Mr Brand said that one Blizzard employee posted his real name on the forums, saying that there was no risk to users, and the experiment went drastically wrong. “Within five minutes, users had got hold of his telephone number, home address, photographs of him and a ton of other information,” said Mr Brand.

The customers apparently really liked their privacy, and “Blizzard backs off real-name forum mandate.” Which, you’d think, would end the uproar. But no. This morning, “Gamers Who Complained About Blizzard’s Forum Privacy See Email Addresses Leaked” by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Interestingly, the ESRB Online Privacy Policy is one of the few that does not start “your privacy is important to us.” Who knew that line was important?

The key lesson is that your customers think about identity differently than you do, and trying to add it to a system is fraught with risk. (Don’t even get me started on the jargon “identity provider.”)

Apple updated its privacy policy today, with an important, and dare we say creepy new paragraph about location information. If you agree to the changes, (which you must do in order to download anything via the iTunes store) you agree to let Apple collect store and share “precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.”

Apple says that the data is “collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you,” but for some reason we don’t find this very comforting at all. There appears to be no way to opt-out of this data collection without giving up the ability to download apps.

Now, speaking as someone who was about to buy a new iphone (once the servers stopped crashing), what worries me is that the new terms are going to be in the new license for new versions of iTunes and iPhones.

Today, it’s pretty easy to not click ok. But next week or next month, when Apple ships a security update, they’re going to require customers to make a choice: privacy or security. Apple doesn’t ship patches for the previous rev of anything but their OS. iTunes problem? Click ok to give up your privacy, or don’t, and give up your security.

Not a happy choice, being stuck between an Apple and a hard place.

However, last time I installed an update, I noticed that it lost the “wireless off” setting, and was apparently contacting Amazon. I don’t want it to do so, and leave wireless off. It’s safer that way, whatever promises Amazon may make.

Does anyone know how to delete the logfile so that nothing gets uploaded?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is using its financial clout to push the Haitian marketplace toward change by offering $10 million in prizes to the first companies to help Haitians send and receive money with their cell phones…

The fund will offer cash awards to companies that initiate mobile financial services in Haiti. The first company to launch a mobile money service that meets certain criteria in the next six months will receive $2.5 million. The second operator to launch and reach these benchmarks within 12 months will receive $1.5 million. Another $6 million will be awarded as the first 5 million transactions take place, divided accordingly between those operators that contributed to the total number of transactions.

For more details, see the press release.

Maybe it was Zuckerberg calling people who trust him “dumb fucks,” or the irony of him telling a journalist that “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.” Or maybe it was the irony that telling people you believe in privacy while calling them dumb fucks is, really, a better example of a lack of integrity than having two identities.

Maybe it was the Facebook search (try ‘my dui’), or Facebook: The privatization of our Privates and Life in the Company Town. Maybe it was getting on CNN that helped propel it.

It all generated some great discussion like danah boyd’s Facebook and “radical transparency” (a rant). It also generated some not so great ideas like “Poisoning The Well – A Response To Privacy Concerns… ” and “How to protect your privacy from Facebook.” These are differently wrong, and I’ll address them one at a time. First, poisoning the well. I’m a big fan of poisoning the wells of mandatory data collectors. But the goal of Facebook is to connect and share. If you have to poison the data you’re trying to share with your friends, the service is fundamentally broken. Similarly, if you’re so scared of their implicit data collection that you use a different web browser to visit their site, and you only post information you’re willing to see made public, you might as well use more appropriate and specialized sites like Flickr, LinkedIn, Okcupid, Twitter or XBox Live. (I think that covers all the main ways people use Facebook.)

But Facebook’s problems aren’t unique. We’ve heard them before, with sites like Friendster, MySpace, Tribe and Orkut. All followed the same curve of rise, pollution and fall that Facebook is going to follow. It’s inevitable and inherent in the attempt to create a centralized technical implementation of all the myriad ways in which human beings communicate.

Play it Sam…once more, for old time’s sake

I think there are at least four key traps for every single-operator, all-purpose social network.

1. Friend requests The first big problem is that as everyone you’ve ever had a beer with, along with that kid who beat you up in 3rd grade sends you a friend request, the joy of ‘having lots of friends’ is replaced with the burden of managing lots of ‘friends.’ And as the network grows, so does the burden. Do you really know what that pyronut from college chemistry is up to? Do you want to have to judge the meaning of a conversation in light of today’s paranoia? This leads us to the next problem:
2. Metaphors Facebook uses two metaphors for relationships: friend and network. Both are now disconnected from their normal English meanings. An f-friend is not the same as a real friend. You might invite a bunch of friends over for drinks. Would you send the same invite to your f-friends list? Similarly, if I were to join Facebook today, I could join a Microsoft network, because I work there (although I’m not speaking for them here). Now, in the time that Facebook has been open to the world, lots of people have gained and lost Microsoft email addresses. Some have been full time employees. Some have been contractors of various types. Some have been fired. Is there a process for managing that? Maybe, we have a large HR department, but I have no idea. One key point is that membership in an f-network is not the same as membership in a real network. The meaning of the words evolve through practice and use. But there’s another issue with metaphors as made concrete through the technical decisions of Facebook programmers: there aren’t enough. I think that there’s also now “fans” available as an official metaphor, but what about salesguy-you-met-at-a-conference-who-won’t-stop bugging-you? The technical options don’t match the nuance with which social beings handle these sorts of questions, and even if they do, telling a computer all that is too much of a bother. (See the chart above for an attempt to make it do something related.)
3. Privacy means many things Privacy means different things to different people. Even the same person at different times wants very different things, and the costs of figuring out what they will want in some unforeseen future is too high. So privacy issues will keep acting as a thorn in the side for social network systems, and worse for centralized ones.
4. Different goals Customers & the business have different desires from the system. Customers want fast, free, comprehensive, private, and easy to use. They don’t want to worry about losing their jobs or not getting one. They don’t want to worry about stalkers. They don’t want their sweetie to look over their shoulder and see an ad for diamond rings after talking to their friends about engagement. But hiring managers want to see that embarrassing thing you just said. (Hello, revenue model, although Facebook has not, as far as I know, tapped this one yet.) Stalkers are heavy users who you can show ads to. Advertisers want to show those diamond ring ads. Another example of this is the demand to use your real name. Facebook’s demand that you use your real name is in contrast to 4 of the 5 alternatives up there. Nicknames, psuedonyms, handles, tags are all common all over the web, because, in fact, separating our identities is a normal activity. This is an idea that I talk about frequently. But it’s easier to monetize you if Facebook has your real name.

