New Privacy Laws Needed Because of Facebook

This is just going to keep on rumbling...

What happens when you create a site which encourages people to give away as much personal information as they possibly can (those lucky enough to be my Facebook friends can see my favourite books, bands and what i ate for tea last night) and then change your terms of service to say you own the data not them? Loads of trouble and airtime.

90,000 people joined the group "People Against the New Terms of Service" within a matter of days. Even Perez Hilton joined the fight by calling for readers of his blog to boycott the site. The Electronic Privacy Centre have called today for new & comprehensive privacy laws to be created. This could have a wide ranging impact on how the web can use data so we will be keeping a very close eye on this one.

Remember though, one of the reasons Facebook is such a powerful internet marketing tool is because you can be so precise about the audience you are targeted with your ads. From a users p.o.v. it means that you should only see ads that are relevant to you rather than the normal scattergun effect. Advice? Don't put anything on Facebook that you might regret losing the rights to.

Wikipedia is changing

Anyone with kids of a school age will know that although Wikipedia is an amazing source of information, it does have its flaws. There are loads of stories about how information has been erroneously updated creating many laughs but also many confused teachers marking history essays.

So, Wikipedia is trying to address this by making some changes to how content is edited on the site. Listen to an audio interview with founder Jimmy Wales at the BBC website here.

Facebook in data row

Just read a v. interesting article on the BBC website about Facebook and how they have changed their terms and conditions which means that you don't own your own data on the social networking website anymore. I can imagine bouycots will follow.

I find it odd when phenomenal sites such as Facebook make basic mitakes that annoy their avid fans who make them what they are. Facebook has one of the best advertising portals available - making them very rich indeed, but if everyone leaves the site as they are scared about data issues then their value will nose dive.

Read more at the BBC website.

Smug Couples Day?

We all know it's smug couples day tomorrow (or at least I hope we all do) so if you have realised that this is Friday the 13th with good reason, make sure you get yourself in the good books tomorrow by picking up something for tomorrow from the supermarket the way home:

• Skint? A £2 pound bouquet of red roses from Asda wont break the bank
• Special offer from Sainsburys gives you a box of Thorntons Chocolates and a bottle of pink bubbly for only £12

Enjoy tomorrow!

What do you buy a six year old for their birthday?

Another year gone, another year older - Mancala turns six today and we've certainly come a long way from the cupboard under the stairs...

So once the party poppers have stopped popping and the jelly and ice cream has melted into the brightly coloured plastic bowls we will celebrate properly - by making sure this year is the best yet!

You can read what's changed in the world of the web and internet marketing and SEO on my Online Marketing for SMEs blog here.

Facebook Changed My Life

We've been banging on about social network marketing for a while now, but it is easy to forget the impact that sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc have on everyday people, not just us in the Internet Marketing community.

There's a great article on the BBC website about everyday people in not-so-everyday circumstances who claim that Facebook - 5 years old today - has changed their life. From finding the job to let them stay with their girlfriend from being reuinited with long lost relatives it appears that the eponomous site has indeed got philanthropic qualities as well as mercenary ones.

Have to admit though, if I ever only communicate with my sister via the internet, please give me a pen.

Tweeting on Twitter

Deryck has just announced that Twitter is the future...if he can get it to work from his mobile phone (anyone know how to set it up via Orange?).

Twitter appears to be basically Facebook without all of the annoying applications and photo tagging (you know who you are) - basically you just say what you are doing right now in 140 characters or less. Stephen Fry is already a fan so it must be good.

You can follow Deryck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/newcastleseo