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Lately, Mark Zuckerberg appeared a little shaken. Millions of data sets got lost and people suspected Facebook had been used to shape public opinion - oh, and especially younger users flocked to Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram. While the still steady flow of ad revenue certainly eased the pain, it was enough to trigger a change in thinking. Not only will Facebook receive a design overhaul, but it will focus on different content and provide a payment method. And most importantly: the private spheres and data of its users will be better protected. At a recent conference, Zuckerberg briefly chuckled over the term "private" but continued to make one promise after the other afterwards.
Once a company like Facebook enters the public limelight, we're usually in for a mix of showy and informative elements, as was the case with this year's F8 conference. Naturally, this includes the CEO apologizing for the company's missteps, though not in the humble and often tearful fashion we've seen from Asian executives. Still, the Cambridge Analytica scandals seems to have effected a change of mind, with the words "The future is private" lingering on a giant display behind Zuckerberg for quite a while. Until now, Facebook and data privacy were a rather unlikely match, but Facebook seem to be determined to rework both the technology and organizational structure behind the web site. If you're less familiar with Facebook: So far, the site has been mainly structured around news feeds that bundle posts from friends and family. For example, this meant photos from the christening of your neighbors' kid were presented alongside local or celebrity news, depending on your interests and the post frequency of your friends.
This structure has been paramount to the huge success of Facebook. It's based on the premise that humans like to share stories that have a personal impact, either emotionally or information-wise. In the spur of the moment, many don't care very much about who exactly gets to see their posts and either make them public straight away or spread them among an often humongous list of friends. This, more or less, personal content was then complemented with messages from group subscriptions. It was the blend of voyeurism, exhibitionism and chit-chat that has driven the success of Facebook for so many years. And as a bonus, Facebook got hold of billions of data sets and turned them into detailed customer profiles for personalized ads. Facebook Messenger on the other hand has been treated as an orphan most of the time - and that's about to change! “We need a digital equivalent of the living room that is just as built out with all of the different ways we want to interact privately with messaging, small groups, sharing where your content doesn’t stick around forever, simple and secure payments, private ways to share your location and over time lots of different ways to interact privately” said Zuckerberg, earning a murmur from the crowd. This move would mean a convergence towards popular messenger apps.
The new Facebook - say goodbye to blue
Facebook also seek to make profound technological changes to their platform. Chats will support end-to-end encryption and messages will finally be permanently deletable. Furthermore, the messenger app will be able to display Instagram and WhatsApp messages, making the app the central hub for messages from all three cornerstones of Facebook's messaging empire. But the plans go deeper than that: There will be a dedicated desktop messenger app to rid users of the need to keep their browsers always open. The project could turn out a success, if the enormous market power were properly bundled, but it'll be interesting to see how this will affect ad placement. How will personalized ads work when message contents are inaccessible to Facebook? Will there be an ad for large Frankfurters in between "I love you" and "I love you too"? What will the timeline look like when it's no longer the centerpiece? How will long-time users react to all this?
Facebook also want to go where the money is. Thus, the platform will support online shopping so users will no longer have to leave the site to buy their goods. Good news for the one guy on this planet who kept asking for this feature. And then there's "Project Libra", Facebook's own cryptocurrency. Generally frowned upon, Facebook seek to give their currency mainstream appeal and to make it international. Users will then be supposed to handle their financial transactions through Facebook but without fear of price slumps. The company has already invested a billion dollars into the project and there are plans being discussed whether specific user behavior (watching ads, answering questions or visiting shops) should be monetarily rewarded. What may seem like a strange idea could allow users to make money while using Facebook!
The new Facebook Messenger desktop app
At present, likening a designer's work to Facebook is the perfect strategy to irk them, promptly triggering shame and embarrassment over the stuffy and outmoded look associated with Facebook. That's why Facebook are currently running a test with a possible future design through their app before rolling it out to their website later this year. Gone are the blue elements, the future is white. Stories, groups and chats are placed in the center with special emphasis on the list of contacts. Loading speeds have been tweaked and compatibility with multimedia elements has been improved. As always in the face of change, groups are forming that express their dislike over the new visuals. This sentiment is particularly pronounced among elder users that fear "their" Facebook is gone and that s trongly disapprove of the new focus on chats. Will the revamp be a success? We'll see!
What I would like to know: Assuming Facebook make good on their promises, would you give them a(nother) chance?
Image source: Facebook
No. Its about time the world woke up and abandoned FB. ! Billions of people still fail to realise how they are tracked by FB, and others, and that their lives are no longer 'private'.
No chances at all, really.
I only use Facebook via a VPN, well have to really as I'm in China, uBlock Origin to block its ads and uMatrix to block scripts and that madness called Pixel, or whatever it is.
I suppose people could rent some server space and install their own social media platform, such as Elgg, and keep their friends in their own private network, ad and stalker-free.
Just seen this.
"Facebook wants to combat fake news with ID checks – with ‘grave implications’ for our privacy."
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/facebook-fake-news-id-checks-privacy-implications/
In ten years time...
Finger print.
20 years...
Blood sample.
30 years...
DNA sample.
Here in Finland, difficult and wierd times with FB. Somehow our political elite has broken our speakfreedom with the help of Facebook, and its' financial supporters! Just before our goverment elections many of opposite candites' pages in FB were banned or temporally lost, or comments were banned.
Many of those People have left the FB.But there's still other social medias...
