Is it just me or it is only in America, companies continue investing big pile of money in business where there’s no clear case of revenue / monetization. I’m not on Facebook, because I don’t like the idea of “gated community”. Of course, I do not deny the power of Facebook as marketing medium – 1 out 5 internet users is on Facebook. But, this might hold true and valid till the next killer application. Friendster replaced by MySpace which has been now replaced by Facebook. Get the picture here? Next killer application (is it Twitter / FriendFeed ?) will over shadow Facebook for sure.
And then again, both Google and Microsoft will race to own a small stake in that next killer application. Why?
May be, just may be, these companies wants to gather data of individual as much as they can on voluntarily basis. 10-15 years ago, it was difficult to get information such as your favorite car, your place of birth, your favorite color without performing any social engineering techniques. Today, you just need to connect to your victim on this popular social media and bingo – you have access to tonnes of data – all uploaded voluntarily by users themselves under no pressure – all in the spirit of sharing is caring. These social media sites are definitely a gold mine for hackers. Advertising companies now have better and well targeted audience for their products – thanks to all these sharing-is-caring information uploaded by users.
We have issues and we are concern with our privacy; but it appears to me that, by right, we shouldn’t . We are providing information voluntarily. According to a recent British court ruling – bloggers have no right to privacy.
Privacy? What Privacy?
Wired has a long but interesting article titled Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network’s Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out. Both Google and Microsoft wants a piece of Facebook – which have not generated any revenue yet. Microsoft won the bid – for USD240 million, they have 1.6% stake in Facebook; plus Microsoft’s Live Search as the default search engine in the Facebook network.
And then again, both Google and Microsoft will race to own a small stake in that next killer application. Why?
May be, just may be, these companies wants to gather data of individual as much as they can on voluntarily basis. 10-15 years ago, it was difficult to get information such as your favorite car, your place of birth, your favorite color without performing any social engineering techniques. Today, you just need to connect to your victim on this popular social media and bingo – you have access to tonnes of data – all uploaded voluntarily by users themselves under no pressure – all in the spirit of sharing is caring. These social media sites are definitely a gold mine for hackers. Advertising companies now have better and well targeted audience for their products – thanks to all these sharing-is-caring information uploaded by users.
We have issues and we are concern with our privacy; but it appears to me that, by right, we shouldn’t . We are providing information voluntarily. According to a recent British court ruling – bloggers have no right to privacy.
Perhaps, we need to adopt some secrecy strategy like Apple.
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