06 Dezember 2007

netocracy

Facebook caused a controversy by taking information from third party "partners" (mostly web sites you buy crap from) and putting it into facebook feeds. For example, they were (and are, though they've increased your ability to opt out of this in response to protests) telling your facebook friends what kind of stuff you've been buying at overstock.com and blockbuster.com.

This led to a big backlash spearheaded by moveon.org, which i think is the group responsible for the democrats winning back the presidency in 2004. From the Chicago Tribune:
Sean Lane, who joined the online protest after a surprise fgift to his wife of a white gold and diamond ring from Overstock.com was broadcast to everyone in his Facebook network, posted on MoveOn.org's protest wall: "This is a pretty powerful feeling. Honestly, I didn't think that people could make changes like this through civil action. I am very proud to be a part of this."
Other users are still pretty unhappy about the way that facebook has handled the situation to date.

Well, we've come a long way since the civil rights movement. OK, obviously this one quote from Joe Q. Consultant doesn't really merit singling out for a snarky retort, but it's weird that this is what moveon.org is doing these days. Still it's not surprising if they do better mobilizing people worried about the privacy of their big credit card purchases than they do getting people to vote.