Has that time finally arrived when people will feel, its better off to delete their Facebook account? If so, then May 31 is perhaps the D-Day, when hundreds and thousands of Facebook users are expected to log out of the website, which is currently the worlds largest socaial networking website.

A website called Quit Facebook Day, has set the last day of May as the day when, everyone keen to leave the social network should finally take the plunge and hit the Delete key. Several high profile technology pundits and celebs are kicking the world’s number one social networking site to the curb. Just on 7th May Begonia Infosys, posted a blog related to perils of social networking, Facebook popularity and infringment of privacy. Looks like people have taken note of the seroius violations of privacy.

Begonia Infosys published what Elliot Schrage, Vice President-Global Communications (Facebook) said “These new products and features are designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the Internet while continuing to give users unprecedented control over what information they share, when they want to share it, and with whom”. Begonia Infosys had said that with Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg famously saying “There is nothing private in social networking on internet.” its really important to draw a line where people can use social networking websites freely but still maintain a level of privacy. There are several reasons why people are logging out of Facebook, some of the important ones being Read the rest of this entry »

Social networking websites are turning out to be a curse for privacy for people. The biggest culprit among various social networking websites is Facebook, founded less than 5 years ago. What made Facebook click was not its US$ 15 billion value, not its software, its patents, or its smart people but its enormous database, an electronic catalog of interconnections and interests of its members with details of who knows whom. The daily updates of my friends' new friends and what groups they have joined are like tiny, atomized announcements, inviting people to contribute updates. Facebook's vast social network is invaluable for checking reputations. The same data can be helpful to sell stuff though earlier this year, Facebook found that telling members what their friends had bought was going too far. On the other hand there are websites that purely help make business connections like LinkedIn.com's with motto of "Relationships matter," jigsaw.com that encourages everyone to submit others' contact information so that prospective clients can "bypass gatekeepers" and "go straight to decision-makers."

Technology keeps changing the norms. As such few years ago, a public catalog of all the nation's swimming-pool owners was shocking, but today anyone can use Google Maps to look down into people's back yards. As such friends circles are likewise going to be more public and staying off websites like Facebook.com won't keep people private. With many public sources from which social network information can be culled including newspapers and blogs computers can connect people simply on the basis of whether they are mentioned in the same article. As technology creates opportunities for people to catalog who knows whom, people are uploading their family photos to online album websites such as Facebook.com and Flickr.com. This is not only helping them create a vast network but also infringing on privacy as photographs that should be private are being seen by other people. Here’s were see things start to go wrong, with the whole world finding out, where someone spent their vacation. Read the rest of this entry »

One of world’s leading social-networking website Facebook has passed Google to become the most visited website in the US. According to industry tracker Hitwise, Facebook started by Mark Zukerberg in 2004 finished the week ending March 13 as the most visited site in US. Heather Dougherty, Director-research (Hitwise) said it’s a important milestone with Facebook enjoyed a 185% increase in visits in the same period, over Googles’ 9% increase in the same time. However it does not include Google websites such as social-networking website Orkut started by Orkut Büyükkökten in 2004, or the popular Gmail email service, YouTube and Google Maps.

Together, both Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of the US Internet visits last week. However David Drummond, SVP-Google said “We are at a critical point in the future of the internet. All of us have a choice. We can allow repressive policies to take flight and spread across the globe, or we can work together against such challenges and uphold the fundamental human right to free expression.” It may be known that Google has added the social-networking feature Buzz to its Gmail service as well as new message inbox that echoes Gmail’s format, to reposition itself from challenges faced from Facebook.com and micro-blogging site Twitter.com.

According to online tracking firm, comScore; Facebook boasts some 400 million users while Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, 2009. Google, meanwhile has taken measures to limit online free expression, in 40 countries. It may be known that Google and YouTube services are or have been blocked completely in 25 countries.