The news that Facebook will soon be using likes in a new advertising initative should be enough for Linden Lab to get those widgets off web profiles and quite frankly it should be happening now. The idea is that someone will like a brand and this will appear on their Facebook profile in an initiative called Sponsored Stories, as reported here at Cnet. Oh it’s organic advertising, it’s a revenue stream for Facebook which is a free to use service, there’s no harm in it, right?
Well it’s not just sponsored stories that are an issue, let’s take a case of a Second Life user who decided to like his Second Life profile, and then went and signed into Facebook,as described in this forum thread. The Second Life user found, upon signing into Facebook, that that Like had been recorded on his Facebook profile, even though he doesn’t believe he was signed into Facebook when he clicked the Like.
Now Facebook does like to try and get you to stay signed in and there are of course cookies, but the whole thing is quite frankly creepy. There are also issues of just how easily one can link Second Life to First Life via clicking likes and engaging with Facebook. Linden Lab have not been upfront about the consequences of running Facebook and Second Life on the same computer, maybe they aren’t aware of them, but this is another reason why those widgets should be taken off people’s profiles right now.Over on one of the Jira issues about this subject Fredrik states:
“We just deployed a new version that removes the Share This widget for profiles that have the “Show me in search” option checked.
We are working on a complete overhaul of the privacy settings that will allow users to have more control over their privacy.
Until then please do come with ideas and constructive feedback.”
I think Fredrik means that the share this widget will be removed for profiles that don’t have the “Show me in search” option ticked, however whilst these issues are around and until those privacy settings are in place, Linden Lab should remove the widgets on all profiles, not only is this whole thing creepy, people simply don’t understand how easy it is to reveal information and have it posted on Facebook.
Of course this doesn’t mean that clicking a Like is going to out you on Facebook, it just means it’s more likely that people will accidentally out themselves. Facebook, in true comedy gold fashion, have a blog post on commitments to security. Credit where it’s due, they are working to improving security to stop accounts being hacked etc. However, Facebook blogging about data privacy day this Friday is a complete and utter joke.
Linden Lab should not be promoting this obnoxious platform whilst it doesn’t respect the concept of people having a second life, and these widgets do promote Facebook. Linden Lab should step away now, show that they do understand privacy, rather than Facebook’s strange concept of privacy and ditch the widgets, when they have the privacy options sorted they can bring the widgets back, ensure they are opt-in, not opt-out and it wouldn’t go amiss for Linden Lab to make all their users aware via emails and blog posts of the inherent risks of using Facebook and Second Life on the same computer.
Second Life and Facebook is not a match made in heaven, Facebook is the complete opposite of the experience many Second Life users want to experience, Linden Lab can offer that alternative experience, there’s no need to be swallowed by the Facebook Borg. The other issue of course if that Facebook can change their rules whenever they like, Linden Lab should not be having to keep an eye on Facebook to see whether they need to change their own security settings, but it looks like that’s what is happening now, Linden Lab are working to deal with Facebook issues, this shouldn’t be happening.
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