[@NickyColman]

Reading general tweetings and online chatter, it seems as though the social beast that is Facebook is gearing up to launch a phone, or at least, a new OS for handsets.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/19/facebook-is-secretly-building-a-phone/

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is to release a budget handset to appeal to the masses, apparently worried by the growing power of Apple's iOS & Google's Android system.

At first read, I was very unsettled about owning a Facebook powered phone. All my information sitting in Facebook's servers. Contacts, texts, photos, relationships, location all there.

Then I slapped myself and realised - its too late! All that information is already there.

They know;

• Who my friends are, who I went to school with, who my family members are.
• Where I work and have worked.
• Where I was educated.
• All my messages, sent & received.
• What events I'm planning and when I'm going.
• Where I am (Facebook Places)
• The videos I take and watch
• The music I like, the TV shows I watch, the famous people I find interesting
• The companies I like.
• And they've got 1000's of my photos.
(This list is not exhaustive)

One way or another, Facebook understand more about me than Google & Twitter could ever hope at this moment in time. Majority of us already use Facebook. We know how it works and we use it more than ever. Now, stick that familiarity with a UI straight on a phone.

Talk3G's own Whatleydude is already way ahead of me! Take a look at what he wrote waaay back in 2008. He seems to have it spot on.

http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/04/dump_s60_on_your_n95_and_install_the_facebook_os_i nstead.html

What do you think of Facebook getting 100% control over our handsets too? Is it a good thing? Will it dominate? Or is it an over-amitious flop? Is our privacy under threat more than ever now they've got their sights set on our handsets too?

[Hands0n]

This news prompted one of my "No way in Hell" moments :)

While I agree, you're absolutely right, that Facebook have an awful lot of information on individuals worldwide - last estimate was 500,000,000 people - it occurs to me to not increase their "hold" over me any more than is barely essential or desirable.

So it is a big fat "No" from me.

[@NickyColman]

I must admit, in recent months ive become keenly aware of how much certain companies know about me. Whilst I'm not THAT bothered as I have nothing to hide, I can quite easily see how, if this information was breached in some way, I could be in trouble.

Its since been clarified by Facebook themselves that they aren't developing a Facebook phone, so that makes this thread a little redundant. However, it has brought to my attention just powerful Facebook really is.

[Hands0n]

Whilst I'm not THAT bothered as I have nothing to hide, I can quite easily see how, if this information was breached in some way, I could be in trouble.

And thats the all-important rub. Sorry Nicky, I'm not picking on you but this is a mantra that is too often repeated and I, for one, do not believe that people generally understand how dangerous a position that is to take.

At some point in our lives we will all, in all likelihood, have "something to hide" about ourselves. It need not be particularly sinister, but then it may.

Think about this - the information that Facebook has stored about its users is not domiciled in the UK. Instead it is in a foreign land that, at present, is our friend but that may not always be the case. I am not sure how much value Nicky Colman's private information is to the US Government agencies, but across the entire UK nation that is a lot of information about people, their habits and their innermost thoughts in many cases. All backed up with copious photographic evidence if required.

Already people are experiencing difficulty getting in to the USA for simple things like holidays in Orlando (Disney), where the US Immigration authorities has 'apparent' information about an individual that they don't particularly like. It may be a religious or political affiliation for example. But if it is somehow 'blacklisted' by the US authorities you could find yourself in difficulties. It has already happened.

Still got nothing to hide?

So lets move on to our own government - benign so far, but it has not always been and there is no assurance that it will continue to be.

Legally the very statutes that we have come to rely upon are being repositioned against our favour - witness the DMCA and similar acts, witness RIPA and how it already abused beyond the original intentions [or so we are told they were].

And so, under RIPA for example, any and every electronic footprint you make is capable of being recorded for future use - against you. However, just you try to obtain that very same information [about yourself] for your defence and you'll run into no end of other statutes that will block your attempts.

Still got nothing to hide?

All we have to hope is that we never, ever, encounter or vote in a hostile government.

[Ben]

I would imagine that Facebook feel forced into this by Google's obsession with breaking into social networking. A better outcome would be for Google to keep it's hands to itself and let other people concentrate on the apps for it's mobile OS!

Meta info in phone pictures has been concerning me lately. I post pictures online with little regard to the location data shoved inside each one :( But I want the info there so that iPhoto can map them nicely. Hmph. Facebook and Twitter need options that strip anything in the image that could expose user info.

[@NickyColman]

@ Hands0n

Very good point well made. I suppose it's very naive of me to think, as I do.

