Facebook: “In-Product Education” | .eduGuru

I deleted my personal Facebook account a few months ago. One of the primary reasons was Facebook’s habit of constant altering of their privacy policies. An article by Reese Jones, on the .eduGuru site suggests that the social media giant may be responding in a positive way to peoples’ privacy concerns.

Facebook has had a chequered history regarding privacy settings and is renowned for making it difficult for users to accurately tailor their profile to their satisfaction. The company adjusts these privacy policies (or ‘data use policies’ as they prefer to term it) a few times each year, making it difficult for users to keep tabs on what’s being shared. On top of that, it’s not always the easiest task to understand what Facebook plans to do with this information. However, change may be afoot. Read the full post here.

Facebook Privacy – Consumer Reports

An interesting new article at consumerreports.org asks the question: Who sees the data you share on the biggest social network?

“. . . Facebook and other social networks collect enormous amounts of highly sensitive information—and distribute it more quickly and widely than traditional consumer data-gathering firms ever could. That’s great when it helps you find old classmates or see ads for things you actually want to buy. But how much information is really being collected about you? How is it being used? And could it fall into the wrong hands?”

Read the full article, Facebook & Your Privacy at Consumer Reports.

Facebook’s new Groups for Schools not the best choice for civic engagement

Social media behemoth Facebook, just announced Groups for Schools, a closed community model for campuses. The idea of a group for classes or clubs and the ability to share large files is great, but ultimately, the idea limits connectedness, the greatest asset of any network by keeping out anyone without the right .edu email address.

One problem I imagine is that most students aren’t using their campus email address to access Facebook. In fact, a 2008 report by Educause said that 10 percent of associate, baccalaureate, and master’s institutions as well as 25 percent of doctoral institutions were already considering putting an end to student e-mail addresses because so many students were already using personal e-mail accounts. It also seems that K-12 schools might be unlikely use this feature based on the email address restriction. How many K-12 students are using .edu email addresses?

The biggest flaw in Groups for Schools, resides in the fact that most learning takes place outside of school. Knowledge, wisdom, and expertise does not reside exclusively in schools. Schools are just one part of anyone’s personal learning network. Giving anyone one more private club to join keeps them from opportunities for applied learning, the work world and the community where most of their lives unfold.

Safer Facebook Security Guide

Facebook now has over 800 million users. They are not all nice people. Many of these millions are using mobile devices to access Facebook.

You can learn how to minimize security risks on Facebook from mobileactive.org’s SaferMobile project. SaferMobile includes:
Online and offline educational and tactical resources (risk evaluation tools, case studies, how-to guides, security tool reviews);
Trainings and curricula for use in various countries and with different constituencies;
Specific mobile security software focused on the needs of rights defenders, activists, and journalists.

For more information visit SaferMobile.

College Intern Launches Facebook Global Health in Action Campaign

Launched by a university student summer intern at Danya International, Jabari Fraser successfully initiated a new global health social media campaign on Facebook called: “Global Health in Action.” The goal of the campaign is to engage college-age students in passionate discussion and involvement in global health issues. Read the rest at PRWeb.com

The World Without Facebook

How huge is Facebook?

The world’s population is estimated at something approaching 6.9 billion people. Facebook now claims 600 million members. That’s almost one-tenth of everyone on earth.

Facebook study groups find an app

I remember reading about Ryerson University student Chris Avenir, in Clay Shirky’s, Cognitive Surplus. Avenir was the student who was threatened with expulsion for setting up a virtual study group on Facebook. Now some folks at Purdue have developed a Facebook app to encourage that same activity. The times they are-a-changin’.

Facebook: “abysmally low” customer satisfaction

By John Hamerlinck

Earlier this week Inside Facebook reported on the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business Report, which reports on consumer satisfaction with Web companies. According to the report, Facebook has an “abysmally low” customer satisfaction rating.

Why then is Facebook doing so well? Apparently, there are three basic reasons: 1) Facebook is a monolpoy of sorts; 2) younger people don’t care as much about things like privacy policies; and 3) people must believe that the benefits outweigh the negatives.

These are very interesting ideas to ponder as we try to understand what role mediated reality will have on civic engagement. Are monopolies, privacy concerns and wide scale mistrust conducive to developing a more vibrant civic life? Does the same kind of settling for less than acceptable standards offline add to the challenges faced by communities?

Read the Inside Facebook analysis of the report here. The full ACSI report is available here.

Facebook Hates Your Brand

Facebook Hates Your Brand is an interesting post on the .eduGuru blog that serves as a reminder that you need to be strategic when incorpoarting Facebook into your strategies for engaging the world. Check it out.