Facebook will never make good on it's promises.
The bottom line for Zuckerberg is money. Tons of it. And the US government is looking the other way. The US is considered the 'Leader of the Free World'. Freedom for all people? No, freedom for Big Business to largely do as they please.
The right to privacy is a fundamental human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But it's largely sidelined by the UN even though more people in more countries are affected by this violation.
I would hate to see this world 50 years from today.
Thankfully I won't be around...
Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook was shown in an interview this morning on TV and one comment was very clear, "Facebook should be broken up."
I agree, Mark Zuckerberg is only interested in Mark Zuckerberg becoming more wealthy at any cost.
Social media is one thing but Facebook is anti-social and should be re-named Farcebook.
A poisonous spider can be painted any colour, it is still a poisonous spider.
What does $58 billion in income mean to the Internet? Facebook's income without adding in the other companies owned by Facebook. Until some bright group of individuals or another geek comes up with an alternative Facebook will remain the biggest social network world wide.
Facebook and its' other online companies are in business to earn profits and keep the shareholders happy. The user is fully in charge of what they post mostly to satisfy a strange sense of ego. Why did dozens of social networks collapse during Facebook's opening years? The answer: Watch a sheep herder managing a flock of sheep.
Whatever you don't let anyone know you are on the Internet, because others may find out, how lonely your life is today. Have a wonderful weekend Sven. cheers from Canada :)
Hell no. Facebook (and the like) are the scourge of interpersonal social contact which, among many other problems, hide behind anonymity to bully and degrade others peoples confidence and self esteem.
I've had an account on Facebook since the beginning. The web was a much different world way back in the day. Things were much simpler on the surface and some people believed that AOL chat rooms were the place to hang out. They also believed that AOL was their friend and would keep them safe, along with their data.
Facebook was the cool brother to AOL, being slicker and more open to sharing etc. and less about you've got mail. People flocked their by the millions and they even had games! Wow.
Sadly from their start, the very start. Facebook and all of the other big services had overblown, complicated almost impossible to decipher TOS statements and though they've all promised to be more upfront, I defy the average user to tell me that they've read or understand what they're agreeing to when they make an account. It's not even close to real world application of what people would allow or consent to.
Look at Facebook and their approach to shared pictures. They say that once you've posted or shared an image that it's no longer yours. It belongs to Facebook. Imagine going to the mall and having lunch with family, showing each other pics from family gatherings and then suddenly the mall owns those pictures. They're no longer you pictures of your children, they now belong to the mall, and may be used as they see fit.
That's jarring and unacceptable in the real world but taken for granted at Facebook. Then there's actual personal data that's sensitive and potentially damaging. Facebook hasn't shown the least regard for it's users and a spiel of sweet talk is the equivalent of giving consumers a roofie before they lay you out for less than honorable purposes. Aka. Their profits.
Good luck to anyone that trusts Facebook. They've been rotten since the day they were conceived and they'll never change as long as they're making the bucks.
Let's not forget the uses of phone numbers those spoof calls from India or Nigeria and China, FB seems to be an open door for these people known for crimes to scam users, once you enter your cell number to any site your tagged with these ridiculous phone calls, there are also those apps people use to spy on the user.
Your data and system become theirs remotely enabling them to use your device. Yes I know it's not a topic only directed to FB but let's not forget your private number to your cell line, became FB's Business once you used it to confirm your the user. I am a part of the National Cyber Security Alliance, we do get a lot of things that pop up on the new tricks Most of your scammers are India Nigeria and China. Facebook invites them FB is also the first getaway for most scammers.
I left out the end of a sentence in my comment which should have said:
...after 1), 2) and 3) I knew I had to bail out.
There is no such thing as privacy. Once something goes onto the Internet, it stays there, unless all electrical energy stops being produced.
I have no social presence online. I don't log into any of the usual suspects.
I leave a trail, to be sure, but when I learned that these leftist corporate giants were:
1) selling my stats without telling/asking me,
2) not paying me for my stats, and:
3) censoring conservative thought.
These cute little rich California yuppies have no idea what the Battle of Stalingrad was like. They are not aware of history or anything that happens outside their gated communities. They will usher in an era of world-wide totalitarianism without realizing it. They will then be eaten by their creation.
Just like earlier posters there is no way I would ever trust FB with anything just as I would be
ver trust any social media . They exist for only 2 purposes and the first one is simply to facilitate the second and primary purpose.
1 to pander to the shallow self interest of posters seeking some kind of online presence.
2 To generate income for the organisation from abuse/misuse of data posters provide.
My gut feeling says yes. But, as a blog author, I don't want to constantly look on the dark side or it might infect all of us.:)
The basic premise of FB has not changed one iota. Basically one surrenders all rights and information for FB to monetize anyway he wishes. Whether this is a wise decision or not is one's personal choice.
What FB has really accomplished is superseding the East German Stasi. The Stasi are pathetically obsolete in the age of gullible FB and other "social media" users. The organizations they benefit are the ones who either want to sell you something, or know everything about you so they can track you across the internet and in reality if need be with impunity. They have your virtual life and a goodly portion of your real life.
The only thing stupider is bringing a listening and viewing devices which you do not control into your home. Hello, Alexa. Should I trust you? The answer should be glaringly obvious.
Now I know why I never installed the messenger app. Your story makes Facebook much less appealing than before, especially the currency thing.