Its difficult to ignore the pull of Facebook & Twitter when all your friends & family use it so much. I find there's no middle ground where data is concerned. You either give it all to Facebook. Or you don't use Facebook. There's no other option as I see it.

It's a shame that the government can't use some sort of power to force Facebook to provide assurance that certain information remains stored in this country & is destroyed after a given period.

What Ben says is another good point. Something as 'harmless' as uploading a picture of a drinken stumble can reveal more information than intended.

Data security in my current job is the number 1 concern at the moment. Everything written, uploaded & viewed online can have a major impact on my job. It's very hard to draw a line.

[Hands0n]

@nickycolman - arrrgh, I really didn't mean to aim the comment at you - instead I intended to use what you'd said as a classic example of how people generally think about this stuff.

I am not entirely sure why people generally have so little fear of sharing their data or information. Particularly as there cannot be anyone left in the UK who has not at least heard the phrase "data protection" used for all manner of excuse to not do something, or prevent something happening :)

The trick, I suppose, is to be as fully aware of the implications of "giving away" your personal data without getting all paranoid about it - easy enough to become! I think people just need to think about what they are just about to launch into cyberspace and then make up their mind whether or not they'd be happy for it to be posted up on a 150ft hoarding in the centre of town. If the answer is "yes" then post away. But if it is anything other than that then I would advise extreme caution.

The social media is, as you say, highly compelling. And they're making it easier and easier to cough up this information with each iteration. And they store this information in perpetuity, accessible by official "agencies" and goodness knows who else.

I just did a Google search on "Nicky Colman" - the results are pretty "interesting" especially considering that I have no particularly privileged access http://tinyurl.com/33xwhcr From this I can see you are an ardent social networker and so maybe, just maybe, I can find out sufficient information to steal your identity. If I were that way inclined - which I am not :) of course.

Then there are the more established means such as the Electoral Roll, the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Genealogy registers and no end of other sources accessible for a small fee.

Just to finish on a scary story :) http://www.ajc.com/news/hackers-find-new-ways-617000.html

[@NickyColman]

@Hands0n

Following up on what you said earlier - I decided to Google myself. The results were quite concerning. I had old profiles, pictures, videos & comments all scattered around the Internet for all to see.

To add an extra layer of protection I've done the following;

• Deleted my Last.fm, Vimeo, MySpace, Orkut, Picassa, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Netvibes profiles. They had all been left dormant after I grew bored with them. Each one contained a little piece of info about me I didn't want out there.

• I've stripped my Yahoo! & Windows Live! profiles of my personal details - at some stage I had filled in the DOB & addresss [INSERT SHOCK HERE] fields. Thankfully only friends were able to view this information.

• Unlinked all my accounts from each other. My Yahoo!, Google & Windows Live! accounts were all linked via Facebook, Twitter & Flickr etc. Each allowed unfiltered access to each other. Scary.

• I've now locked down my tweets & Google Buzz followers to only people I know & removed every company that follows me and promptly blocked them.

• I've also removed the titles of a number of blogs that revealed little snippets of info about me.

Hopefully, once Google updates itself, only Twitter, Facebook & Posterous will show up when someone searches for me. My Facebook is completely private, Twitter is locked down, Posterous is only pictures of food lol, & my Google Profile is only filled with comical info. Eg my occupation is a super - hero. :D

[Hands0n]

Wow! You've been busy. But it just goes to illustrate how simple it is to unwittingly leave yourself wide open. Particularly, as in your case, old accounts become dormant - the very accounts that you probably set up in your "Internet infancy" and so would have likely been unaware of the attendant risks. Or perhaps these risks did not exist way back then. But they are very real now.

The thing with Google is that you can view "cached" results and I am not entirely sure how old the cached information is. I suspect that you will be 'visible' for some time to come yet.

Interesting that you identified the notion for these seemingly disparate accounts allowed "unfiltered access to each other" - yes, well and truly scary. Unintended consequences indeed.

And Facebook want us to go mobile with this stuff ...

[Ben]

Hmm, @NickyColman, you've really gone for it there!

Unfortunately it's probably necessary to some extent. I want to keep my Twitter public, though, I think that's part of the Twitter vibe, but we'll see.

[@NickyColman]

@ Ben - Definitely necessary! Glad I've done it now. I just hope I can remember all my various identities across the web so I can close them all down.

I'm going to continue to do it to prevent my data to wander the web!

[Hands0n]

It really is quite scary when you do take a look at how much you actually "leak".