Are you joining the “delete-your-Facebook” movement on May 31? New to this….then let me tell you that it’s a formal Facebook revolt with Quit Facebook Day. The purpose of the site is to encourage those “sick of Facebook’s lack of respect for your data” to quit the social networking site. Users can “commit to quit” with their Twitter handle or name and join the others publicly pledging to do so in unison.
Terrible to believe….I think Facebook is having worst of times. When Facebook launched its Open Graph API and brought instant personalization to the web it probably didn’t expect users to revolt — but they are. “Social networks don’t have to be at odds with protecting privacy,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. “The problem is when companies like Facebook become obsessed with monetizing every bit of their members’ data, and throw caring about privacy out the digital window. A responsible social network can balance generating profits with also protecting privacy.”
The social networking site now boasts 400 million users, and new data from analytics company ComScore suggests it earned about 176 billion display ad impressions in the first quarter of 2010, good enough to place it ahead of Yahoo and Microsoft. Facebook’s newly redesigned site, according to Jefferies and Co. analyst Youssef Squali, offers more opportunities for ads per page; if its subscriber numbers continue to grow, Facebook’s CPMs (costs per thousand impressions) could eventually pass those of Microsoft’s or Yahoo’s sites. Good money!
Let me inform you that notable online personalities such as Leo Laporte, Cory Doctorow, and Matt Cutts, and Jason Rojas have deleted their Facebook accounts in protest, some in grand public gestures. But guys without Facebook also, a vast amount of personal information is already available on the Web just from publicly available documents and records. Check out BeenVerified.com or Whitepages.com for examples. So what’s your mind planning….are you quitting Facebook or is O.K with its moves?
Tags: comscore, cpms, facebook, protecting privacy, social networking site, social networks