[lbo-talk] your Facebook is their fortune

[Charles Turner]

On Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:31:29 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Feb 2, 2009, at 12:17 PM, Shane Taylor wrote:
> 
>> Doug Henwood wrote:
>> 
>>> what is it about this privacy fetish?
>> 
>> What is wrong with it?
> 
> I just don't get it. I don't care what Facebook does with my info. If 
> some marketer thinks it's interesting that I'm a member of the "I 
> Want to be Michel Foucault's Love Slave" group, well, I'm curious 
> about what product they'd be selling. It might be worth a look.

Yeah. The Internet has long ago stopped being a virtual community, and 
isn't much different from the street these days. It seems logical that 
the "cool hunters" of the late-1990s could be replaced with this kind 
of data. Good way to track fashion swarms...

It shows that Facebook hasn't been able to make any money other than by 
selling the attention of its subscribers, which continues to solidify 
the clutch of the "free as in beer" (not as in freedom) Internet 
economy. Perhaps its a desparate move by Facebook: what can they do 
beyond this to maintain/increase their "profitability?" (Do they 
actually make money?)

Best, Charles