Time for a little weekend-end ramble session. Today we’re focusing on Facebook’s follies, Department of Homeland Security’s new massive profiling campaign and The Pirate Bay’s support of artists.
Allegedly, it’s just a glitch, but some say otherwise. Facebook knows it’s high-time they started monetizing on their user-base, so they go the way of Kevin Rose and simply take user content to drive that money-making venture. The privacy violations don’t strike me as going into “big brother” territory1 but they are certainly causing quite a stir. In part, nobody that uses Facebook should assume any special level of privacy, despite controls allowing each user to set who can see what. The advertisers that stand to profit from your information won’t sign up with an account and try to befriend you2; rather, they will speak to mister Zuckerberg directly and see what can be done. Like this Beacon enterprise that was probably a golden deal from everyone’s point of view [except for users, but hey, they just provide the numbers, they don't ACTUALLY have any brains or brawn in the matter.]While holding out from selling Facebook a while back was a brilliant move on its founder’s part, I fear the site is approaching critical mass, having already opened up to sometimes-intrusive applications and soon-to-be more advertising. Maybe it’s a good idea to start hitting the market?
- All your background are belong to us - DHS profiling
In a nutshell, if you are going into or out of the US, you will be subjected to a little profiling and a popularity contest of “Do you have what it takes to be a terrorist?” This huge database will be linked to other databases and provide the government with enough data to quickly and accurately asses the danger an individual poses to the security of the US. For 40 years. Yeah, right. This is plain hostile, I wonder what guests from free countries will think when they arrive at a PoE. On a related note, someone got an IP for wherever the Treasury Enforcement Communication System is hosted on?
- Pirate music trends
The Pirate Bay has introduced last.fm content alongside its torrent listings, allowing users to find similar artists, more music from the artist or upcoming events. Which is really the way music should be experienced - and the upcoming events being the way artists really get the thick of their revenue. A little indication that pirates do care about artists, it’s the people that take advantage of these artists who don’t instil any kind of respect.
