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Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#61

Post by klochner »

Kudos to Christopher Soghoian[1] for releasing the email[2] instead of accepting the offer for cash + high-profile smear publication.

It makes you wonder about the existing op-eds slamming social circles[3,4,5]

   [1] http://www.dubfire.net/
   [2] http://pastebin.com/zaeTeJeJ
   [3] http://www.switched.com/2010/08/09/google-shows-off-how-well-it-knows-your-social-circle/
   [4] http://marketing.about.com/b/2011/03/31/google-wants-you-to-1.htm
   [5] http://librarianbyday.net/2010/03/30/googles-social-circle-social-search-may-not-violate-any-privacy-laws-but-it-gives-me-the-creeps/

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#62

Post by braindead_in »

andrewcooke wrote: post #26
braindead_in wrote: post #17

How is the PR firm linked to Facebook?

Facebook employed them. Both sides have "confessed". See the Daily Beast article - http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-12/fa... [and they give credit to USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2011-05-06-google_n.htm ] FB complaining about privacy abuses just broke my irony meter.

Thanks. I scanned the article and couldn't find it.

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#63

Post by joshes »

I think this will smack of the Streisand Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect) over time. Facebook trying to call attention to privacy concerns over Google will, inevitably, as this piece exemplifies, call attention to their own privacy concerns. And the stigma of this hypocritical stance will also call attention to the overall maturity and sensibility of Facebook, as well.

Then again, the kind of people who are most likely to be affected by this entire affair are also the kind of people who already know this information about both companies. So maybe this will have little overall effect?

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#64

Post by 3am »

hessenwolf wrote: post #43
brown9-2 wrote: post #27

From the Daily Beast article: First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service. So, just to get this straight: Facebook resents that Google use's "Facebook data" in Social Circles, when I as the user have to explicitly allow Go…

Doesn't Facebook have an import gmail contacts feature?

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/19/octazen-what-the-heck-did-f...

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#65

Post by kmavm »

brown9-2 wrote: post #27

From the Daily Beast article: First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service. So, just to get this straight: Facebook resents that Google use's "Facebook data" in Social Circles, when I as the user have to explicitly allow Go…

Actually, you don't explicitly allow Google to import the data. Google does the following:

a) scrape Facebook.com; b) notice that someone named "Roderick Evans" on Facebook is friends with someone named "Danielle Benson" on Facebook; c) notice that someone named Roderick Evans' GMail account has someone named Danielle Benson in his contacts; d) they're done. Your permission is not part of the process.

Your Facebook identity is now associated with your Google profile, and your Google profile gets associated connecting edges, without your permission or notice. If by some miracle you swing by your Google profile, and you notice that your Quora/Twitter/MySpace/Facebook accounts have all suddenly been connected, you can sever them, but I received no notice of the connection beforehand.

At least, that was how it worked for me before I deleted my Google profile. It's described in more flowery terms here: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer...

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#66

Post by brown9-2 »

kmavm wrote: post #65
brown9-2 wrote: post #27

From the Daily Beast article: First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service. So, just to get this straight: Facebook resents that Google use's "Facebook data" in Social Circles, when I as the user have to explicitly allow Go…

Actually, you don't explicitly allow Google to import the data. Google does the following: a) scrape Facebook.com; b) notice that someone named "Roderick Evans" on Facebook is friends with someone named "Danielle Benson" on Facebook; c) notice that someone named Roderick Evans' GMail account has someone named Danielle Benson in his contacts; d) they're done. Your permission is not part of the process. Your Facebook i…

Doesn't the Facebook user need to allow their connections to be publicly accessed via the Graph API in order for it to be scrape-able in the first place?

The main point here is that Google isn't doing anything with the "Facebook data" that the original user of that data (who actually owns it, let's be fair about that) hasn't approved of in one way or another.

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#69

Post by sunchild »

grovulent wrote: post #10

Good ol' Arrington... he's got the courage to call em out. To really stick it to the big guys. It takes guts to say "No More!" to the corrupt and the wicked, even when such a stance might cost you personally. I was going to comment as such on his blog... ...but I don't have a facebook account. ;)

Wait a minute – this story broke on a blog, and then got picked up by the Daily Beast, and then by Arrington. I guess you could give Arrington credit for spreading this story to his audience, but he doesn't deserve credit for calling Facebook out in the first place.

Re: Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google

#70

Post by mrchess »

smackfu wrote: post #53
mrchess wrote: post #52

Not sure what the big deal is here. Big companies run negative PR campaigns against other companies ALL the time -- running negative PR campaigns is a very common strategy in the large market. But I supposed they usually run try to run them in secret, so it is a bit unfortunate that they got caught. If anything an article like this makes me lose face for techcrunch, who acts like this kind of PR tactic has never happ…

It also makes you wonder when you are reading this story somewhere if Google has their PR agency running it as a negative PR campaign against Facebook.

Yup, exactly. The entire world of PR is cutthroat. If facebook doesn't play, they will get beat.
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