents to monitor their children online.

This latest bungle has also put 26 year old Zuckerberg's ability as CEO in to question, with claims, among others, that he is sex crazy and too young to run such a huge a company. In my opionion Zuckerberg probably shouldn't be incharge of everything on such a popular, largely used website, and more complicated legal issues like privacy should be handled both professionally and maturely. However, the guy created the thing from the ground up so we have to give him some credit, even if hes not the next Bill Gates.

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Blogging phenomenon

Online journalling started as early as 1994, but the reverse-chronological order posting that we all know and love took the world by storm in 1999. This was the year that millions of new users signed up to the first hosted blog tools like Open Diary, LiveJournal, Pitas and Pyra's original Blogger. The popularity continued to grow and in 2004 Cnet reported that 'blog' was the most searched word on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Many people were finally wanting to know what these viral, public diaries were, and plenty wanted one of their own.

As of January 2009 there were 126 million blogs on the internet. Nowdays the blogosphere is even taking over other forms of publishing, with specialty search sites like technorati developed for the sole purpose of trawling the blog seas to find the gems. Whether you be after a personal diary, reviews of the latest technology or links to the funniest things on the web, you're guaranteed to find someone who does it well within the millions. Blogging has even become a career for some people, with many citizen journalists taking popularity away from professional newspapers with well-created blogs and up to the minute news posts, often specialising in opinions or niche fields that print forms of media don't thoroughly focus on.

Alas, there is also a downside to blogging. The current standard for journalistic integrity is said to be slipping, and many people have become dependent on technology for communication and socialising. If social networking sites help people comunicate with their friends, blogging help them feel creative, search engines help them learn and games keep them entertained, then why should they leave their PC? Technology is taking over our lives, and anything so profound is bound to have both positive and negative effects. One thing for sure is that blogging is here to stay and grow; only time will tell its long-term effects on community, communication, publication and...handwriting.

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Downloading bandits

This week sees the launch of two new music downloading sites that are both Australia-designed. The first, Guvera.com, officially launched today with big-brand sponsorship and 30 million dollars worth of advertising and the second, Bandit.fm, is a division of Sony Music Australia which officially launches its pricing plans and memberships tomorrow.

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The article New day dawns for digital music and it's Australian led discusses the interest surrounding Bandit, as it consolidates different music labels and plans to make the change to streaming rather than downloading content. Despite streaming music not being as popular in Australia as it is in Europe and other parts of the world, individual labels are in the midst of creating their own channels through Bandit and larger labels have already signed up. Sony is currently promising that the site won’t be all about their artists but rather a 'marketplace of music'.

The future for both of these sites is hard to gauge as advertising-funded sites like Guvera usually struggle, however they are both new alternatives to online music in Australia and will be interesting to follow.