So I’m shocked, shocked to discover that Facebook is screwed up. A lot of other shocked people are donating to Diaspora ($172,000 of their $10,000 has been pledged. There’s interesting game theory about commitment, delivery on those pledges, and should they just raise a professional round of VC, but this post is already long.) There’s also Appleseed: A Privacy-Centric Facebook Slayer With Working Code.

Now, before I close, I do want to say that I see some of this as self-inflicted, but the underlying arc doesn’t rely on Zuckerberg. It’s not about the folks who work for Zuckerberg, who, for all I know are the smartest, nicest, best looking folks anywhere. It’s about the fundamental model of centralized, all-purpose social networks being broken.

To sum it all up, I’m gonna hand the microphone to Rick:

If you don’t get off that site, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life. Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting off that Facebook. Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up with our privacy in ruins. Isn’t that true, Louie?

Capt. Renault: I’m afraid that Major Zuckerberg will insist.

After RSA, I’ll have more to say about how it came about, how it helps you and how it helps more chaos emerge. But if you’re here, you should come get a deck at the Microsoft booth (1500 row).

There’s a huge profusion of dating sites out there. From those focused on casual encounters to christian marriage, there’s a site for that.

So from a product management and privacy perspectives I found this article very thought provoking:

Bookioo does not give men any way to learn about or contact the female members of the site. Men can join for free, if they have been invited—and if a current Bookioo member can vouch for their information. They can then post a profile for the perusal of the female—and paying—members of the site. It’s those paying women, however, who get to call the shots.

As interesting as the approach is, what’s more interesting is how they came to it. They focused on a set of female customers, and asked what is it that they worry about, and what do they want? Co-founder David Olmos:

We think that women don’t feel comfortable with the current dating sites. The latter are too masculine: they were designed by men and they fundamentally address men’s needs. We know that many women prefer a different approach: they’re eager to socialize, to meet new people, and we propose to do that through activities. It may lead them to find a partner, of course, but they may as well enjoy an afternoon in a museum with a new girl friend whom they met Bookioo! So we propose to socialize through activities, common hobbies and common tastes.

As you can see, we actually want to revamp the “dating” concept, taking the perspective of women. The key issue for us is to make sure that women enjoy the level of privacy they wish and that the males’ profiles are fully validated. (“Bookioo: dating and social networking site gives women full control.”)

It’s also a very different approach to “creep management,” which we’ve covered in past posts like “Emerging dating paranoia,” “Dating and Background Checks in the UK” or “Dating & Background Checks in China”

Eating your own dogfood gives you a decent idea of when it starts to taste ok, which is to say, ready for customers to see in some preview form.

Apropos of which, there’s a really interesting post at the Inkling blog, “Pay for your own dog food:”

Using your own product comes with a ton of benefits, because you become your own customer. The quality of your product likely increases because you can’t ignore it’s problems. They aren’t just your customers problems. They are your problems.

…

We’ve gotten in the habit of actually taking out our own credit card and using it on our own account sign up page. Yes, it’s a bit silly when the credit card processing takes some money off the top. But it makes the feeling very real that you are paying for this, and now it’s an expense just like it’s going to be an expense for your clients.

Mordaxus emailed some of us and said “I hope this doesn’t mean MG has jumped the shark.” What was he talking about?

Apparently, ThinkGeek now has a “Molecular Gastronomy Starter Kit.” For those of you who’ve been hiding in a Cheesecake Factory for the past few years, molecular gastronomy is the art of using science to do things to food beyond your typical applications of heat with fire or its close analogs, acids baths beyond marinades, combinations harder to achieve than hollandaise, and whipping things without egg whites. See, it’s really a continuum and continuation of what chefs have been doing for years. Really, poaching eggs and poaching jolt cola are all about understanding and using the chemicals available in your kitchen in new and interesting ways. Ten years ago, not a lot of people brined their chicken, and twenty years ago everyone but the Japanese overcooked their tuna. Wasabi wasn’t a normal ingredient. Kitchens change. There’s chaos and experimentation. Some of what emerges is good, and some of it’s embarrassing. Some of it’s the home Sous Vide kits, and some of it’s the starter kit.

The real question is what’s going to emerge next in the market, and what’s going to emerge in your kitchen?

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