10 « May « 2010 « Quotulatiousness

May 10, 2010

Graphical illustration of the death of privacy on Facebook

Filed under: Media, Technology — Tags: BaitAndSwitch, Facebook, Privacy, Rights — Nicholas @ 09:49

Matt McKeon has a very persuasive set of images, showing the extent of changes to your private information on Facebook between 2005 and last month:

2005

Compare that to the latest set of changes to the default Facebook privacy settings:

April 2010

Facebook is a great service. I have a profile, and so does nearly everyone I know under the age of 60.

However, Facebook hasn’t always managed its users’ data well. In the beginning, it restricted the visibility of a user’s personal information to just their friends and their “network” (college or school). Over the past couple of years, the default privacy settings for a Facebook user’s personal information have become more and more permissive. They’ve also changed how your personal information is classified several times, sometimes in a manner that has been confusing for their users. This has largely been part of Facebook’s effort to correlate, publish, and monetize their social graph: a massive database of entities and links that covers everything from where you live to the movies you like and the people you trust.

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Six years of blogging

Filed under: Administrivia, Media — Tags: Blogging — Nicholas @ 08:57

Six years ago today, Jon installed a copy of MovableType on his server and invited me to start my own blog. He got tired of his own blog fairly quickly, but in an odd sort of way it still lives on — I named my blog Quotulatiousness as a joking reference to his Blogulatiousness.

The very first post was pretty indicative of what I’d be doing on the blog for the next six years: a brief introduction, a long-ish quote from the linked item of interest, and a brief closing comment (in that case, no actual commentary).

2004 was a pretty busy year, so if you’re terminally bored, you can sample a bit of blog history here (most of these entries don’t follow the pattern of the first blog post):

First wine post — 2004-05-11
Attributing links correctly — 2004-06-14
First attempt at political wonkery (Leaders debate) — 2004-06-16
Exorcising the AVRO Arrow — 2004-06-26
Analyzing the party platforms — BQ — 2004-06-26
Analyzing the party platforms — Tory — 2004-06-27
Analyzing the party platforms — Greens — 2004-06-27
Analyzing the party platforms — Libs — 2004-06-27
Election results reaction — 2004-06-29
First “busted hockey stick” post — 2004-07-13
Air security — 2004-07-16
Remembering Apollo 11 — 2004-07-22
First “sell off the LCBO” post — 2004-07-28
First visit to PE County wineries — 2004-08-03
Psychopathic Narcissists (politicians) — 2004-08-03
The importance of property rights — 2004-08-09
First rant on China’s economy — 2004-08-10
Dieppe raid anniversary — 2004-08-19
Paul Martin’s Peacekeeping Brigade — 2004-08-21
First post on BMI — 2004-08-22
First global warming post — 2004-08-23
Blogging the cat (first photos) — 2004-08-29
How big is blogging — 2004-09-02
Redaction and domestic security — 2004-09-03
What is a hate crime? — 2004-09-07
Writing vs Technical Writing — 2004-09-09
After Beslan — 2004-09-14
Canuck ingratitude — 2004-09-20
The over-protected generation — 2004-09-23
Healthcare: pets vs. humans — 2004-09-23
I’m in favour of — 2004-09-28
Garnet Rogers — 2004-10-03
French complicity in holocaust — 2004-10-04
Calculating the NFL passer rating — 2004-10-08
SAS versus Militia — 2004-10-09
Macdonnell on the heights — 2004-10-14
How Europe went left — 2004-10-18
Healthcare — 2004-10-19
Soldering woes — 2004-10-22
Economic Feng Shui — 2004-10-25
Scrooge to Bob Cratchit — 2004-10-28
Scrutineering — 2004-11-02
Greater Soviet Canuckistan — 2004-11-05
Extended childhood — 2004-11-15
Power — 2004-11-23
Laws of war — 2004-11-24
Ego-surfing — 2004-11-26
Woodworking — 2004-11-26
Criminals have more rights than victims — 2004-12-01
Home-schooling — 2004-12-06
Christmas music — 2004-12-06
Retirement planning — 2004-12-07
I’m a racist — 2004-12-07
Lennon’s death — 2004-12-08
French winemakers are revolting! — 2004-12-09
Wine tour part 1 — 2004-12-12
Wine tour part 2 — 2004-12-12
Wine tour part 3 — 2004-12-12
Wine tour part 4 — 2004-12-12
Wine tour part 5 — 2004-12-12
Corkage — 2004-12-16
My first takedown notice — 2004-12-17

In short, I’m still one of the laziest bloggers on the planet, but I’m still blogging after half a century in blog-years (most blogs start up with a few quick posts, then fade out never to be updated again).

Thanks again to Jon, both for getting me started in blogging, and for continuing to host my archives from the first five years.

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