You Don’t Have to Chase Me
Bob Sutor: No, I don’t want to store my data on your site
People may have noticed that I don’t use Flickr, del.icio.us, etc; have set up my own XMPP, barely use Facebook, intermittently use Twitter, etc. The sentiment that Bob expressed very much resonates with me.
A few days ago, I found it deeply disturbing for reasons I can’t quite find the words to express when I went to the CNN site and it mentioned that somebody I knew a few years ago and had added to Facebook at the time had commented on a few CNN stories.
Facebook ▸ Privacy Settings ▸ Applications and Websites Instant ▸ Personalization Pilot Program ▸ Edit Setting ▸ Uncheck Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites. ▸ Confirm
Done. Or so I thought.
Now I go to Bob’s site and see a like button. Click on that link. When I click on it, I see that two of my friends like this. You, undoubtedly, will see something different.
Now I click on like. What I see changes.
The possibilities simultaneously excite me (I very much want this on my site), amaze me (a very personalized experience which requires collaboration between multiple parties, all done very much in real time), and concern me (do I want my preference data stored on somebody else’s site?).